By Erin Brighton, CampBrighton.com
My kids LOVE smoothies but sometimes they just drink them too fast. By the time I have poured their smoothies and I’m getting ready to enjoy my own, I see sad little faces with empty smoothie cups. After years of these pitiful souls begging for more smoothie, I have found that if I take our favorite smoothies and pour them into popsicle molds, these sweet and healthy treats last a lot longer!
A few weeks ago, I found super simple ZOKU popsicle molds at Home Goods. I love Home Goods. I am pretty sure I am there twice a week. One weekend while my husband was away recently, I made four trips to Home Goods. Four trips. As I was backing my car up to the front door to get some loot loaded into the car, the cashier astutely observed, “This isn’t your first rodeo.” Nope.
Zoku makes some fancy popsicle molds that magically make popsicles in minutes or something like that but these molds are the plain and simple old-school pop molds: Pour your liquid into the mold. Freeze for many hours. Enjoy.
To make layered popsicles, the trick is to pour one layer at a time and then let it sit in the freezer for an hour or two before you add the next layer. Popsicles are VERY forgiving. When I was little, my mom would pour straight apple juice into popsicle molds and call it a day. If you like the taste of what you are pouring into your mold, you will like the taste of your popsicle.
For the Fourth of July, we decided to try to layer a red, white, and blue popsicle. For the blue layer, we used blackberries because we had beautiful fresh ones. For the white layer, we used a banana, and for the red layer, we used strawberries. To make these dairy free, I added coconut milk to the berries while they were blending. To sweeten them up just a tiny bit, I added about a teaspoon or so of honey. Our Zoku popsicle molds each fit 3 ounces of liquid. But… since we were layering, we needed to make a very small quantity of smoothie so that each popsicle mold only got 1 ounce. Good luck with that. I made my smoothie, poured in about an ounce into each mold, and then drank the rest. 😉
Experiment! You can’t go wrong with a beautiful smoothie popsicle on a hot day. Hope you all have a very enjoyable Fourth of July!
Red White and Blue Smoothie Popsicles
Ingredients
– 1 1/2 cups of almond or coconut milk (divided)
– 1/2 cup strawberries
– 1/2 cup blackberries
– 1 banana
– 2 to 3 teaspoons of honey (optional)
Instructions
- In a high-powered blender, combine one type of fruit and 1/2 cup to 2/3 of a cup of milk. Blend until the berries are fully mixed with the milk.
- Pour the smoothie mix carefully into the bottom of each mold – about 1 ounce each – or until you’ve reached about 1/3 of the mold.
- Chill for about 1 to 2 hours until firm.
- Rinse out the blender and combine the next layer – blend a banana with 1/2 to 2/3 of a cup of milk. Add some honey. Blend until well combined.
- Remove popsicles from the freezer. Gently add the banana smoothie mixture over the berry mixture.
- Put the molds back into the fridge for another hour or two.
- In the blender, combine the remaining berries with milk and honey. Blend well.
- Remove the popsicles from the freezer. Add the final layer of smoothie.
- Add the popsicle sticks. Freeze for at least 6 to 8 hours. Enjoy!
