Watermelon and Coconut Popsicle

PREP TIME

5 mins

TOTAL TIME

5 mins

 

The perfect healthy treat during the hot summer months!

Author: Kacey

Recipe type: Dessert, Frozen, Vegan

Serves: 8

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups chopped watermelon or 1½ cups pureed watermelon

• ⅓ cup shredded coconut

• Fresh mint (optional, but I think it would make this recipe awesome!)
• 
  

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add your chopped watermelon slices to a blender. Puree until smooth. Add the shredded coconut and blend a little longer.

1. Pour the blended mixture into your popsicle molds. Set in the sticks or handles and pop into the freezer. The popsicles will need at least 4 hours minimum, even longer, before they are fully hardened.

1. Twist popsicles out of mold. If you are having trouble, run the molds under some warm water until you can loosen the popsicles easily.

Root Beer Float Popsicles

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Yield:

10-2 1/2 ounce popsicles or 25 ounces of popsicle base

Root beer float popsicles allow enjoyment of the quintessential summer favorite in a new, fun form.

Ingredients

• 12-14 ounces Root Beer
• 1 1/4 cup Vanilla Bean ice cream, slightly softened

Instructions

1. Pour a small amount of the root beer into each popsicle mold (equivalent of aproximately 3/4 inch in the mold).
2. Evenly distribute the ice cream between the popsicle molds in spoonfuls.
3. Pour root beer into molds in small amounts allowing the foam to die back before pouring more to fill molds to the top.
4. Cover with lid of popsicle maker. Place an sheet of foil on top of the popsicle mold top and insert sticks (the foil keeps the sticks in place so they don't slip into the mold more than desired or float).
5. Freeze until fully frozen. To remove popsicles run molds until hot water for a few seconds and remove.

Source: http://boulderlocavore.com/

Tips and Tricks in Making Ice Pops

Homemade Popsicle is a great way to induce fruits into your children’s diet.  It comes with dozens of advantages such as nutritional content, natural flavors, and fresh ingredients.  Unlike popsicles bought in stores, making your own popsicles give you the chance to combine flavors that you like such as fruits, yogurt, and milk.  It can be a good bonding experience with your kids too, ask them of their flavors and let them make their own popsicles.  Aside from that, you are reducing eco-waste since Popsicle molds are reusable.

If you have trouble in making your homemade popsicles, you’ll need to learn about the tips and tricks on how to mold so that your popsicle won’t be like rock pops,  also proper mixing and the right combination of ingredients.  Check the tricks and tips below and get yourself started. 

1.     Use reusable Popsicle molds -   you can use paper Dixie cup, and other raw materials however these are not eco-friendly and it will take years for these to decompose. If you want to save mother earth you better use reusable instant popsicle makerr.   On the other side, reusable molds are a good investment since it is economical.   

1.     Choose fresh and organic ingredients- We all knew that homemade popsicles are good for kids since it has fewer sweeteners, no artificial colors, and harmful chemicals.    But let’s don’t forget that homemade popsicles are only healthy depending on how you make them. It is important that you pick nothing but the fresh and organic ingredients only.  Bear in mind, fresh and organic and rest assured that you are serving nutritious delights to your family. 

1.      The right amount of sweeteners – this probably the common issue newbies encountered when making popsicles.  Oftentimes, they think that it is easy as pouring orange juice into a Popsicle maker and freezing away.   Popsicle making comes with proper mixing of the right amount of ingredients.   Remember, that you are not freezing plain liquids; you have your children to impress so make sure it taste good. 

Be Artistic and Write your efforts – Boring Popsicles are well, boring!  It always pays to be creative when making ice pops.  You can do many things such as adding berries into the molds to make it look colorful.  You can also experiment on the flavors such as mixing apple with mango; you can use your aesthetic taste for optimal ice pop enjoyment at your house.  It is big encouragement to try odd flavors such spinach, carrots, and fruit juices in making layered popsicles. You can add granola, chopped nuts, fresh fruits, and grated coconut to add nutritional texture on 

Four Ways to Safe Food Preparations

Studies shows that the way we cook our food is common cause of food contamination.   Germs such as campylobacter, salmonella and E. coli are found in our kitchen.  These can easily be spread if we are not careful.  Our hands serves the primary transport of these germs to our food and even pets at home. It is important that we wash our hands with soap after touching the bin, using the toilet, touching any raw food and when cooking. Inadequate food handling is the common cause of food contamination / food poisoning.  One key factor also is to keep all kitchen utensils (Popsicle maker, bread knife, cake and pie server, chef’s knife, colander, fish slicer and etc.

In cases where foods aren’t cooked, proper storage should be observed. This is to preserve the food freshness and to avoid rotting.  If food isn’t stored properly, it can cause serious food poisoning, flu, colds and other conditions.

In general there are effective ways to prepare and cook your food safely.  In doing these you can ensure that your food is safe to eat and free from germs that causes illness.

1.      Hand washing- Germs are spread through our hands, it is important to keep our hands sanitize every time.  The only way to sanitation is through washing hands with warm water and soap.  It also good to use hand sanitizers and alcohol. 

2.     Washing Fruits and Vegetable- The best way to enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables is to wash them through running water before cooking/eating them.  Washing can effectively remove visible dirt and bacteria that are found in the surface.  Peeling can also be as effective in removing these germs. Never use any other cleaning products (especially chemicals) to your fruits and vegetables as this might not be good for consumption. It might that some chemicals stay on the foods that can cause poisoning.

3.      Cooking - Temperature is a crucial part in cooking, it is important that harmful bacteria are killed. In general, bacteria are killed at temperature hotter than 75C.  Below are list of foods that should be cooked thoroughly before eating.

·         Pork

·         Poultry

·         Sausages

·         Burgers

·         Kebabs

·         Meal

If you cooked that you are not going to eat immediately, keep it cool within 90 minutes and store in fridge. Foods that are put hot inside the fridge can cause food poisoning.

4.     Cleaning up - Wash chopping boards and other cooking utensils before and after cooking, as these can cause contamination in food.  According to studies, chopping board has more fecal bacteria than an average toilet seat.  Wet sponges and cloths are also perfect place for these bacteria to breed.  In fact, kitchen sponges have the highest number of germs in any other place of your home.  It is important that you replace these sponges, cloths, rugs, and towel frequently.