I love the sounds of summer- children laughing, birds chirping, sprinklers spraying, lawn mowers mowing, but one sound that I absolutely dread is the irritating music from the ice cream truck. It’s not just because the songs are annoying and get stuck in my head when I don’t want them to (although I do really hate that), it’s mostly because the kids always come running to me asking if they can buy something. I cringe at spending $4 each on popsicles that are partially melted and full of food colouring and sugar. Now I always make sure that my freezer is well-stocked with homemade frozen treats so I can offer them to my boys as a healthy alternative when the ice cream truck appears.

I’ve compiled some of our favourites so far from this summer. My kids like freezies a lot, so I bought a few packages of Zipzicles from Amazon.com so we could make our own freezies. Genius!  My boys and my niece were eager to try them. I set out a bunch of fruit on the counter, like watermelon, pineapple, bananas, strawberries and blueberries. I used the single serve cups from my Ninja blender so that each kid could customize their own batch of freezies.

We made all sorts of combinations (my favourite was watermelon-blueberry- Bennett’s creation). Basically it was just straight pureed fruit, or sometimes I had to add a bit of juice in order to get the fruit to blend easier. Orange juice and pineapple was very nice. We poured the mixtures into the Zipzicle bags using a small funnel or a turkey baster, then placed them upright in cups in the freezer. The kids had such a hard time waiting for the freezies to set. They kept checking the freezer every hour or so, which just let out the cold air and made it take even longer. Eventually they were ready to eat and the kids couldn’t get enough of them.

I tried a few of my own recipes later. These make pretty small portions (only about 3 or 4 freezies per recipe) so feel free to double or triple the recipes if you want more:

Triple Berry Freezies: I heated up a bowl of blueberries, strawberries, blackberries (about a cup of each). After they cooled, I blended them up with a couple tablespoons of honey. You can adjust the sweetness to taste. Pour into Zipzicle molds and freeze upright.

 

Pineapple Banana Orange Freezies: Blend 1 cup of chopped pineapple, 1 banana, 1 cup of orange juice. Pour into Zipzicle bags and freeze upright.

These recipes can be used for popsicles as well. I love using banana in popsicles and freezies because it prevents them from being too hard and icy. You can also use full fat coconut milk or yogurt to help keep your popsicles a little softer and creamier.

Let me tell you something else I’ve learned…Nutella is amazing in popsicles!

Banana, Nutella and Yogurt Popsicles: Mix together 1 cup of mashed banana, 1 cup of Greek yogurt, 3 tbsp Nutella. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

I’ve also tried this without the yogurt, just mashed banana with a tablespoon of Nutella per banana. Yum!

Here’s another great idea: put Nutella in the center of a popsicle.

Strawberry Coconut Popsicles with Nutella Center: Blend equal parts sliced strawberries and coconut milk (use full-fat for a better consistency). Pour popsicle molds half-full, then drop a spoonful of Nutella into each one. Fill up the remaining half of the mold with the rest of the strawberry-coconut milk mix. Freeze and enjoy your chocolate surprise!

Here are my boys enjoying their healthy homemade freezies. Now when they hear the ice cream truck, they run to the freezer instead.

Check out the Zipzicle website for more great ideas. I really want to try the Chia Seed Blueberry ones.

What’s your favourite popsicle/freezie recipe?

This is not a sponsored post, but does contain affiliate links to Amazon.com. All opinions are my own.