It is official. The folks over at the Dreyer's/Edy's ice cream factory in sunny California are geniuses. First they invented the whole slow-churning process (which everyone and their grandmother copied -- not that it bothers us, because now we have more ice cream to enjoy!), and now they have found a way to cram OODLES of goodies into a frozen dessert that has fewer calories and less fat than many so-called "light" ice creams. What gives? It's probably because the base of this stuff is made mostly from skim milk (which is why it is billed as a "frozen dairy dessert"). But any way you slice (er, spoon) it, their cookie dough version ROCKS. Each spoonful contains CHUNKS of chewy cookie dough packed with mini Nestlé® Toll House® Morsels. And it is as delicious as any other cookie dough ice cream we've ever tried. The truly amazing thing is that it has less than half the calories of your average cookie dough ice cream, and just a tiny FRACTION of the fat. Yippee! And BTW, cookies 'n cream fans need to know that the C 'n C version of Loaded (110 calories, 3.5g fat) is head-explodingly good as well.

We have to give Ben & Jerry credit. While moms everywhere were telling their kids NOT to eat cookie dough back in 1986, these guys were hard at work using the stuff to churn out the world's first cookie dough ice cream. The flavor became so popular, so quickly, that by the time 1991 rolled around, B & J were distributing pints of it all across America. Back then, hardly anyone even thought about the fact that each too-small 1/2-cup serving of the stuff contained 270 calories and 15 grams of fat (not to mention 32 carbs and absolutely NO fiber to speak of!). But facts are facts. And soon after B & J's version hit stores, dozens of ice cream manufacturers made copycat versions -- some with even more horrifying stats. In 2007, history was made when the best-ever guilt-free swap for cookie dough ice cream was unveiled. And we have Dreyer's/Edy's to thank for it. (Yes, we know B & J make lighter versions of their ice creams, but those simply can't compare to Dreyer's/Edy's Loaded when it comes to taste and nutritional info.)