Beat The Heat This Summer

Recipe: Make Your Own Popsicles

                                                                 

As a kid, summertime consisted of the beach, riding bikes, catching fireflies, and eating popsicles. As long as you have popsicle sticks, and a freezer, making your own popsicles is pretty simple. I found some recipes to appeal to any type taste, including fruity, coffee, or even chocolate based flavors. You can also find popsicle molds at most places like Target, or Walmart. Basically you just whip up one of these mixtures spoon into the mold. 
*If you don't have a mold, you can make a thicker mixture, place wax paper on a plate or tray lay out the sticks and spoon mixture onto the stick. Lay flat and let freeze.
Now eat up and enjoy your very own homemade popsicles! *They taste so much better than store bought ones too.
Fruit-Based Popsicles Piña Colada: Puree pineapple chunks with coconut milk, sugar to taste, a little nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla.

Blueberry: Puree blueberries with just enough water to make the mixture pourable, a little pepper, ground allspice and sugar to taste.

Peanut Butter-Banana: Puree bananas with a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter, milk and a little vanilla.

Peaches and Cream: Puree peeled fresh or canned peaches along with sugar to taste, some water, a little half-and-half, a pinch of salt and a touch of lemon juice.

Watermelon-Chocolate Chip: Puree several cups of watermelon. Fold in mini chocolate chips and spoon into popsicles molds.

Creamy Banana: Puree bananas with a splash of lime juice and enough milk to make it thick but pourable. Add a little chopped banana for texture and add sugar to taste.

Cranberry-Orange: Puree canned cranberry sauce with enough orange juice to thin mixture to a thick pouring consistency. Add sugar and ground ginger to taste.

Tamarind: Combine about 2 cups of tamarind pulp (with pits) with 4 cups of water and simmer until the pulp has separated from the pits and the mixture is flavorful. Add sugar to taste and push through a sieve; discard pits.

Strawberry-Raspberry Yogurt: Puree strawberries with seedless raspberry jam until smooth. Add plain low-fat yogurt, vanilla, and sugar to taste and whirl until combined.

Mango-Chile: Puree fresh mango with a little lime juice, a touch of chipotle chile powder and a pinch of salt.

Pineapple: Puree chunks of pineapple (fresh or canned) with pineapple juice, a little grated fresh ginger, lime juice, and sugar to taste.

Sour Cherry Crisp: Puree a couple of cups of pitted fresh or canned sour cherries with light brown sugar to taste, a few tablespoons of toasted oats (toasted in a 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes), a little ground allspice, a touch of ground cloves, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract and enough orange juice to thin.
Juice-Based Popsicles Grapefruit-Grenadine: Combine pink grapefruit juice with honey to taste, and grenadine to give a nice blush.

Orange Julius: Combine orange juice, just enough half-and-half to make it creamy, vanilla, and sugar to taste.

Spiced Carrot Cake: Gently heat carrot juice and add sugar to taste, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in some ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and a pinch of salt.

Key Lime Pie: Combine sweetened condensed milk, a little grated lime zest, lime juice, and a little vanilla extract.

Lemonade: Prepare your favorite lemonade making it extra strong; pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

Pomegranate Sangria: Stir together pomegranate juice, orange juice and a little lime juice. Add sugar if needed.
Coffee And Chocolate Popsicles Mocha: Prepare hot cocoa using 2 heaping teaspoons of unsweetened cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate to 1 cup of hot coffee; sweeten to taste with brown sugar. Add a splash of milk and freeze.

Chocolate Malt: Melt a 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate in a cup of milk. Add a tablespoon or two of malted milk powder and freeze.
Adventurous Popsicles Cucumber-Mint: Combine 3 cups of peeled and seeded cucumber, 1/2 cup sugar, 3 to 4 tablespoons of lime juice and 2/3 cup fresh mint leaves and puree. Push through a strainer and freeze.

Margarita: Combine lime juice, tequila, agave nectar to taste and a little orange juice.

Hibiscus: Steep several red zinger tea bags in boiling water until flavorful. Add sugar to taste, stirring until dissolved.

Lemon-Lavender Buttermilk: Make a sugar syrup of 1/3 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons water and 1/4 teaspoon lavender; heat just until sugar has melted. Let steep until cold. Strain and stir in 3 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 cup buttermilk.

Toasted Coconut: Gently warm coconut milk, add lemon, orange, and lime zest, cover and steep until cool. Meanwhile in a 350 degree F oven toast angel flake coconut until golden brown. Strain and remove zest from coconut milk, then stir in toasted coconut and sugar to taste.

Rice Pudding: Puree some cooked white rice with sweetened rice milk. Add a little cinnamon and nutmeg, pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

Thanksgiving Pops: Place a can of pumpkin puree in a blender along with light brown sugar to taste, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, a touch of cloves and enough milk to make a pourable mixture,

Vanilla-Caramel Pops: Combine 2/3 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a skillet and cook over low heat until sugar has caramelized. Off heat add 2 cups milk (be careful, it will sputter). Return to heat and stir until sugar has melted. Stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and freeze.

Butter-Pecan: Saute 3/4 cup of chopped pecans in 3 tablespoons butter until golden brown and fragrant. Add a couple of cups of milk and light brown sugar to taste and heat just until warm. Cover and let sit 30 minutes. Push through a strainer, stir in a teaspoon of vanilla extract and freeze.

Gingerale: Thinly slice enough fresh ginger to get 2 cups (no need to peel). Cook in 4 cups of water until nice and spicy. Add sugar to taste, and bring to a boil. Strain and freeze.