Trop Pops

Although I try to be a little conscious of when fruits and veggies are actually in their natural season, sometimes it's just too easy to listen to an end-of-season-scraggler calling my name from the grocery store shelves... which is how I ended up with this very, very green pineapple on my counter.

At first I was nervous it wouldn't ripen, how could one expect it too when it's SO green?

Less than two days later I found myself, for once, feeling lucky to live on the top floor of a pre-war building as I watched gold creep up the spikey clusters and after watching a pineapple ripen with an unnatural speed I knew there was one thing that part of this pineapple absolutely had to be used for - popsicles!

Sticking with the tropical theme, I grabbed some coconut flakes and water, some leftover homemade candied ginger, and some similarly ripening bananas, and voila - Trop Pops were born.

Happy Melting!

Trop Pops

Ingredients

• 2 bananas, very ripe
• 1/2 c pineapple, frozen
• 1/4 c candied ginger, chopped
• 1/4 t coconut flakes, unsweetened
• 1/2 c coconut water (such as Vita Coco)

Combine

1. Slice the bananas, place them in a plastic bag, and freeze overnight.
2. Toss the bananas into the bowl of a food processor and blend on high speed until they are the size of small crumbs.
3. Add in the pineapple, candied ginger, and coconut, and blend on medium speed for 30 seconds to a minute until they are well incorporated in the mixture.
4. Add in the coconut water and blend again for one minute until smooth.
5. Spoon the mix into a popsicle mold and freeze overnight.
6. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cherry Pops

Ah summer, the time of year in which we enter a delicious sun-kissed face-off of ice cream cone handed life in a bathing suit; a rough season for the gym-going, ice-cream loving people of the world.

Of course we would love to subsist off of ice cream in the summer but, understandably, we don't love negating our 5 am workout sessions.  Time to jump on the knock-off-ice-cream-that's-actually-just-sorbet bandwagon!

I made my first batch last year in the form of Fudgey Fro-nana Pops that are absolutely to die for. You many never need another recipe ever again, but if you also feel the need to experiment try whipping up some Monkey Pops or a batch of these Cherry Buried Chocolate Pops.  Note that these still contain a banana to keep the consistency like ice cream but if you're one of those banana haters you can still enjoy the recipe by substituting extra cherries and a little bit of Greek yogurt instead!

Cherry Buried Chocolate Pops

Ingredients

• 1 medium, very ripe banana
• 2 c frozen cherries
• Small handful of chocolate chips
• Small handful of walnuts
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 c vanilla almond milk

Combine

1. Slice the banana and freeze it overnight.
2. Using a food processor, blend the frozen banana pieces on high speed until they are very small crumbs, similar to a mince.
3. Add the frozen cherries and blend for 1 minute on high speed.
4. Add the walnuts and chocolate chips and blend for 1 minute on medium speed.
5. Add the vanilla extract and almond milk and blend again until well combined.
6. Spoon the mixture into a popsicle mold and freeze overnight.
7. Enjoy!

Mango Margarita Pops

Repetitive heat waves in combination with the blanket of humidity suffocating Massachusetts have left me freezing a new popsicle each week in hopes of chilling myself from the inside out.

Although only a momentary relief from the sticky heat, these fruity but not overly-sweet pops are a summertime must.

Leave out the coconut milk for a more icy pop and enjoy in front of a fan on full blast for increased deliciousness.

Mango Margarita Pops

(inspired by Coco's Well)

Ingredients (4 pops)

• 1 large ripe mango, skinned and chopped
• 1/2 a lime, juiced and zested
• 2+ T full fat coconut milk

Optional

• a small pinch of salt

Combine

1. Dump the mango, lime juice, lime zest, and salt in a food processor.
2. Add 2 T of coconut milk and puree until smooth.
3. If chunks remain in your mixture add a little more coconut milk and puree again.
4. Fill popsicle mold with puree and freeze until solid.
5. Enjoy!