Who can say YUM?!

A lovely recipe for homemade popsicles was posted on Facebook by a friend. Talk about YUM! Definitely has become favorite around here! I'm going to guess that purchased popsicles are going right out the door! The popsicles we buy are the 100% fruit ones and etc and those are just a bit $$. These homemade ones are even better! So...here's her recipe with the fruit we used...

1 cup water + 1/2 cup sugar heated into a simple syrup + 2 cups frozen/fresh blueberries + 2 drops lemon essential oil (1/2 teaspoon lemon extract or lots of lemon zest or lots of lemon juice subbed for some of the water would work too) & freeze.

Simple enough, yes?! Explore with Xylitol and Agave for sugar substitutes. She used Xylitol. I used Agave in one of the our explorations but the sugar in others.

    

I really didn't measure the fruit too much. Just eyeballed it. I used a Pampered Chef chopper and chopped frozen strawberries and blueberries then added them to the syrup for a minute or two. I also used LOTS of lemon juice. DELISH! Kids LOVED them! 

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Another version we made was using leftover fresh mango, frozen peaches, and orange juice with a bit of Agave syrup instead of water/sugar.

The older kids liked it. I felt they were pretty orange-y tasting. So we are going to give it another go around with more fresh mango, use fresh peaches, and a fresh orange vs. orange juice and use the sugar/water mixture. FYI: This particular fruit mixture required a LOT of liquid and we had to puree it.

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Then we tried cherry frozen pops also...a bit more expensive considering how much the cherries cost but...EXCELLENT!

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So we are on a roll! The next double batch (because we went and got more popsicle holders ☺) is going back to strawberry and blueberry since I have lots of frozen blueberries from last year to use up.

* A few times I forgot the lemon juice. End product, just fine. :-) As an adult, I liked them better with the lemon juice...so as often as I can remember....it's getting used. Ha! *

Now....let the fruit mixture suggestions start! Comment away!

I don't purchase canned fruit often. The one type I keep in the cupboard is Dole Tropical Fruit Salad.

We eat this as a side dish, often with pizza, with vanilla yogurt and honey. The kids asked if this would make a good popsicle. Hmmm! What do you think? Anyone use yogurt for homemade pops?