Summer Fun Fruit & Veggie Ice Pops

fruit and veggie ice pops

fruit and veggie ice pops

A real food spin on those colorful ice pops from the store or neighborhood ice cream truck!

I grew up on them all. Every color imaginable…if you are an 80’s or 90’s kid, you had a neon colored ice pop in your hands almost every day during the summer, right?! Next time you are at the grocery store, do a quick spin through the frozen section and take a look at the plethora of food dyes and corn syrup used in most ice pops today. Even so called “healthy” ice pops may boast of natural dyes, but can still be loaded with way more sugar than those little bodies need in the hot summer sun.

All the color, none of the junk!

Fortunately, they really aren’t lying when they say that fruits and veggies are the “real rainbow!” You can pull so much color from real food, and still make it taste really good. These colorful ice pops are also loaded with all of the vitamins, minerals, and fiber that the fruit and vegetables offer. Blend in some taste free friendly fat and grass-fed collagen to keep blood sugars in check and fill up hungry bellies, and you have a summer snack that you can feel good about giving the kids everyday – guilt free and full of nutrient dense grow food!

Tips to make momma’s life a bit easier!

So these fruit and veggie ice pops are obviously a little more work than popping a box of store bought ice pops in your cart at the store. I get that. Let me give you some of my real food momma veteran tips for getting these into the freezer without taking up a bunch of time – and without having to be in the kitchen to make them every week.

- Prep day! So if you have a morning where you are already prepping other meals for the week, put the veggies for these pops in the steamer to cook through so they are ready. You can get the popsicles blended up that day and into the freezer too.

- Keep a batch of the cooked veggies in the freezer. I very often buy a couple bunches of beets, bring them home, and steam the right away. Keeping little halves of cooked beets, cooked carrots, etc in the freezer makes adding them to smoothies and popsicles like these much quicker.

- Make a big load of ice pops for the freezer. I’m talking like a couple weeks or so worth! The easiest way I have found to do this is to either use these 10-pop popsicle molds (I have 2 of them so I can make 20 at a time!), or utilize these Zipsicles – which my big kids really love. They are a little harder for my toddlers to use, so if you have really little ones, these popsicle molds for little hands are are perfect for them.

- Make a full batch of a few different flavors. This will not only help you fill up the freezer to last a few weeks, but it also gives the kids some variety, so you don’t have to make a new flavor every week. And you know that little shelf way at the bottom of your freezer door? Keep your popsicles wrapped up and stashed away down there so little hands can reach them and help themselves – and momma can stay in her lawn chair soaking in those rays.

Swaps and options

- The friendly fats (raw milk/coconut milk, egg yolks, yogurt, avo oil, avocado) can be swapped in any of the recipes. I gave 4 different fats for the 4 different flavors to give you an idea of the variety you can provide

- The grassfed collagen is optional if you have it. I love the real food protein it adds to the popsicles, as well as the gut nourishment component. (You can shop for the one I use here, and use my discount code “GENERATION10” at checkout for 10% off!

- I left the raw honey “to taste” in the recipes. If you have older kids used to store bought pops, I’d use a good few heaping tablespoons. If you have babies and toddlers – even younger kids if they aren’t used to super sweetened foods, you can get away with just a couple tablespoons, if any at all. My babies and toddlers would eat these without the honey no problem since the fruit itself is sweet enough. (Please note that babies under 1 should not eat raw honey. I usually just left it fruit sweetened for my teething babies, or you can add a bit of pure maple syrup if you wish.)

- You can thin these popsicle recipes out with some water to make them “stretch” for budget purposes. It won’t be as filling, but if you are just using these as a “tide you over til dinner” type of afternoon snack, it does the trick, and I do it all the time!

So here are some popular ice pop colors with a real food spin!

Simply put all the ingredients into a high powered blender and blend until smooth. Pour them into your ice pop molds, and freeze.

Orange

- 2 cups orange slices (about 3 small/medium oranges)

- 1 large steamed carrot

- 3 pastured egg yolks (raw milk or coconut milk will work here if you don’t have access to good quality eggs)

- 1-2 tbsp grassfed collagen

- Raw honey to taste

Lime Green

- ½ large honeydew melon

- Juice of 4 limes

- ½ avocado

- 1-2 tbsp grassfed collagen

- Raw honey to taste

Grape

- 2 cups purple grapes

- ½ cup steamed purple cabbage (I have used raw cabbage and with a high powered blender it works fine.)

- 2 tbsp avocado oil

- 1-2 tbsp grassfed collagen

- Raw honey to taste

Cherry Red

- 2 cups fresh or frozen cherries (this would also work with strawberries or raspberries for a different flavor!)

- 2-4 tbsp cooked beets (about ½ small beet)

- ½ cup yogurt

- 1-2 tbsp grassfed collagen

- Raw honey to taste

fruit and veggie ice pops

About Renee:

Renee Kohley Renee is a wife and momma of 3, the vision behind Raising Generation Nourished, and the author of Nourished Beginnings, a cookbook focused on nutrient-dense recipes for infants, toddlers and beyond inspired by traditional foods. She is passionate about raising the next generation of kids with a better understanding where their food comes from, and how food affects their bodies. She is committed to teaching others that simple, real food can make positive changes in health and can be done on a tight budget, all while making the kids smile.

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