Peanut Butter & Jam Popsicles

Last week, I suddenly jumped from 99 followers to 111!!! Whoa! Needless to say, I am feeling the love!!! THANK YOU! And I wanted to share the love by featuring a great celebration post with an amazing recipe. Then, plans were changed, because drama happened yesterday. Before I tell you what, just gonna start by: everyone is OK!!!

We were at the park with my 2 kids, a couple of friends and their 3 kids. I was watching the kids go up and down the slide, and my daughter, although she climbed that ladder a billion time before with no problems, this time, she fell off from the top, cartwheel in the air, head first on the floor. It was SCARY! STOP. I swear my heart stopped for 2 seconds!

While I was checking her for broken limbs, my friend, looking petrified, simple observed: “OMG, she is bleeding from her head!”. Needless to say, even though at that point I was pretty sure all the limbs were intact, 1st reaction was “HOSPITAL”! So we spent 3 hours there, to finally find out that she was perfectly fine, apart from a big scratch on her head, that didn’t required any stitches, but “skin glue” (1st time I see that, and it looks exactly like super glue! Crazy stuff!!!). Anyway, a lot of emotions, I guess the kind of stuff that every parent has to deal with at some point or another. But it is the 2nd time in 8 months that she has opened her head, so getting a bit worried that we have a little stunt on our hands here! And let me tell you, that was my 1st major accident in a public place, and the pressure is ON! You feel all gazes on you and it’s like having super powers and being able to read people’s thinking: “she wasn’t even watching her kind” “how do you let a little one going up on her own” “some people shouldn’t have kids”… anyway, it was all in my head, but I still dreamed about been given the worst mother of the playground award!!!

So because of all that adventure, no cooking happened yesterday, and no good blogging was going to happen either due to overall stress and exhaustion from the day!!!! So instead of celebrating the success of the blog, I will just share with you a very simple and really great for recipe for kids (and anyone that like ice-cream, so everyone I assume). A healthy super easy popsicle, that makes you feel like the million buck mama rather than the dumb one who left her toddler on a ladder risking her life…

Enough of that, let’s spoil them with goodness, because kids don’t care, all they want is to have fun and eat yummy desserts!!!

For a few occasions already, I have made popsicles with a banana base, and the kids LOVE it, the parents like it because it’s home made, easy and pretty healthy, and it tastes amazing!

Just a note, because I’ve been asked already; it is not necessary to freeze the bananas before, but, do it if you want to keep nice swirls of nut butter, jam, or chocolate shaves. If your bananas are at room temperature, everything will kind of melt and blend together. Still good, but not as pretty! And then let your imagination go wild with customized ingredients! Once you have the banana base, go nuts with ideas! I would love to find out what you have tried, feel free to share! I am sharing with you here 2 versions that we have tried so far.

Recipe inspired and modified from “Peanut Butter, Jam, & Banana Soft Serve Popsicles” from the blog: Oh She Glows

Bon appetit, and have fun with your kids

Ingredients:

2 medium/large bananas, ripped, peeled and frozen
2 T plain or vanilla yogurt (or non dairy milk)
2 T natural peanut butter (or regular) + 1 more T for swirling (optional)
2 T raspberry or strawberry jam, for swirling in
1/2 oz dark chocolate, shaved (optional)

Another version I did with:

2 medium/large bananas, ripped, peeled and frozen
2 T Nesquik chocolate powder
2 T Nutella + 1 more T for swirling (optional)
2 T milk
2 T coconut cream powder
1/2 oz dark chocolate, shaved (optional)

Instructions:

In a food processor, add chopped frozen bananas along with yogurt and PB. Whirl in the processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Remove bowl from base and stir in the jam and another tablespoon of peanut butter (optional) leaving thick ribbons of jam and PB throughout the soft serve. Do not overmix. Then add the shaved chocolate (optional)
Spoon the soft serve into popsicle molds. Push the mixture all the way to the bottom with the end of a spoon. Freeze for at least 6-8 hours, or overnight. Run hot water over the mold to help the popsicle slide out.

For the easy to e-mail, share and print recipe, visit my Recipage.