What's Poppin'?

After watching from the sidelines for 2 years, I've finally taken the Eating Rules' October Unprocessed Challenge! With that said, you might be expecting a quinoa-kale-wheatgrass mixture of sorts on a blog like mine. Well, surprise surprise... I have 3 recipes for homemade pops here instead!

Dessert is often times a store-bought item for me since a) I don't like (more accurately, I'm terrible at) baking, b) I like ice cream but haven't felt the urge to buy an ice-cream maker, and c) store-bought stuff is usually infinitely better than what I can whip up at home. But when I saw fellow blogger Carrie of Steps2Nutrition experiment with her new pop molds, it seemed simple enough where I won't be able to mess it up like baking a pie.

Each recipe yields 6-2.5 oz pops.

Zesty Watermelon
1 1/3 C fresh watermelon juice, strained through strainer to remove seeds
Zest of 1 medium lemon
Juice of 1/2 medium lemon
2/3 C coconut milk, vanilla flavored (or soymilk)

Add cubed watermelon to a blender and blend until all chunks are gone. Pour juice through a strainer to remove seeds and any pieces that have escaped the blade. Measure out amount needed and return juice into blender. Add zest, lemon juice, and coconut milk and blend until smooth. Pour mixture evenly into molds.

Spicy Chocolate
3 Tbsp spicy hot cocoa powder (I used DAGOBA Xocolati drinking chocolate)
2 C coconut milk, vanilla flavored
1 Tbsp cane sugar (I used organic turbinado sugar)

In a saucepan, heat coconut milk over medium heat on stove. When liquid starts to bubble just a tad, add hot cocoa powder and sugar and whisk with a silicon-coated whisk (or any utensil safe for your saucepan). Continue whisking until no lumps remain. Set saucepan aside to allow mixture to cool. When cooled completely, pour mixture evenly into molds.

Alternatively, nuking the milk should do the trick but there's just something nostalgic about making hot chocolate with milk over the stove.

Cherry Creme
1 C Pitted frozen cherries
1/2 frozen medium banana
1 to 1 1/2 C Coconut milk, vanilla flavored

Blend cherries, banana, and milk in blender until smooth. Pour mixture evenly into molds.

Freezing time depends on the ingredients used and freezer temp. I usually make mine in the morning and they're ready by dinner.

Coconut milk was used in all the recipes because the fat from it helps with producing less gritty or icy pops. When it's just sugar and liquid, ice crystals form very easily and creates the opposite of the creamy texture that's desirable in ice pops. You can also use cow's milk if that's your preferred type of milk. These pops aren't super smooth so I'll keep researching and see how they can be improved. If you have some tips and tricks, feel free to share with me!

For the molds, I used the Tovolo Groovy Ice Pop Molds that come in a set of 6. After about 4 times of freezing, they're still holding up well and the pops were easy to remove from the clear molds each time.