Fun and Simple Yogurt Pops!

A special summer treat! A guest blog from my Twitter friend, @MaMaGoose12! Woo hoo! 

There’s nothing better than an ice pop on a hot summer day! My little peanut, M, loves her frozen treats. So I started to search for ideas and ways to bring healthy eating into her diet without M realizing it. That’s when I found this great kid friendly cookbook: Sesame Street Silly Snacks: Cooking with Kids. I love this cookbook because almost every treat in it is a healthy snack. (I’ve actually used many of these recipes with my 1^st grade cooking with books club and was shocked and super-dee-dooper surprised when all the kiddies ate everything we made!)

While searching through this great book M found “Abby Cadabby Ice Pops!” So here is our spin on the ice pops:

The most important part of this edible treat is allowing M to have “full control” over what goes into it. Of course I guide her and help her but being hands on and feeling in charge makes these ice pops even better!! First up, a trip to the grocery store.

Off we go to the grocery store and we head right to the yogurt section. We are in search of 2 or 3 different colored yogurts, preferably ones with real fruit pieces in them. This is a great opportunity to introduce M to different flavors of yogurt. Before making our ice pops we often read books about rainbows and we try to “eat the rainbow.” Some of our favorite rainbow books are: The Rainbow Fairy by Nicola Baxter, A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman and What Makes a Rainbow?: A Magic Ribbon Book by Betty Ann Schwartz. M is all about colors and visuals (like most little ones) so we look for yogurts that are the colors she wants – red (strawberry), blue (blueberry), orange (peach), etc. If we can only find 2 flavors/colors of yogurt M likes we head over to the canned fruit section and buy a small can of diced fruit in natural juice (no sugars or artificial juices added) to substitute one of the yogurts with. Once we have our three flavors we head home ready to cook!

 

This recipe calls for very few supplies/ingredients – 3 yogurts (or 2 yogurts and 1 can of diced fruit), a small food processor if you are using the diced fruit, and then ice pop holders…. But we use small dixi cups and clean popsicle sticks! No need for fancy ice pop holders in our house. Depending on how big you want your pops to be – I’d say for smaller kids you would want them to be smaller and for larger kids you’d want the cups to be fuller – we line up about 4-6 small cups on the counter. We open our yogurts and mix each individual yogurt so the fruit and colors are spread throughout them. Then if we are using the canned fruit we drain the fruit and put it into the food processor to make a puree. Now for the fun part! I let M design her own pops… She spoons a little of each ingredient into the small cups making bright colorful layers. Once each cup is filled we place them in the freezer for about 30-60 minutes. I periodically check them and as soon as they are starting to freeze I add the popsicle sticks. We often makes these around breakfast time so that after lunch they are ready to go! 

Now when M asks for a snack on a hot summer day I don’t mind giving her “Abby Cadabby” ice pops because she’s actually eating healthy yogurt and pureed fruit! You can’t go wrong! And the benefit of using the cups to make them in, she has a place to sit it down if she wants to take a break from eating her treat for a few minutes! 

Want more great ideas and Kindergarten fun? Visit @MamaGoose12 at her blog~MaMaGoosesKindergarten! or like her on FB!