honeydew popsicles

I love Food Network.  It's the only show I miss after we cancelled our cable.  Luckily for me I have a subscription to Food Network magazine.  Yay!  Most of the recipes are pretty normal, but every once in a while I see one that I think is SO weird it can't possible taste good.  And so of course I have to try it out for myself.

I found a recipe in my most recent issue for several fruit sauces to top cheesecake.  Most of them looked pretty innocuous, but one for a honeydew-avocado sauce stood out.  The ingredients were few and the directions were speedy and straightforward.  I even had both a small honeydew and an avocado sitting out that I didn't know what to do with.  What had I got to loose?

I made the sauce easily just out of curiosity (I didn't have any cheesecake, but I thought I could maybe freeze the sauce until I made one).  It was a hot day, and the sauce seemed thick, sweet and juicy.  I immediately thought POPSICLES!  I was able to make 10 popsicles out of the sauce, and Liam loves them!  He keeps asking for more every day.  We have a strict one popsicle a day rule at our house, so he's got enough for a few more days.  I tried to take a photo of him smiling while eating one (he really likes them, I swear!) but between him being a bit of a serious kid and him eating his popsicle very seriously, I couldn't get the photo I wanted.

Why do I call these "honeydew popsicles" and leave the avocado out of the title?  Well, partially because you can't taste the avocado in them (speaking as a person who HATES them) they just help the popsicles become thicker and creamier, and partially because I don't want the title to scare people away from a good thing.  Try them.  You'll thank me!  And Food Network Magazine.



Honeydew-Acocado Popsicles
(recipe by Food Network magazine, frozen by me)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cubed honeydew melon
• 1 small avocado (peeled and pitted)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• juice of 1 lime

Directions:

1. Puree all ingredients together until smooth.If sauce is still lumpy, strain through a fine-mesh sieve with a ladle.  Pour into popsicle molds and freeze at least 2 hours.  

note: makes about 10 popsicles depending on the size of your molds.  Recipe makes 1 3/4 cups

creamy pineapple popsicles

So this creation all came about when I was really craving a Dole Whip.  If you don't know what that is you need to get yourself to Disneyland A-stat.  I wanted to make creamy pineapple-tastic popsicles that tasted super fruity and creamy, if they were healthy-ish as well, bonus!

These definitely measured up.

Okay, you're probably confused, thinking, "Um, this doesn't remotely look popsicle-y". You'd be right.  This recipe made enough to fill both my tiny and regular sized popsicle molds, and I still had half left over to put in my ice cream maker (and then the freezer).  Sweet, right?

All you need is a can of sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and pineapple juice.  And a blender.

Liam doesn't smile all that well when prompted.  Does any kid?  But seriously, the second he hears me get the blender out he races to the kitchen because he knows it is his job to turn the blender on and off.  A responsibility he gave himself...

"I can turn it on now, okay?"

Make sure you hit the popsicle mold onto the counter several times to get rid of excess air bubbles once it's been filled.

Time to put the caps on.

I always have to watch Liam like a hawk during this step because he likes to put the cap on halfway, then take it out and suck on it.  If I let him, he'd finish all the popsicles before they were even frozen!

I have two popsicles molds (and I'd like to get more) because Liam goes through them crazy fast in the summer, and I like to have the option of making flavors in bulk, or switching it up and having multiple options all at once.

"They are finished.  Can I eat one now?!"

Jack wanted to help too, but unlike his brother, he can't open the freeze solo just yet.

Freeze these for at least an hour.

Sweet.  Two sets of popsicles and I still have half left!  Time to get out the ice cream maker...

I always keep the frozen part of our ice cream maker frozen and ready for occasions just like this.

Just pour it in and follow the instructions on your ice cream maker.  If you don't have one, that's okay.  Just put your mixture in the freezer in an airtight container and eat like ice cream.

So good!

Make sure you stir or otherwise mix these a little before you pour them up or they will separate.  They have started to already here.  No big deal though.  The end is more pineapple and the rest is creamier.

Seriously though, Jeff and I might eat these all before Liam gets a chance to... They are so good!  They taste like a million calories, even though they are around 100 each.  Awesome, right?  If you like pineapple, or creamy frozen treats, totally give these a try!

print recipe

creamy pineapple popsicles

by Liesl July-21-2014

like a Dole whip in popsicle form.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 can pineapple juice concentrate
• 2 cups water

Instructions

1. Pour all ingredients into a blender and well, blend. Make sure liquid hasn't started to separate before pouring into popsicle molds. Tap gnetly but firmly on the counter to release any trapped air bubbles. Freeze popsicles at least 1 hour.2. Remaining liquid should be poured into an ice cream maker. Then follow manufacturer instructions. Mine say to leave in ice cream maker for 30 minutes, then remove to the freezer in an airtight container. Skip the last step and put your mix start into the freezer if you do no have an ice cream maker. Enjoy!

Details

Prep time: 1 hour 5 mins Cook time: Total time: 1 hour 5 mins Yield: 18 servings

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!)