Popsicles

It is HOT where we live right now.  Southeastern USA, in North Carolina, is hot and humid.  The temperature is in the mid-90s (F), but the heat index (real feel) is somewhere over 100!  To help survive the heat when we're not enjoying the air conditioning I make popsicles.  I take "nice cream" and pour it into moulds and a few hours later, they're frozen guilt-free treats!

What you need are:

• 2 over-ripe bananas (for a bare minimum recipe, double/triple as needed)
• 1/2 to 1 tsp vanilla extra
• additional frozen fruit to your taste (we like strawberry here)

What you do is:

• Peel the bananas, cut them into 1" chunks, and put them in the freezer until they're frozen solid.
• When they're frozen, put them in a high-speed blender with the vanilla and blend.  Pulverize it.  Scrape down the sides as needed.  The frozen banana will slowly turn into the consistency of soft-serve ice cream.
• Eat as is, if you like soft-serve ice cream, or put back in the freezer for a while (maybe an hour or two), then enjoy your frozen treat!
• If you want popsicles, when the blender contents become of a pour-able consistency, pour it into popsicle moulds and freeze.  My moulds instruct to freeze for 6-8 hours, but they just need to be solid all the way through.

Notes

Here are some variations I use depending on my mood.  There is no perfect amount to this, as I eyeball nearly every ingredient I add to this.

• Add frozen strawberries (and dates).  Be mindful of your batch of strawberries, though. Some are more tart than others.  The bag we have now is tart, so I add dates to the blender when pulverizing the bananas.
• Add full-fat coconut milk to help the blender break down the frozen fruit.  Adding small amounts of water to help the contents in the blender move helps too.
• Add collagen peptides for a little extra protein.

Both my children and I love these, and the cold tasties rarely last more than 24 hours in our freezer.  

It's challenging getting both kids to look up and smile at the same time, especially when distracted by popsicles!