Okay, I’m probably aging myself here, but do you remember being able to get frozen bananas dipped in chocolate at Dairy Queen growing up? The ones that came on a stick and were absolutely delicious? Because I do! I don’t know if it’s sad or awesome that I’d choose a frozen banana over everything else one can get when at a fast food chain full of frozen treats, but I loved them. And apparently I still think they’re awesome because chocolate covered frozen banana pops happen every summer in this house. We most often sprinkle them with chopped nuts (peanuts + chocolate + banana = actual heaven), but this time around we went for the naturally coloured candy sprinkles I bought ages ago for a birthday party {they’re not at all healthful, for the record – just naturally coloured}. Put a few candy sprinkles on anything and the kids will think it’s amazing, but the best part of these frozen banana pops for me? Not having to melt actual chocolate. In fact, there’s no actual chocolate involved.
Today, with Sam still recovering from his latest bout of croup and Miss G home from school to catch up on some rest she can hopefully avoid getting sick, I decided it was time to make our first batch of popsicles of the year. I wanted them to be super healthy, full of vitamins, but still delicious, and so these fruity GREEN popsicles came about!
Now there’s no hiding this – all these fruity green popsicles really are is a green smoothie in frozen form {though if your kids are like my kids, it won’t matter one bit because anything in popsicle form is exciting and loved}. Truthfully, you don’t need a recipe at all because you really just can’t go wrong here… Just whip up a regular green smoothie, pour it into some popsicle moulds, and freeze! If the smoothie tastes good, the popsicles should too!
That being said, I know that there are lots of people who really like having a recipe to guide them, so if that’s you, here’s exactly what we included in our fruity green popsicles… Frozen mango, clementines, lacinato kale, pineapple juice, coconut water {which is optional}, hemp hearts, and chia seeds. Super healthful, right?
The best part? The kids did almost everything on their own! First up, they washed the kale and removed the cores.
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Then they put the kale and fruit into our Vitamix…
And added our juice and coconut water.
Looks delish, doesn’t it?
Then Sam did the honours and blended everything up.
Now I will say that if you don’t have a high-powered blender, you may want to skip the chia seeds and hemp hearts – unless your kiddos don’t mind a little texture.
Our Vitamix {which was worth every penny of its purchase price} blends them up like nothing, so add them to your heart’s delight if you have a similar blender.
Next up, we poured the fruity green mixture into our popsicle moulds. We have quite the random assortment and used all shapes and sizes and got 17 popsicles out of this recipe.
Here they are when done. They look good, right??
Here’s the recipe…
Fruity Green Popsicles
2 cups of mango, fresh or frozen
2 clementines (or other small oranges)
5 lacinato kale leaves, washed with the cores removed
1 tablespoon of chia seeds
1 tablespoon of hemp hearts
1 cup of pure pineapple juice*
1 cup of coconut water*
* for sweeter popsicles, omit the coconut water and use 2 cups of pure pineapple juice
Add everything to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into popsicle moulds and freeze for at least 5 hours or overnight.
Last week while we were in Alberta visiting my brother and his family, I had way too much fun whipping up these fun watermelon popsicles made of nothing but fruit!
Popsicle season is in full swing here in the desert, so Miss G and I stocked up our freezer today with a big batch of tasty new treats – fruit and honey yogurt pops!
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