Yogurt Pops

Next in our frozen series I have for you a couple of frozen yogurt recipes 🙂 This first one comes from one of my most favorite recent discoveries. A man after my own heart, Matt Kadey. I stumbled onto his blog one day (Muffin Tin Mania) to find that not only does he love cookin up stuff in muffin tins but he is a Registered dietitian, freelance magazine nutrition writer and recipe developer and as if that isn’t enough he has written a book called “Muffin Tin Chef: 101 Savory Snacks, Adorable Appetizers, Enticing Entrees and Delicious Desserts” I was definitely seeing stars after reading all that! I am SO going out to pick up this book 😉 Here is his recipe for Raspberry Yogurt Pops and of course you’ll want to visit his blog for more recipes, I know I will be, lol! Also note you can substitute other fruits in this recipe if you’re not a raspberry fan, as always you can switch it up and make it to your liking so get creative and add what YOU like!

 

Raspberry Yogurt Pops

1 cup orange juice

1 cup plain, low-fat yogurt

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 tablespoons honey

Place all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.

Divide mixture among12 medium sized or 24 mini sized muffin cups and cover with aluminum foil. Using a sharp knife, make small slits in the foil in the middle of each filled muffin cup and slide in popsicle sticks. (This holds the sticks in place as the mixture freezes). Place in freezer and freeze until solid.

Unmold popsicles and place in a zip-top bag for storage in the freezer. If you have trouble unmolding the frozen cups, try placing the bottom of the muffin tray in warm water, being careful not to thaw the contents.

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You know I like to give you options so here is a another yogurt pop recipe that you can pour into your muffin tins and freeze 🙂 This one comes from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution @ Jamie Oliver.com and it is delish!!!

Jamie Oliver’s Yogurt Pops

2 small ripe bananas
6 ounces frozen strawberries or 1 cup frozen blueberries
2 cups non-fat plain yogurt
2 tablespoons honey

Directions

Peel and slice your banana and put it into a food processor or blender with the
frozen berries, yogurt and honey. Whiz it up on a low setting until really smooth.

Now Jamie makes his in paper cups or plastic molds… I guess he hasn’t discovered the magic of the muffin tin yet, lol! So here’s where I change it up… Divide the mixture among the muffin cups in your muffin tin filling them almost all the way to the top.

Place the pops in the freezer for 10 minutes, then gently poke a popsicle stick into
the center of each one. Place back in the freezer for at least 3 hours, or until frozen
solid.

Jamie’s Tips (and my 2 cents)

Feel free to mix things up a bit and use some different fruit along with the bananas – berries are especially good. Raspberries are really tasty and you can use them here, but I tend to stay away from them because of the seeds. (Funny he says that, considering I just gave you a raspberry recipe above, but see even he suggests getting creative with your ingredients!)

This recipe uses frozen fruit which is great as it will have been picked while it’s at its best and frozen in time to keep in as many of the vitamins and minerals as possible. Have a search in your local store to see what frozen fruit you can get your hands on and experiment with different flavor combinations until you find your favorite. (I like to use frozen fruit as well because you can always have it on hand and not have to worry about it going bad before you get to it!)

And there you have it something else to freeze in your muffin tins! Wonder what I’ll think of next? I bet I can come up with at least a couple more 🙂 Stay tuned…

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