Cooking With Katie: Berry Yogurt Popsicles

With all the wonderful weather we’ve been having in Southern Oklahoma lately, with summer temperatures rapidly approaching, and the overpowering need to quench my pregnancy-related cravings for all things yummy and cold, I was inspired to make some delicious homemade popsicles. Yummmmm.

I love making things homemade rather than buying them in a store. There’s just something satisfying and old-fashioned about it that brings back waves of nostalgia from a time that has mostly past. Not that I was alive then or anything, and they probably didn’t have freezers, but hey, I’ve seen pictures and movies and I like to imagine. Plus, I love to make things. A hobby I hope at least one of my kids will enjoy too so we can do these kinds of things together.

When I get an idea to make something, whether it’s crafting or baking, I have two qualifications. It must be easy and good. And if it’s healthy, hey that’s a plus. The hardest thing about making these is not getting to eat them right away, due to the inevitable freezing process.

This recipe I’m sharing with you fits the bill for all three PLUS it was something my 2 year old and I had fun making together. It’s the perfect, healthy and delicious summertime treat. Try it yourself and let me know what you think!

I mentioned that these are easy and as a matter of fact, they only have 4 ingredients too 🙂

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 cups fresh or frozen fruit of your choice
2 cups yogurt of your choice
2-3 tablespoons of honey
½ lemon, juiced
Popsicle molds (or ice cube trays or freezable cups/jars)
(Possibly popsicle sticks, if your molds don’t have them)

And here’s what to do:

Place your fruit into a large bowl. If it’s frozen, it needs to be thawed a little (so stick it in the microwave for a minute or two) and if it’s fresh, chop into small, bite-size pieces. Here’s the part where your little one will love to help. Get a meat tenderizer (or other random and heavy kitchen utensil) and beat the fruit into a mush, not quite to smoothie consistency. Of course, if you prefer your fruit in chunks, just skip this step all together.

Add in the yogurt, honey and lemon juice and mix it all up. Do a taste test until you get your desired sweetness level. In my case, the yogurt and fruit was sweet enough for just a couple of tablespoons of honey and it didn’t need more.

Once it’s all mixed, pour into your popsicle molds, stick them in the freezer and viola! Now comes the hard part. Waiting. I froze mine overnight and they were ready the next afternoon. As you can tell from the picture, I ended up having way more popsicle mixture than I had molds, so I improved with mason jars. I have frozen them before and they’ve passed the freeze test (no cracking or freezer burn). If you don’t want that much, just half the recipe.

For my popsicles, I used strawberries and blueberries, with both strawberry and blueberry yogurt to even things out.