quinoa ice pop

Yes, you read that right, this ice pop has quinoa in it.  I ended up making this a bit different from the original recipe because I didn't have enough quinoa.  Then I forgot I was cutting the recipe in 1/2 and added the full amount of blueberries.  Then I decided to only add one type of sweetener (because it was easier and I was out of coconut sugar and can't find it in the grocery store anymore.)  Anyway, this is how I made these.  The puree was really thick and tasted mostly of banana that seemed a bit green to me.  This pop was not my favorite, but I'm not the hugest fan of quinoa either.  I really think it has more to do with a not fully ripe banana than anything though.  I would give this pop a second try, but would definitely keep the full cup of blueberries.  Possibly even add another banana.  (In other words, lower the amount of quinoa.) Aaron did have one of these for breakfast, and while he didn't eat a ton, he did eat about 1/4 of it which is actually pretty good for him for any popsicle.  He's not a great popsicle eater.
Since these had to cook, I did start these first, then made the yellow pop (previous post) then came back to these.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup blueberries (I used frozen)
• 4-5 Tablespoons agave
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions

1. In a small pot, combine quinoa and water.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until water is absorbed
2. Put the quinoa in the blender along with the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.  Scoop puree into molds.  Add sticks and freeze until solid.

Yellow fruit and veggie pop

Yesterday I don't know what possessed me to decide to spend so much time in the kitchen - withdrawals maybe.  It was fun, and I made some good stuff, but man I don't like the clean up.  :)

First I had promised Benjamin and Aaron that we would make Popsicles.  It had warmed up this week, we were out of frozen treats, and I really didn't feel like buying something store bought because I'm trying to be more healthy and eat less processed foods.....  So, I let the boys pick a popsicle out of my Ice pop Joy book.  Luckily Benjamin picked the yellow goodness pop.  I had wanted to make this pop because it used cantaloupe and mango - both of which I got in my bountiful basket this weekend.  It called for sparkling water - which I had purchased at costco in the morning, and a yellow squash (really making me want to try this - which I had bought in the afternoon.  (Can you tell I wanted to make this pop too - I was sooo glad he picked it.)  

I have not tasted this as a pop, but I did take a sip of the "smoothie" and it was quite good. (That is saying something because I'm not a huge fan of cantaloupe - juiced anyway, I'm also not a huge fan of sparkling water.) Benjamin had a whole cup of the smoothie and drank it down.  He had a pop for breakfast this morning and ate most of it.  I liked the mix of flavors which like I said, surprised me.  I also liked the little bite the sparkling water gave it.  Altogether it made a pretty, tasty, healthy pop.  I'd definitely make this one again. I've also thought of just making this as a smoothie.

Ingredients

• 1 yellow squash, chopped
• 1/2 cantaloupe, scooped from shell and cut into chunks
• 1 cup chopped mango (this was probably 2/3 of my rather large mango)
• 2 cups sparkling water (any flavor -I found a lemon at costco that was just water and natural flavor - no sweeteners or salt.)
• 1/4 cup raw agave nectar

Directions

1. Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.  
2. Pour into molds, add sticks and freeze until solid.

Striped strawberry/banana ice pop

So, as I posted a while back, I've been making a lot more smoothies lately - mostly green.  Somewhere I got the idea to freeze the left over smoothie into a popscicle - I think with a non-green smoothie because they sounded good - pina colada if I remember right.  Anyway, I have some very old ice pop molds - there are only 4, and I only have the stick part to 3.  I decided I wanted to make more ice pops because I could then control what went into them, and make them out of fruit rather than sugary syrup, sooo, for Easter, each of the kids got a different ice pop mold.  These are the ones we got.
      and I got a book.  From what I have seen in the book, I love it. Just what I was looking for and then some - going to make Tavio tell me even more I've turned into a health food addict, but Oh well.  It is good for him.
The book has chapters on fruit pops, veggie pops, yogurt pops, tofu pops, herbal tea pops, chocolate pops, and specialty pops.  I had Benjamin pick out a pop to try, and this is what he chose.  Of course it was one with Kale in it.  I was going to start with something simple like a plain fruit pop, but went for it with this one.  I did not have Kale so I used spinach.  I also added a bit of agave to the bottom part of the pop, and some strawberries.  I was afraid I wouldn't have enough mixture because the directions say it makes 4 (5 oz) pops, and I wanted to make 5 - but what I didn't know is that my mold is only 4 oz.  So, I had left over.  I would probably not make as much of the jam part again, or the other part for that matter.  The pops fill up fast. I ended up filling all of my star pops with 1/2 and half, and all of the orka molds with the bottom part, and I still had some left over which I figured I'll just use in my next green smoothie.  Anyway, this is what I did this time.
I have yet to try these, but Benjamin asked for a popscicle for breakfast and what was I to say -they have wheat germ, spinach and fruit -how can that be bad?   Then I fed them to the kids for snack and pre-school, but I was too busy to eat one.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup strawberries, chopped (mine were frozen and I chopped them in the pan as they thawed)
• 4 Tablespoons agave 
• 1 cup spinach
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 2 bananas
• 1 cup water (I'd probably use fruit juice here next time - that is what I do to naturally sweeten green smoothies.)
• 1 Tablespoon wheat germ
• 5-6 strawberries
• small squirt of agave (If using fruit juice, I'd leave this out.)

Directions

1. In a small pot over medium heat, combine strawberries and agave and let simmer until the liquid thickens a bit and becomes jam like.  
2. Pour a small amount of the jam inot the bottom of pop molds.  Let harden at room temperature (I put mine in the fridge - to hurry it along.)
3. Meanwhile, combine spinach, blueberries, bananas, water, and wheat germ in a blender.  Puree until smooth.
4. When strawberry jam is hardened, add spinach mixture, sticks (or tops of molds) and freeze.

These were a bit tricky to get out of the mold - not sure if it is the mold or the recipe at this point because I haven't used the molds enough.