Helping your Kids to Eat their Veggies ~ Fruit and Veggie Popsicles

So I was nice in my title and said "helping" kids eat their veggies, but let's be honest, we have to trick those kids sometimes....hehe.  My oldest son is actually pretty good about eating vegetables.  He likes them as much as you could expect any kid to like them.  His favorites are broccoli and raw carrots.  But if I were try to make him eat a salad he would not even try at this point.

The other day when I picked him up from daycare he asked me if we could go to the store and buy some popsicles (they have been having them at daycare lately since it has been so hot).  I wasn't really hip on the idea of buying a big bag of popsicles with all of the processed sugar and high fructose corn syrup.  Not to mention that I would probably want to eat them too.  So I thought maybe I could make some homemade ones with fresh squeezed (no sugar added) fruit juice.  Then it came to me...a lot of times when we make fresh juice or smoothies we add in veggies and you can't even taste them because the fruit is so sweet.......it adds a lot of vitamins and minerals.  So the fruit and veggie popsicle idea was born.  My husband tells me this is not a new idea but it was new to me and I am very excited about them and controlling the ingredients for my kids.

The first one I made was GREEN.  Tyce loves "green flavored" things (yes green flavored - gotta love kids).  It was made from 3 apples and a generous hand full of spinach.  I juiced both the apples and spinach in my juicer.  It made a nice green color.  Any color apple will work (I used Fuji, granny smith may be too tart).

The next one I wanted to make was ORANGE.  This is Tyce's second favorite color flavoring.  At least orange is also a flavor and not just a color....hehe.  This one was made from 4 large carrots, 2 oranges, 1 lemon, and just a sliver of ginger root.  All of the ingredients I juiced in my juicer.  It was more than enough for my 4 popsicle molds. (I didn't have any oranges left for my picture - poor planning I know).

Next, after all of the blueberry picking we did I just had to make a blueberry version.  It turned out to be my PURPLE popsicle.  It was made from about 1 1/2 cups of blueberries, a generous handful of kale, orange juice and lemon juice.  I juiced some oranges and lemons together in my juicer.  Then in my food processor I added the whole blueberries, kale, and then the orange/lemon juice until I got the desired consistency for my popsicle.

And last but certainly not least was my RED popsicle (kinda pink really).  This was made from almost a whole carton of strawberries, a generous handful of spinach, the same lemon/orange juice mixture from the purple popsicle, and broccoli.  I juiced the broccoli stem (you get a lot of juice from that). I added the strawberries and spinach to the food processor whole and then added enough lemon/orange juice and all of the broccoli juice to get the desired consistency.

So after freezing all night here is the finished product!!  They turned out very yummy and the kids don't know the difference.  Yay!

The green and orange were more classic popsicle consistencies since they were made of only juice.  The purple and red with the fruit purees were more like a whole fruit bar (almost like a frozen smoothie on a stick).

Enjoy!  Let me know in the comments if you have other ideas/recipes for more!


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