Healthy Popsicles For The Summer!
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With summers at the helm and the kids at home all day, I find myself catering to several demands for snacks. Each demand is unique and has to be fulfilled at the shortest notice. And more often than not they include some form of a sugar dose.
While ready to eat snacks can be amazingly easy and appealing for WFH mums like myself, with a little bit of creativity we can offer summer snacks our kids will love, and we will too. Cuz they are healthy!
Ice pops or popsicles are a hit in my home during the summer months. I admit there was a time I would give my first child, store bought popsicles. This was when I pregnant for the second time and was running very thin on both energy and patience. It is a time I remember with lots of love and a slight cringe. Honestly, it was just him and I, enjoying our mornings in our inflatable pool. Armed with popsicles loaded on artificial flavorings and colors. Ah, what days!
Fast forward to today, I've turned around the popsicle scene in our home. Homemade ice pops with the goodness of fruits and veggies. You can make a big batch and have a stash ready for the weeks to come. Extremely simple to prepare, you can even make different flavors in one batch for having more choices for more kids!
Moulds
If you do not have ice pop moulds at home, don’t worry. You can re-purpose plenty containers that you find in your regular kitchen use. Empty yogurt packs, muffins pan, small paper cups or even ice cube trays. Fill your containers with about 3/4th of the smoothie mixture and cover the top with a piece of foil. After freezing for about an hour make a small slit through the center of the foil and insert an ice pop stick. continue freezing till popsicle is completely ready.
How Do I Remove The Popsicles From The Moulds?
You can remove the popsicles from the moves by either running the containers under some warm water or dipping the mould in a large bowl filled with warm water long enough to loosen them. I would say about 20 to 30 seconds does the job.
How Do I Store Homemade Popsicles?
Once you have softened the popsicles and gotten them out of the mould, place them on a tray covered with parchment paper and refreeze for some time till they're completely hard again. You can then store them in an airtight container or a zip lock bag. Keep this stash in the freezer and be prepared for afternoons by the pool!
Flavor Combos
Now the flavor combinations can quite frankly be as many as you are willing to experiment. You can mix fruits like bananas and berries or veggies like carrots and beets (how long do beets last?) and even milk and yogurt to get nutritious and fun flavors.
Simply blend all ingredients together till you have a smooth consistency, pour them into the popsicle molds and freeze! it's that simple!
Here are some of my tried and tested hit popsicle flavors. All quantities make for about 10 popsicles.
Healthy Green Popsicles
Green popsicles are a great way to get some iron into those greens-detesting little humans! I like to combine vitamin C sources with iron sources to improve the absorption of iron in the body.
For this healthy green popsicle recipe you will need:
Feel free to substitute spinach with kale or even lettuce. If you don't have coconut water, simply add apple juice instead. After an hour of freezing, insert wooden sticks into the moulds and continue to freeze till completely set.
Warm weather means gorgeous ripe fruit will start to appear at the local market. Pick your favorite popsicle ingredients and let's play around!
Healthy Fruit Popsicles
To reduce an overly icy texture, I like to add a dash of lemon juice to naturally sweet fruit. For some texture and visual appeal, you can thinly slice fruit pieces and add to the puree.
For our Peach strawberry and Banana popsicle, you need:
3 cups strawberries
3 Cups peaches
Four ripe bananas
2 tablespoons honey (how long does honey last?)
Puree strawberries with 1 tablespoon honey and set aside. Puree the peaches with 1 tablespoon honey and set aside. Blend the bananas into a puree and set for preparation. Layer the popsicle by adding 2 teaspoons strawberry puree, 2 teaspoons banana puree and two teaspoons peaches puree. Repeat till your moulds are filled. Dip a small teaspoon to the bottom of the mould and back to the top a couple times to create a beautiful swirl pattern. Tap the moulds on the countertop to release any air bubbles and freeze as directed above.
Healthy Creamy Popsicles
I love adding yogurt to popsicles for a punch of protein and probiotics. It is great for digestive health and also creates a nice creaminess that will give you a smooth texture. Mango, beets and yogurts popsicle is a rich, creamy and sweet flavor that is also loaded with iron, vitamin c and good gut bacteria. You may also add unsweetened coconut milk instead of yogurt for a good creamy texture.
You will need:
4 cups mango, chopped
1 Cup Greek yogurt
1/2 Cup chopped beets, cooked and cooled
Blend separately to get mango purée and beets puree. Save half cup of finely chopped mango. Distribute it evenly in the moulds. Alternate between pouring 2 tablespoons of mango puree, beets puree and Greek yogurt till the moulds are filled. Let the last layer not be yogurt. You can repeat the spoon trick to create a nice swirl pattern.
Prevent The Inevitable Popsicle Leak!
To save yourself from the sticky, icky mess that melted popsicles will gift you, make a slit at the centre of a cupcake liner and stick the popsicle stick through it. The liner will be helpful in catching some juice and reduce some of the mess! Now, if your kids will tilt the popsicle inadvertently, like mine…well then…Happy Summer!
