Tag: strawberries

Memorial Day Treat

Happy Memorial Day to all! We did a short road trip (and by short I mean it’s supposed to be relatively short but with two toddlers and a 7-month-old it was very long and miserable being in the car that long) to Pennsylvania for Memorial Day weekend. But we kicked off the weekend at home, Friday, and I made a beautiful, yummy treat for the kids.

It has been SUPER hot here the last few days so it felt like the perfect time to bust out my popsicle molds and make some low-sugar, refreshing, healthy, yummy ice pops for the kids (ok…for me and the hubs, too! 😉 ). I really love making these because the kids think they are pulling one over on us by getting their way with an ice pop and I think I’m pulling one over on them by feeding them basically a frozen healthy smoothie 🙂

There are SO many ways you can make ice pops. Some people just pour juice into the molds but for me, that is far too much sugar. If you’ve been reading my blogs, you all know by now that we have been trying to reduce our sugar intake and that even one glass of juice will put your kids over their daily recommended sugar allowance (according to the WHO). So, instead of using juice, I use fresh fruit, a little bit of water, and my special ingredient–creme fraiche! SO EASY. And beautiful. And hits the spot on a 90 degree day!

Here’s my recipe and some photos to go along with it…

The first batch I made was orange/strawberry. Obviously, wash the strawberries and cut off the green tops. Then I quartered mine. I like to have chunks–albeit, small chunks–of fruit in the finished popsicle. Peel and separate your orange in slices. I recommend peeling all the membranes off the individual orange slices so you don’t have to “chew” your popsicle when it comes out. 😉 Below you’ll see my ingredients ready to go into the blender.

If you’ve been reading my blogs you’ll also know that I don’t measure but I eyeball things. So…this is how much fruit I thought I needed for about 10 ounces of liquid. I added probably about 2 tablespoons of creme fraiche and then a little water (maybe 2 ounces? You can play with it–you won’t do it wrong and you will have lots of fruit flavor unless you put waaaaay too much water in!).

After blending, this is what I had…and I poured it into the popsicle molds 🙂

I actually left mine in the freezer overnight because the kids didn’t know about them (I made them thursday and we ate them Friday) but these should freeze in a couple of hours or so.  My second batch was strawberry/blueberry/banana. The first photo is the orange/strawberry and the second photo is the strawberry/blueberry/banana.

I cannot even tell you how much of a hit both of these were. Especially the second batch–my kids LOVE bananas. You can use any type of fruit that you think will go great with the creme fraiche. Another way to do it is to use plain yogurt instead of the creme fraiche–don’t use yogurt with added sugar, though!!!! Be creative…my next batch will be peaches and cream 😉 Whatever you choose, enjoy! And a massive thank you to all the service men and women out there who have dedicated and given their lives for our freedoms ❤

Short and Sweet…

So all this talk about reducing sugar and eating super foods and having a healthy lifestyle…it doesn’t mean you can’t indulge once in a while. The key word here is balance. One thing I love to make to satisfy my family’s sweet tooth is homemade whipped cream. It is super indulgent, I can control the amount of sugar I’m adding, and it goes perfectly with all kinds of fruits and berries (and as I’m sure you know, many berries are super foods!).

I like to add real vanilla bean paste to my homemade whipped cream to make it extra decadent. I do use white, refined sugar, but just a bit. We’re used to less sugar so a little bit goes a long way. That is one thing I’ve noticed with reducing or detoxing sugar–after your body adjusts, a tiny bit of sweetness goes a LONG way. Which is great! Because you can still indulge once in a while and not go overboard doing it.

We eat dairy in this house so if you are vegan, you’ll have to skip this one (sorry!). Maybe one day I will try one of these recipes for vegan whipped coconut cream, but for today I’m sharing my dairy whipped cream!

About those berries…ever hear of the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale? It’s a lab test that quantifies the capacity of antioxidants in a food. Why should you care? Because the better a food protects its “good stuff”, the more of that said “good stuff” your body will be able to absorb! Learn more here. I added blueberries (ORAC: 4,669), black berries (ORAC: 19,220), strawberries, and the next night, peaches to our whipped cream 🙂 What will you add? Pomegranate seeds, red raspberries, goji berries (ORAC: 3,290), oranges, bananas, some cinnamon (ORAC: 131,420) on top, some nuts for a little added protein? Endless possibilities, people! Which is why you can make this one a regular in your menu plans and just rotate the toppings 🙂 Kiddos love it! Want to know all the ORAC values of the above listed toppings? You can find that info here. Without further ado…

Homemade Whipped Cream

1 Pint Heavy Whipping Cream

Vanilla Bean Paste (one bean)

1-2 Tablespoons white sugar to taste

Berries, peaches, other fruits, nuts, coffee, black tea, whatever else you’d like to eat this with! 🙂

This makes a lot of whipped cream so you might want to half it if your family is less than four people 😉

You’ll need a whisk head like this for your mixer:

IMG_4632

If you’ve never worked with vanilla beans, you will want to cut the bean in half, then you slice the bean down the middle. Open it up so you can see the paste in the middle. And then scrape the paste out of the bean. You will add this directly to the bowl just like this. So, leave it on your knife and set it aside.

Ok…now…

Add the whipping cream, vanilla bean paste, and sugar to your mixing bowl. Mix on high (with your whisk head) until the cream starts to look fluffy and forms peaks. Scrape the sides of the bowl and put the cream in the fridge to set (about 20 minutes or so). Add your other goodies and enjoy! Keep the whipped cream in the fridge. For best storage, I like to keep it right in my stainless steel mixing bowl so it stays nice and evenly chilled!