I was wandering through Jo-Ann Fabric’s home decor section the other day and found some cute summer items for children, including little rubber garden boots, plastic gardening tools and bath sponges shaped like frogs and lady bugs. There among the brightly colored products was something that caught my eye: freezer pop molds!

Instantly, I was taken back to my childhood, when Mom used to let us make Popsicles with our clear plastic Tupperware molds. We simply poured Kool-Aid into the molds and let it freeze for a sweet, cold treat later in the day. I don’t have children of my own, but I picked up a set for my friend Kathy, who is trying to make a lot of homemade meals and snacks for her toddler.

It got me thinking: there have got to be recipes out there for better tasting Popsicles than the ones we made as children. After all, this is the era of the foodie, so why shouldn’t our kids be little foodies, too? Some searching around led me to an incredible site called Tipnut and a page there with 50 different freezer pop recipes. With that many recipes, you could almost have a different flavor for every day of summer vacation!

A couple of flavors that caught my eye were mango-orange, banana coconut frozen yogurt, homemade pudding pops or fudgcicles, root beer float pops and cookies ‘n’ cream pops. But there are a heck of a lot of adult-oriented flavors, as well. How do melon-mint-honey-yogurt pops sound? Maple mocha? Spiked watermelon? Apple cider and rosemary ice pops? Mojito pops?

All I can say is, I hope I can still find Popsicle molds, because I should have bought a set for myself, as well! However, here’s a cool trick I learned if you don’t have plastic molds: use 5 oz. paper cups and wooden craft sticks. After you’ve poured the liquid into the cups, cover each one with a piece of tin foil, cut a slit in the center just big enough for the craft stick, and insert the stick. That’ll keep the stick in place and keep stuff from floating into your freezer pops.

Here is the link to this fabulous array of Popsicle recipes. I’m going to share a recipe for orange-banana pops below.

Orange-Banana Smoothie Pops
Makes 6 pops

1 (7 oz.) container plain Greek yogurt
2/3 cup thawed orange juice concentrate
2 large bananas
Zest of one lime
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

1. Puree all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

2. Pour into six 3 oz. molds and freeze until solid, about 4 hours.

3. To release pops, dip each one into hot water until it loosens, and then remove. If using paper cups, peel away paper.

Source: Tipnut.com