We rarely buy soda. It’s expensive and doesn’t serve any real nutritional purposes. That said, once in a while, Cedar will ask for some. He doesn’t eat fast food, doesn’t much like cake or cookies and usually drinks water, juice or milk, so I don’t feel terrible if he has an occasional soda. Also, soda gives us a good excuse to make soda popsicles.

Cedar's Grapefruit Gratitude Pops

Soda popsicles are a rare treat around here. One, because as noted above, we don’t normally buy soda. Two, usually I err on the side of making 100% healthy ice pops, because the kids go through them like mad and I don’t want them licking down soda anymore than I want them drinking it. However, if you use soda in small amounts, you can make some super amazing sparkling pops for a special treat or party.

Why add soda pop to popsicles?

• Soda in an ice pop adds a nice bubbly flavor. You can actually taste the carbonation, which results in a really nice, light and airy pop.  Bonus, ice pops made with soda tend to pop right out of their molds easily.

• Soda can accent the right ingredients nicely.

• Fun for kids – and adults. If you normally make 100% healthy ice pops, the occasional treat ice pop can keep kids’ sweet tooth happy without doing as much damage as say, an entire bottle of soda or some other high calorie treat.

• Soda pop ice pops are perfect birthday party fare.

How bad is the soda aspect?

Soda is not a healthy drink for kids and most drink way too much of it. In the case of ice pops you use very little soda as compared to other ingredients. For example, the other day we made a batch of homemade ice pops with soda (recipe below) and we used less than one can of soda, combined with other, more nutritionally sound ingredients, and ended up with about 8 ice pops. One can of soda per 8-10 treats is not bad.

You can make ice pops with soda a bit better for kids by skipping name brand soda. For my son, I stick to soda choices like Santa Cruz Organic Sparkling Soda, which is USDA organic, has zero artificial ingredients and no high fructose corn syrup. Cedar also likes Hansen’s Cane Soda, made with cane sugar not high fructose corn syrup and no preservatives. Basically if you’re going to buy soda for a treat look for a version without high fructose corn syrup and with no artificial colors or flavors. For example, real root beer is clear, not brown.

Make sure it’s really a treat. Even though I let Cedar have less toxic soda, I still rarely buy it. It’s a treat, not a diet staple.

Working with soda in ice pops

Soda expands. Make sure you one, leave an open can in the fridge for a while, before making your pops so the bubbles die down a bit, or two, if you want the extra carbonation and a bubbly texture, mix up a batch of soda pops but don’t fill the popsicle molds all the way up. Leave about 1/4 inch at the top.

Keep reading to see two delicious soda pop popsicle recipes.

Cedar's Grapefruit Gratitude Pops in Fun Molds

Sparkling Pink Grapefruit & Citrus Strawberry Ice Pops

Cedar wanted to name these “Grapefruit Gratitude Pops” – no clue how he came up with that, but I thought a more descriptive name might be good. In any case, Cedar was browsing through Ice Pop Joy the other night. I guess he was inspired because he said he wanted to make ice pops. Cedar is not a kid who likes to cook. That said, I jumped at the chance to get him in the kitchen and said, “Sure, but we’ll have to base the pops on stuff we have in the house, because I’m not going to the store.” He started looking around the kitchen and gathered up some option ideas. On hand we had OJ, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen cherries, apricots, carrots, tofu, milk plus some other ice pop type ingredients. We also had a can of grapefruit soda.

After thinking it over, Cedar grabbed the blender, gathered some ingredients, got out some molds and created the best ice pops ever!

I’m not kidding. Though very simple, these grapefruit ice pops are AMAZING. Cedar’s about as creative as I am in the kitchen (sadly, not much) so I actually can’t believe he came up with such yummy pops. The best way I can explain them is to say they taste like that sparkling fruit punch parents make for kid birthday parties, only these pop are a little healthier.

In a blender, combine 3/4 of on 12 oz. can of Hansen’s Grapefruit Soda with about 1 cup of organic orange juice and a cup of frozen or fresh organic strawberries. Blend, pour into molds and freeze. Eat and fall in love.

These have a bubbly punch of grapefruit flavor but the OJ and berry taste really come through as well. They smell amazing too and are the perfect ice pop texture – not too hard, not too soft. I think they’d be perfect for a birthday party or on a hot summer day, although it’s winter right now and they’re still great. They’re seriously one of the best treat ice pops I’ve ever had.

Treat Worthy Organic Root Beer Float Ice Pops

These root beer float popsicles are ultimate treat ice pops, not an ice pop staple. When I make them, the kids go INSANE and only want these, not any other pops. That said, because I think most food kids eat should be nutritionally sound, I only make these about two or three times a year.

Open one can of Santa Cruz Organic Sparkling Root Beer and leave it in the fridge for a few hours, so the fizz dies down. Later, combine the can of root beer with one to two scoops of organic vanilla ice cream (we use Alden’s), plus 1 cup of 1% organic milk. Blend, pour into molds and freeze. I can’t remember how many pops this makes, but it’s somewhere in the 8-10 category. Kids and adults love these, and they really do taste just like root beer float on a stick, but just make them once in a while. They’re not the healthiest ice pop choice.

• 50 amazing ice pop recipes
• Ice pops 101 

Do you ever make ice pops with soda?

