Strawberry Banana Yogurt Popsicles

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 tries to eat on $6/day.

So of course I meant to get an action shot of these fabulous popsicles--melty popsicles, charming children, green grass and flowers in the background. But I forgot. Because, you see, when popsicles and children--however charming they may be--are outside all at once with popsicles, and when you're not planning on bathing them, they take a little supervision--both the popsicles and the children. We ended up doing a bath anyway.

So I got to this blog and realized I didn't have a popsicle picture. The good news is that these take all of three minutes to whip up. So I made some more. And took a picture. But it was dark by then. And the charming children were in bed. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get an action shot to post. For now, you get my kitchen. It has flourescent lights.

But I've spent too long apologizing for my lousy picture and not enough talking up popsicles. A week or two ago it was in the 50's around here. There were a couple of days I insisted we light the fire in the woodburner. And then we jumped into the 90's. (Sigh.) And all the sudden, popsicle season was upon us. So at least there's one good thing about jumping to the 90's.

These are healthy and easy and tasty. They're also fairly cheap. If you don't want to make them into popsicles, you can stop at smoothie stage, though I really must encourage you to make them into popsicles. There is almost nothing better on a hot day. It's fun for kids, of course. And it's a good way to get them to stop and eat something cold and wet when they may not want to stop for water or shade breaks. But they're also good for you. They allow you to sit, to slow down. Also, despite their utter virtuousness, you can use them as dessert. And they feel like dessert, not healthy food you should eat because it's, like, healthy.

Strawberry Banana Yogurt Popsicles
Makes 6-8 1/2 C servings (I may have forgotten to do a little measuring there)
Prep time: 3 minutes
Freeze time: at least 3 hours
Cost: $.94
(strawberries: .35, banana: .06, yogurt: .45, milk: .08)

Note on yogurt: I used vanilla yogurt because that's what I had. Alternately, you can use plain yogurt with 4-6 Tbsp. sugar.

Note on fruit: This recipe is more of a template. I used strawberries and banana, but most fruits would do--berries, mango, kiwi--knock yourself out. This recipe uses 1 C of fruit.

1 C vanilla yogurt
1/2 C milk
1/2 C sliced strawberries
1/2 banana

Blend in blender till smooth. Pour into popsicle molds. Freeze for at least 3 hours.

Note: Removing popsicles from their molds is the least fun part. Please let me know if you have some easy to remove popsicle molds and where I can get some. (Surely there's some silicone mold of some sort that you just pop out, but I haven't tried it.) Anyway, I always run my non-silicone molds under hot water for a minute or two and then they usually come out without too much grief.

PRINTABLE RECIPE