Review summary: A beautiful book that will draw you and your family into the wonderful, and often healthy, world of ice pops.
Title: Ice Pop Joy
Cost: Retails at $18.95, but only about $13 on Amazon.
From the publisher:
“Let’s face it, all kids (and plenty of grown ups) love ice pops, but not all kids love healthy foods. This collection of wholesome and heavenly ice pop recipes are cutting-edge nutritious and delicious for the whole family…
You can indulge in tasty sweet, and juicy ice pops without consuming refined sugar and fake sweeteners. Using fresh, seasonal fruits; sweet, nutritious vegetables (yes! vegetables); protein packed whole foods; and a multitude of other exquisite ingredients, Ice Pop Joy contains a wide variety of recipes for scrumptious frozen treats any time of the year.”
What’s covered in Ice Pop Joy:
Daulter offers some quick words about why your family should eat organic, fresh and healthy fare. This book is about ice pops, not a health text, so she doesn’t dwell on these topics, but does offer useful fast info.
Other topics covered in the book include…
- Tips for getting your kids to eat healthy.
- Ice pop practicalities – finding equipment, non-toxic ice pop molds and freezing tips.
- Sweeteners to use for ice pops.
- Ice pop recipes.
What I liked about Ice Pop Joy:
As in Daulter’s last book, Organically Raised: Conscious Cooking for Babies and Toddlers, the food photography takes center stage, this time with gorgeous images by Alexandra DeFurio. For people who aren’t at all interested in ice pops, you will be after a quick peek though this book. The beautiful images really draw you in.
- I loved the section on how to get kids to eat healthy. One of my pet peeves is when experts tell parents to hide veggies or other healthy foods from kids. You might expect Daulter to do this; after all she’s technically smooshing veggies into icy popsicles. However, she recommends showing the kids exactly what you’re doing. She notes, “Don’t hide the ingredients from them. Let them see that you’re making the pops out of and talk about ingredients with your children.” I 100% agree. Her other tips about “starting over” with healthy foods for your kids are good as well.
- In my review for Organically Raised, I complained that Daulter didn’t explain the sweeteners very well. In Ice Pop Joy Daulter goes over three natural sweeteners, but this time in a little more detail, which is nice if you happen to be a newbie to natural sweeteners.
- There are 7 different ice pop chapters – pure fruit, veggie, yogurt, tofu, herbal, chocolate and specialty. Each chapter starts off with a little forward about the main ingredients. For example, the herbal pop chapter kicks off with herbal tea basics, where to get herbal tea, how to buy and store it and some other little tidbits. Daulter does this for each chapter, which is a nice touch.
- There’s a nice page of resources at the end, with info on where to get molds, chocolate and other items used for pops.
- Ice pop taste test – so far we’ve made Pure Sunshine Organic Ice Pops and Soy Joy (a chocolate mint pop). Both pop recipes were deemed yummy at my house, and we want to try a bunch more – my two wish list pops are lavender flower and a refresher pop (made with watermelon). Having been making ice pops for a decade+ now, I can tell you that while we haven’t sampled all the recipes in Ice Pop Joy, most appear to be well thought out and are probably good.
Check out the gorgeous gallery of colorful (and uniquely flavorful) ice pops below. Once you see these amazing treats, it’ll be tough to resist Ice Pop Joy.
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
laWhat could be improved in Ice Pop Joy:
- The publisher hasn’t made Ice Pop Joy available on kindle (yet).
- Daulter recommends wooden sticks for pops, as they, “Lend an authentic and natural look to the finished pop.” Of course, I say you should go with a reusable mold, that comes with a reusable stick. Sure wooden sticks aren’t a huge deal if one kid uses them, but times all those sticks by all the kids in the world, and you’re looking at massive stick waste.
- One major perk of homemade ice pops is cost efficiency. I didn’t sit down with a calculator, but I’m guessing that Daulter’s recipes run a bit on the expensive side, so far as homemade ice pops go. Not all of them are more costly though – some will likely save you money over store bought.
- I really disliked the references at the end. If you wanted to link to more information about healthy foods, BPA and other issues, there are plenty of amazing eco-experts and green bloggers online, yet Daulter prints links to places like eHow and Associated Content – really? Very bad choices for many of the refs in my opinion.
- From what I can tell, the book isn’t printed on recycled paper. Daulter’s not actually touting this as an “eco-book” but still, her website, Conscious Family Living practically screams green living, and I’d guess Daulter considers herself an eco-advocate, so it would rock if this book was printed on recycled content paper.
- The book was printed and bound in China, meaning, it came a long way to get here.
Overall score:
4.5 out of 5 little trees!
I would have given this book a 4, due to the fact that it wasn’t printed on recycled paper, but I liked Ice Pop Joy more than Daulter’s other book, Organically Raised, which bumped it up a bit. I’m guessing I’ll use it more often.
This book mainly got 4.5 trees though, because while Ice Pop Joy had a few cons, homemade ice pops are one of the most eco-friendly treats you can invest in making for your kids, and it makes sense to have a great ice pop book on your bookshelf.
Store bought pops waste so many resources and a book like this will help you cut your store bought ice pop habit down to zero. Lastly, the recipes are fun and unique and the book itself is gorgeous, which should inspire you to create some ice pop ideas of your own too.
Overall - I recommend Ice Pop Joy as a book you buy vs. check out at the library, because I think you’ll use it again and again.
Learn more about Ice Pop Joy:
- Buy the book – Ice Pop Joy
- Visit the Ice Pop Joy website
- Join Ice Pop Joy on Facebook
- Try Pure Sunshine Organic Ice Pops from Ice Pop Joy
- See some sample recipes from Ice Pop Joy
- Visit the author’s website Conscious Family Living
[ALL IMAGES: Courtesy of and ©Anni Daulter & Sellers Publishing Inc. Not to be used without permission.]
See my green product rating system and green product rating criteria or read more green product reviews.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Looks like a sweet book, literally. Think I’m more into smoothies this year though, but I apparently need to buy a blender for that.