By JODIE FITZ
It’s the dog days of summer, so feel free to chill out with one of the freeze pop recipes below. Parents will feel good about the all-natural ingredients (even spinach in the watermelon pop!), and kids will like the bright flavors.
If you don’t have freeze pop molds, simply use a 5 oz. paper coated cup as a freeze pop mold. Let them freeze for approximately an hour and add a craft stick in the center. Continue to freeze the freeze pops for four hours or overnight. Remove the cups by clipping a piece of the edge with scissors and peeling the cup from the pop.
Strawberry Lime Freeze Pops
2 cups of fresh sliced strawberries
1/2 cup Greek vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lime juice
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Puree the strawberries, honey, lime juice and vanilla extract together in a food processor or blender. Add in the yogurt until blended well.
Fill your freeze pop molds and freeze for a minimum of 4 hours before serving.
The mixture should make approximately 1-1/2 cups of liquid (12 oz.).
Watermelon Look-Alike Freeze Pops
Layer 1
6 oz. vanilla yogurt
10 fresh cherries, pitted
1/4 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate morsels
1 tablespoon honey
Place the cherries into a mini food processor and chop them finely. Scrape the sides and continue the chopping process. Add the yogurt and honey into the mini food processor with the finely chopped cherries and process more; until the mixture is pink and the cherry pieces are well blended. You may have to stop, scrape the sides and continue the processing. Once finished, fold the cherry yogurt mixture together with the mini chocolate morsels.
Divide the cherry yogurt mixture into three 5 oz. paper coated cups and place them in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Prepare layer 2.
Layer 2
6 oz. vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup fresh baby leaf spinach
1-1/4 tablespoons honey
Place the yogurt, spinach and honey into a mini food processor. Blend until the mixture is fully blended.
Equally add the green layer on top of the cherry mixture in the three cups. Add a craft stick to the center of each pop.
Freeze the pops for a minimum of two hours.
