Healthy Treats

Found a new popsicle recipe that is probably the best we've had so far:

Blackberry, Honey and Yogurt Pops from Bon Appetit magazine!

A co-worker subscribes to Bon Appetit and passes the magazines along when she's finished. I've copied a handful of appealing recipes, but most are tailored to a more gourmet palate... which my family does not fancy. ;)

These little pops, however, seemed right up our alley. They have a little more sugar in them than our typical popsicle recipes (maybe that's why we like them so much?), but are also loaded with antioxidants in those oh-so-good-for-you berries. The added yogurt make them slightly creamy and an easy choice for a healthy treat post- (or even pre-!) meal. The kids get so excited when I ask if they'd like dessert first. And I have no problem doing it when the treat is this popsicle!

Good news! You can forgo your arm workout after working this berry puree through a fine sieve to strain the seeds. It definitely requires a little elbow grease!

The sweet and creamy blend ready to pour into molds.

I was able to fill this mold up a second time after we finished these, so the recipe makes quite a bit.

And they were VERY well received! Yum!

On another weeknight, Sophie and I were able to quickly whip up some homemade Graham Crackers from Weelicious using my food processor.

I'd been so anxious to try this recipe! And I've also wanted to invite my little lady into the kitchen with me more often. This was a great recipe for us to tackle on a weeknight because it was super simple. Just dump everything into the food processor in increments, give it a whirl each time (p.s. - buttons and machines are SUPER fun for kids), and then roll it out like cookie dough and cut out shapes for baking!

She loved starting and stopping the food processor.

Adding butter.

Right out of the food processor, the dough is perfectly uniform and easy to manipulate. I LOVE my food processor!!! I shaped the dough into a disc...

...and placed it between two layers (one half at a time) of parchment paper to roll out for cutting.

I had to help her quite a bit with this. She doesn't have quite the arm strength yet.

We just used mini star and heart cutters to make our graham crackers. Don't be mislead... graham "crackers" are actually more of a cookie. This recipe uses part whole wheat flour and isn't super heavy on sugar, but the honey and butter give it a really yummy flavor.

We re-rolled several times to cut out all the dough and then froze half of the cut-outs on parchment lined cookie sheets. After twenty minutes in the freezer, I was able to transfer the frozen shapes to a quart sized freezer bag and now I can just pull them out and bake when we want some more.

Aren't they cute?

I sent some with Will and Craig for their "last day of school picnic" and they ended up sharing a couple with teachers and parents that wanted to try them. Those taste testers thought they resembled gingerbread or some sort of ginger flavor, but there is no ginger at all! And I was pleasantly surprised that Craig LOVES these! He made a point to compliment them several times.

Since I typically have all these ingredients on hand, these will definitely be a staple treat for our house.

It's always fun to try new recipes. And I love including the kids in the preparation. It's not always practical with time, but they sure do love being involved.