Juice Popsicles

Summer has finally arrived! It seemed to take some time here in Montana to get the sun to come out every day this year. Having a couple kids of my own along with my day care kiddos, I'm always looking for snacks that are kid friendly. My kids LOVE Otter Pops (who doesn't?) but they're not exactly the healthiest popsicle option out there. I decided to make my own popsicles using what I had at home. Here's what I did:

Gather a bunch of paper dixie cups. These are the small bathroom sized cups. Fill the cups half way with apple juice. Use whatever kind of juice you have on hand. Mine was plain ol' 100% apple juice, no sugar added. Cut some little squares of aluminum foil to cover the tops of the dixie cups. Poke a wooden popsicle stick through the aluminum foil so it stands straight up. Why the aluminum foil? You can skip this step if you want to partially freeze the juice and then put the wooden sticks in them. I just get too busy to remember to put the sticks in and then they're frozen. The aluminum foil helps the sticks stand close to straight in the popsicle and you can recycle it when they're frozen.

I put the prepped popsicles onto a little pizza pan (use what you have) and popped them into the freezer. It's a good idea to let them freeze overnight to make sure they're good and solid. When you're ready, just take one out, tear off the dixie cup (that's why I suggest paper) and voila! you have a juice popsicle. My kids loved them.

You can use whatever you want for the juice. Be creative. There are lots of ideas on Pinterest for healthy popsicles. I simply chose to use the paper cup method because I don't have popsicle molds. My mom used to have these great molds when we were kids from Tupperware. How I wish those were still around. Enjoy the sunshine!!