Monday, March 18, 2013

Home made healthy ice pops for toddlers...and mommys


  My little man LOVES ice pops but I wasn't a fan of the store bought ones from my childhood.  So so much sugar and artificial colors and all that bad stuff.  So I started making him healthier ones, turns out everyone likes them, older kids included. 

They're Super easy, using ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen and have endless possibilities. 

Its a really fun activity to do with your toddler. They'll enjoy eating them even more because of it. Plus it helps fill some time in the day, builds their little brains and teaches them how to be creative and work with their hands.

Frozen yogurt and crushed chocolate chips ;)
To start you'll need to buy an ice pop tray and a bag of wooden popsicle sticks, they're available at the dollar store, Walmart and grocery stores... I prefer Dollar Tree.  I like to use wooden sticks rather than the plastic ones that come with it.  They grip to the ice pop better and you can just throw them away. 

For smaller children or for small snacks, I also make them in fun shaped ice cube trays :)  My baby loves the stars!

One variety is what we call a "Smoothie Pop".  In a blender combine

Smoothie Pops
  • handful of assorted frozen fruit
  • 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt (more or less, to your taste)
  • a splash or 2 of juice (OJ and grape juice work great)
  • 1 banana

Blend it all up, pour into the trays and stick in popsicle sticks, should be firm enough to support the sticks by themselves.  A few hours in the fridge and they're ready to eat!



Another more desert-y tasting variety is the "Frozen Yogurt Popsicles".  Oh my... you can add mini chocolate chips, mini M&Ms, or any kind of diced fruit.  Again...endless possibilities. 
 
 
I put the toppings and the yogurt in a large baggie and snip the corner.
 
 
 Squeeze into the trays, pop in the sticks and freeze. 

I hope you and your family enjoy them!! 

Monday, February 4, 2013

Home made ...better than Carvel... Ice Cream Cake!

Im not one of those people who buys their bithday cakes at the grocery store bakery, or even makes them from a box of cake mix... I love to make it myself!  And not only because its cheaper, but I love baking, and seeing people enjoy food that I created.

 
  Every year my oldest son asks for a Carvel ice cream cake, and reluctatly I buy it because it's so darn good... but this year I opted to make it myself and Oh.  My. Gosh.!!  The bomb! And a fraction of the cost!  Locally a 13X9ish size Carvel cake is $29.99, are you serious?!  Do you know what I could do with $29.99?!  LOL. 
 
So heres my approximately $11 cake, which was even better in my family's opinion. 
 
Keep in mind, the best results will come from making your cake over a 2 day period, or at least a very long day.  Theres layers that require frreezing seperately.  Sounds tedious but its not...promise!!
 
Ingredients:
  • 2 half gallons of ice cream (store brand will do) any 2 flavor varieties...be creative!
  • 1.5 sleeves of Oreos, or bo-bo store brand, with the cream removed. Then crushed, I  put mine in a bread bag and smashed with a rubber mallot, or if you have a coarse chop setting on your blender thats perfect also.
  • 1 bottle Magic Shell
  • whipped cream (for frosting)  NOTE* my kids think they hate whipped cream but they didnt even notice :)
  •  
Steps:
  1. Soften 1 container of ice cream, takes a little while to soften in the center, so once it starts to get liquidy on the outer edges, I put it in a mixing bowl and smoothed it out with a spoon, seemed to speed up the process.  Spread evenly over a parchment paper/wax paper lined cake pan (or lasagna pan)
  2. In seperate bowl combine crushed cookies and entire bottle of Magic Shell (make sure to shake it really good 1st or it comes out gross and unnatural looking..lol) Mix well, do not freeze or itll turn into a giant clump. Sprinkle those delicious lil' crunchies all over the 1st layer of softened ice cream. Gently press them down a teeny bit to get them settled.
  3. FREEZE for a good 2 hours at least, you want the ice cream to harden again and crunchies to harden. 
  4. Soften your next layer of ice cream, spread on top of crunchies, and freeze again.
Wait....wait...wait....  Once frozen solid ( I waited overnight), add your whipped cream frosting.  Freeze again. 
 
Once frosting is hardened, go ahead and decorate!  I make a super simple 4 ingredient vanilla icing, its super fast, cheap and yummy.  Will post link to it. 
 
Additional tips and ideas....
Add crushed candy bars to any plain vanilla or chocolate ice cream to make it even more yummy...way cheaper than buying the expensive ones, (ex: Snickers ice cream)  Works really well if you freeze the candy bar 1st, itll smash into smaller bits that way (good ol' bread bag and hammer technique ;) )
 
Use oversided wax/parchment paper to line your pan so you can easily lift the cake out to serve on a platter or cardboard.