Homemade Popsicles

A memory I have from growing up is making homemade popsicles.  Our family had a couple of different popsicle molds that we used to make them.  They were sturdy plastic, reusable, and worked well.  I think we mostly filled them with Kool-aid and froze them. 

I've bought one or two popsicle molds from stores over the years and they've always been quite the disappointment--they're flimsy and they leak and they're just all-around too cheap for words.  I finally just threw them away so they wouldn't clutter up my kitchen.

Then, I discovered that there are actually well-made popsicle molds out there.  {Yes, I know you can make popsicles in small paper cups and use craft sticks--that's a good way to go but I want something that I can use over and over.}

I finally settled on Tovolo Groovy Ice Pop Molds, set of 6 and ordered a couple of sets from Amazon.com.  They cost a bit more than the cheap-y plastic things you can get at the grocery store, but they are so much nicer.  There are a lot of different shapes and sizes available from that maker.  These ones are large and hold a bit less than 1/2 cup of liquid (the reviews caution that the size might be too big for a small child to eat in one sitting, but my kids don't usually have that problem). 

These specific ice pop molds take up a bit of space in the freezer, but once they're frozen you can take them out of the holder and store them individually.  Anyway...enough of that product recommendation.  :)  There are several different options available in the stores--you may want to look at a specialty kitchen store for a better-made version.

So...we've made a few different kinds of frozen treats with these in the last few years since we've had them. Recently we tried it with some day-old root beer.  Supposedly it works well to use flat soda to make frozen treats.  This still had some carbonation so the finished popsicles had frozen bubbles in them.  :)

this one looks huge--it really isn't too large in real life!

We've also made popsicles with juice, Kool-aid, and leftover smoothies.  I really like to do this with my son's fruit and soy milk smoothies--this gives him a non-dairy frozen treat to eat when the rest of us eat ice cream.  It's great to be able to make some inexpensive all-fruit pops or be able to control the ingredients in your frozen treats. 

For some more inspiration you may also want to check out the Frozen Snack post on Nurture Mama.