raspberry yogurt popsicles

I'm really not much of a summer person.  Yeah, I live in California.  It gets hot here.  I know, I know.  One of the things I really do love about summer though is popsicles.  Part of it is the icy cold sweet refresher.  The other part is nostalgia.  I used to make popsicles with my mom when I was a kid.  We ate crazy healthy, so my idea of a wild and crazy sweet popsicle was frozen orange juice on a stick.  Kind of tame, right?  Now that I control the ingredients, I plan on going crazy.  Plan on seeing many more popsicle recipes on this blog this summer!

I figured I'd make a fairly basic treat to start off with for now.  I already had the ingredients, and this seemed healthy enough for the kiddo to have on a daily basis without having him bounce off the walls.  Which, sadly is not an exaggeration...

These yummy popsicles only have three ingredients, four if you prefer some added sugar.  They took about 10 minutes to make, from pulling everything out onto the counter to sticking them in the freezer.  These were fun to make with the kiddos too.  Jack stuck to his usual supervisory position in his awesome Bumbo chair, while Liam helped me stir, remove the holders, put them back on when the molds were filled, and stick them in the freezer to wait the agonizingly (for him) long time for them to freeze enough to eat.  I also passed down the best rule of the kitchen to Liam.  "Whoever does the cooking gets the leftovers!"  He was very excited to eat the leftover fruity yogurt.  :)

All you need is yogurt, berries, and some cool whip to add sweetness and fluffiness

Jack is already trying to open every food container he can get his hands on and shovel all the food in before I can stop him.  Good thing I'm faster.

You can mix the yogurt, berries, and cool whip together halfway to get the marbled effect, or mix it thoroughly.  I mixed ours thoroughly just because the berries were fairly tart, and I wanted the sweetness to be evenly distributed.

Liam thought he was hot stuff because he was my helper.

The finished product.  I have multiple sizes of popsicle molds, but I always give Liam the smallest ones because he never eats much in a single sitting.

Liam approved!  I've never seen him eat a popsicle that quickly!

ingredients:
2 C vanilla Greek yogurt, any fat count (I use Greek because I like the thickness, and it doesn't make them          too sweet)
1 1/2  C berries, muddled (I used raspberries)
1 C cool whip (lite or regular)
sugar to taste (optional)

directions:
1.  Thaw the berries if frozen, and muddle.  If adding the extra sugar, mix it into the berries.  Add to large bowl with yogurt and stir to incorporate.  Choose to mix partially for a marbled effect, or fully to even out the flavors.  Fold in the cool whip.
2.  Using a small spoon add to popsicle molds.  Try to fill these as full as you can, removing air bubbles.  Place on a flat surface in a freezer.  Let freeze, at least 2 hours.  Eat within a week.

My molds are random sizes but I got 8 small popsicles and 6 medium ones.  I had about 1/2 C of yogurt mix left over (that my little helper happily ate!)