One of the many wonderful things about my kids’ school is that the teachers seriously impart to the little ones the importance of recycling. At the beginning of the school year, parents are asked to save any materials from home which could be useful to the kids for building imaginative sculptures or other cool projects. Every Monday I start a special recycling bag in my kitchen specifically for this reason. By Friday — after a week of cooking my heart out for weelicious — that one bag has grown to at least two or three, brimming over with paper towel and toilet paper rolls, milk and egg cartons, glass jars and especially, large yogurt containers.
Speaking of those large yogurt containers, we go through an obscene amount of Greek yogurt in our house. I’m not talking about a couple of containers a week, it’s closer to one a day. Sometimes more. And I buy the big 35 ounce family size tubs because while Mommy’s Greek yogurt consumption is high, Daddy and the kids go through more than their fair share as well. Whether I simply drizzle it with some honey, spoon it over granola or use it to make Veg Wee Dip, Muesli, Baked Nectarines or Strawberry Parfaits, my gang consistently gobbles it up. My hubby even likes to mix it with dijon mustard to create a low-fat dijonnaise replacement.
Greek yogurt is naturally thick and creamy, protein-rich, gluten free, vegetarian, and when you use it to make these frozen yogurt ice pops, down right heavenly. And two ingredients is all the recipe calls for. That’s it. What could be more simple, nutritious, and refreshing all at once?
As for the original point of this post, no matter how much yogurt you go through, don’t throw those containers away. They can be repurposed in countless different ways (and they also make excellent drums)!
Frozen Yogurt Pops
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain greek yogurt (0%, 2% or whole milk work- Fage, Chobin and Stonyfield Farms are my favorite brands)
- 3 tablespoons honey
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix together the yogurt and honey.
- Pour into Dixie cups, place wooden popsicle sticks in the middle and freeze 4-6 hours or until frozen through.
Either of those would work and sounds delicious!
Would it work if fruit was mixed in?
Or what if a whole straberry was “buried” in the middle? Poke the stick through the strawberry, put it in the cup and then fill with yogurt?? Hmmm….
You can really use any type of yogurt you love! I just always have plain yogurt in my fridge and wanted something a little different. Mixing in fruits or fruit purees would be amazing in these!
Curious if you’ve tried it with flavored yogurt. Does it taste odd that way? Blueberry popsicles might sound enticing.
The honey adds sweetness because homemade ice pops loose some of their sweetness during the freezing process. You could use agave instead, or make a simple syrup by dissolving sugar in equal parts water!
Any suggestions for a honey alternative for this? My 9 month old is teething and these would be great for her, but she’s still too young for honey. Suggestions? Does it even need the honey?
Great idea! I’ve got half a can of coconut milk in the fridge right now that I had no clue what to do with. Not enough for rice so I was stumped!
I have this for breakfast (unfrozen) all the time. Thanks for the popcicle idea! Lately I have been mixing coconut milk and pineapple juice for popcicles for the kids. OMG, soooo good. It’s like a little pena colada pop (w/ out the alcohol ; )
Can’t get my family to “acquire” the taste for greek yogurt, but that’s okay – we love the yogurt I make at home with fresh, raw milk from my dairy goats! Definitely agree that home made yogurt tastes so much better than store-bought!
my family was plowing through yogurt as well and as much I as DID recycle all the plastic, I decided to start making my own yogurt. It is even more delicious than store bought and a lot less $ and waste. It is super easy and now we eat even MORE yogurt!
Fage plain 2% is my absolute favorite Greek Yogurt and I’ved tried all the brands out there. I could eat this stuff plain with no added honey. I just finished eating some with fresh blueberries and raspberries. YUM!!
I love when things are this simple! Thanks.
Looks delicious! Definetely will be trying out these both – pops and baked nectarines, yummy!
Me again…looks like Turtle Mountain makes a coconut milk yogurt. Not sure where it is sold, but could be worth a try.
http://sodeliciousdairyfree.com/products/coconut-milk-yogurts/plain
I know when I have tried using soy or almond milk in ice-cream recipes, it did not work so well. Coconut milk might work better. Is there a coconut milk yogurt? No idea. If there is, that may work.
Curious if others have had success with freezing non-dairy yogurt. I tried freezing vanilla Silk yogurt and it didn’t do well. I’d like to try another alternative but don’t want to waste any. Thanks.