During the summer, it’s important that your children stay healthy. Going to parties at friends’ houses, eating at barbecues, and enjoying time off from school can lead to the development of some unhealthy habits. This is why it is so necessary to give your children healthy summer snacks during the hot, lazy summer days.
Now, if you’re a parent with young children, you may not want to spend a lot of money on healthy summer snacks. At the same time, as it is the summer, you might want your kids to be able to have fun eating their favorite treats. After all, while a healthy summer snack will make you, the parent, happy, you want the kids to be happy too (any good parent should be following this), right? Thankfully, homemade popsicles allow you to both provide your child with a fun activity and to save money on snacks.
Homemade Popsicle: an easy and healthy summer snack
To start, you’ll need the following:
Ingredients
- A hot day
- A freezer
- 1 cup of your favorite Juice. You can make your own juice if you have a juice extractor. I extracted some orange juice.
- 1/2 cup of your favorite fruits. It is optional though. For the purpose of the recipe, I used some bananas.
- Popsicle molds. I used a Japanese Popsicle Mold. It is not expensive (around $6.99) and works pretty well.
- 1/4 cup of sugar (optional too)
Make it
- Puree the juice, sugar and fruit in a blender until rich and smooth
- Pour in the molds
- Freeze for 4 to 5 hours.
You and your children will be able to enjoy a cold, delicious, and healthy summer snack!
Some suggestions for expanding this activity:
- Take the time that you are waiting for the popsicles to freeze to teach your children a lesson about science, such as the cold temperature freezing the juice.
- Have your children take command of the process. It’s a simple enough activity that it is very difficult for anyone to mess up!
- If you want to be creative, mix different juices in the ice tray to make different colors/flavors of juice to amaze your kids!
- Have your children invite their friends over. They might enjoy helping out as you make these Popsicle! Plus, your children’s friend’s parents should be thrilled that you’re giving them healthy summer snacks, so everyone can be happy when your kids have a small party over the summer!
Popsicles go well with spending long periods of time outside. In the summertime, since the weather will be much warmer than during the other seasons, having a cold snack to refresh you will simply feel great. Therefore, while this is a fun activity for kids—turning juice into a popsicle will seem magical to them, at least—it is also a practical one for both kids and adults. Healthy summer snacks are one thing, but cold snacks give homemade popsicles another advantage over other snacks that you could buy for your kids. Also, if you’re worried about your spending, then don’t worry: the only expenses involved in this would be the juice and popsicle molds.
I love popsicles! I remember making them when I was a kid. Thanks for both the recipe & the source for the molds; I will have to look into picking some of those up.
They remind of my childhood too. My kids were excited to make them!!
I saw this on your Google+ page and just had to come comment. These look delicious and perfect for warm spring and summer days.
Thanks Tiffany! They are really good. Make sure to fill the molds appropriately. The first time, I did it wrong and it was not a sucess. We had to scrub the popsicle with a spoon.