The best and worst news these days is that we have tons of information about the food we eat that wasn’t around 30 years ago. It’s easier than ever to educate yourself about what to feed yourself and your kids. The bad part is that you may scare yourself when you realize what you’ve been putting in your own body over the years. I can’t even imagine how much culinary poison I consumed in my day, but my hope is that armed with knowledge and a love of food, my kids won’t make the same mistakes I did. I believe it’s a huge responsibility for myself and other parents to make sure we give our kids healthy foods free of additives and chemicals that are potentially going to be toxic in their little bodies — like artificial food dyes. The challenge for us is that kids respond strongly to bright colors and so many unhealthy foods in the marketplace target our children by dyeing their products colors that can only be created in a lab. I recently read an article on Healthy Child, Healthy World’s website called “Just Say No To Blue, Green, Red and Yellow” that points out a lot of the common and dangerous coloring food producers use. I’m not saying that it’s always easy, but avoiding food colors and dyes can be easier then you think.
My kids love popsicles (what kid doesn’t), so one simple thing I do is make these vivid Mango Pops. Not only are they a naturally vibrant orange-yellow that rivals any artificially colored popsicle, but they’re also sweet, delicious and perfect during the summer heat. My kids enjoy making them almost as much as they love eating them. Instead of buying a box of popsicles made with additives that you probably can’t even pronounce, have your kids help you whip up a batch of these mango pops. You’ll know you’re doing their bodies good and give yourself some peace of mind. Color yourself impressed!
Mango Pops
Ingredients
- 2 mangoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 Cup rice milk
- 2 tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until pureed.
- Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.
- Serve.
Regular milk whether it be Homo, Skim or non-fat is really not good for your body. It is just plain fat and you get more calcium from juicing or eating leafy greens than milk. You can get Vitamin D by just going out in the sun everyday for about 30 mins. Just enough to not get sunburned. Read about it here http://www.milksucks.com (sounds a little harsh, I know)
or try this site for info on what milk really does to your body http://www.notmilk.com
I like the rice milk because of its flavor and it’s what our family prefers but you can use any kind of milk 🙂
Could you use regular homo milk? Or skim?
Not sure the reasoning behind rice milk …
Thanks!
Popsicles are the best summer time treat!
My son and I have been making his popsicles all summer long – in the same rocket ship molds that you have!
I make them with 100% juice, fruit purees, and even with some leftover blueberry agua fresca.
I only have a box of mini freezies so that I can hand them out to the neighbourhood kids that play outside with DS.
You would have to use some type of sweetener because when you freeze fruits or in this case the mango pops, there is a loss of flavor after you freeze them – they would just have a hint of mango. Because they are so cold, the flavors don’t come out so you need the sweetener to bring out the flavors. We tested this recipe twice and we had to add more honey because there was no sweetness or any taste to the pops with our first try. You can definitely use yogurt, I’m sure the texture would be a little different. Let me know how what you do! 🙂
Sounds delicious! I’m going to try it without the honey and substitute plain yogurt for the rice milk. Think it’ll work?
Same thing happened to me with my food processor, they can’t really hold liquids. I actually have a Vita-Mix but any type of blender would be fine. The Vita-Mix is used in professional kitchens.
What kind of blender do you use? I have a food processor, but its not meant to hold a lot of liquid…it leaks out everywhere whenever I try.
The agave would be the same amount as the honey used and almond milk is fine! 🙂 let me know how they turn out!
I too would love to use agave instead (since my baby isn’t one yet). I just don’t know if it’s the same amount used TBSP for TBSP. What about using almond milk instead of rice milk?
http://astore.amazon.com/weelicious-20/detail/B000G34F1Q 🙂
You can check in the Weelicious Cooking gear section (see the about us drop down menu above). They are sold on Amazon with several cool styles. I’ve been to buy some myself. 🙂
where can I find the bomb pop style molds?
Yes you can 🙂
can you use agave syrup instead of honey?