A long while back I wrote about a cool set of stainless steel non-toxic popsicle molds. I loved the look of this set, but was concerned about the fact that it came with non-reusable sticks. It may seem like a little issue, but in the long run, a bazillion sticks in the landfill doesn’t sound like much fun does it?

Good news though! The Tickle Trunk, where the stainless steel ice pop molds were selling, is now ONYX, and ONYX now carries reusable Bamboo Ice Pop Sticks, perfect for the stainless steel mold set.

There’s very little information on the website about these sticks, but Carolyn from ONYX told me the following:

The sticks are made from a single sheet of bamboo, no glue. The finish is a natural, vegan sealant. They should be hand washed, just like wooden utensils. I’m not how long they will last. I’ve been using mine for about 6 months now, and they are still fine. My children do not chew the sticks though, and some of them are a bit stained – blackberry ice pops.

Six months worth of use sounds very good. Much better than single use for sure. Affordable too. You can get a set of 12 Bamboo Ice Pop Sticks at ONYX for just $3.00.

+ Stainless Steel Popsicle Mold

If you’re looking for some homemade organic ice pop flavors for adults, then Mark Bittman has you covered. This past week, Bittman shared some easy-to-make adult-minded homemade popsicles in flavors ranging from creamy to savory to boozy (nope, not for kids).

These homemade popsicles are probably best for an adult party. Keep in mind that Bittman doesn’t recommend organic popsicle ingredients, so as a friendly reminder, switch out the suggested conventional ingredients for organic when possible.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The video above shows some of the popsicle recipes, but you can see more at the actual post – Bittman’s sweet, savory and boozy homemade ice pops.

• Get some reusable ice pop molds.
• 50 amazing homemade popsicle recipes

Just a quick ice pop recipe today – wonderful watermelon ice pops.

With the weather being so nice, you most likely have a watermelon or two around. Your first through may be, why on earth would I waste a perfectly good watermelon to make ice pops? I’m with you. It’s hard to beat plain old, icy cold watermelon simply cut into slices or cubes. Justifying blending a melon up to freeze seems iffy.

However, trust me, a few batches of watermelon ice pops over the summer will be 100% worth it. Freezing watermelon takes refreshing to a whole new level. Once frozen, watermelon ice pops have this amazing shaved ice texture and really cool you off.

Watermelon ice pops are also a great way to use leftover melon – say, if you bought too much for a picnic.

• See Homemade Organic Ice Pops 101

Nutritionally worth it:

These ice pops are low-calorie but taste insanely good – so if you’re attempting to trim calories, these pops are the perfect way to go. You can eat more than one, because a cup of watermelon only has about 45 calories.

Watermelon manages to be low-calorie and nutritious, with plenty of good stuff, such as lycopene, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C and potassium.

The basic recipe:

• 4.5 cups watermelon – organic if you can find it. I don’t always buy organic watermelon, because it’s harder to find in organic form and a lower pesticide fruit (in fact watermelon is one of the clean 15).  Still, always go organic if you can.

• 3/4 cup water.

• 3/4 cup fresh squeezed organic orange juice – optional, but recommended. You could use the pulp – blend it up, but I just use the juice, because I don’t want to mess with the smooth, shaved ice texture of the watermelon. You can save the pulp in puree form and use it in place of some of the milk in cornbread (trust me, it’s amazing).

Blend everything in a blender. Pour into non-toxic popsicle molds. Freeze. Eat and fall in love with frozen watermelon.

How many ice pops will you get?

It depends on the size of your melon. For my last batch, I used a blender full of watermelon, as shown above. After adding orange juice and the water, I got enough mix to make all the watermelon pops shown below (about 5 big pops and 3 small ones).

However, I was running low on popsicle molds, so I ended up with too much mix and not enough popsicle molds – about 1 and 1/2 cup of leftover mixture. I put it in the fridge to use to make more pops later or for a plain old drink or watermelon smoothie.

Spice your ice pops up…

Optional – if your melon is a little mealy and less sweet, you may want to add a tablespoon of organic honey, but a nice sweet melon won’t need any added sweetener.

Optional – sparkling water or soda. If you go with soda, use organic like Santa Cruz Organic Sparkling Beverage, Lemon Lime. Note that this will add some calories to your low-cal pops, but as a once-in-a-while treat, sparkling watermelon ice pops are amazing. If you decide to add soda, allow the can to sit open in the fridge for a few hours before making these pops.

ADULT POPS – try this recipe for Spiked Watermelon Ice Pops.

Looking for the popsicle molds shown above? I was using…

• FRED Cool Jazz Ice Cube Stirs Guitar shaped ice tray
• Tovolo Yellow Groovy Ice Pop Molds
• One of my Tovolo Green Star Ice Pop Molds but in the base of my Rocket Ship Ice Pop Mold Set.

All images ©Jennifer Chait

I know, leftover veggies don’t sound like they’d make the best ice pops, but organic veggies can make for some yummy organic ice pops. Depending on the veggie that is.

I recently had a slew of leftover veggies and with no salad or homemade soup plans in my very near future, I decided to use the veggies for ice pops. The picture below actually doesn’t do them justice. In reality I ended up with some super bright orange ice pops.

You can, in theory, make homemade popsicles with any leftover veggies – yams, cucumbers, carrots, spinach and more. In the case of these orange pops, they were a little hit and miss, made with the following…

• Leftover carrots from packed school lunches during the week.
• Leftover zucchini from homemade veggie pot pie I made for dinner one night.
• Leftover tomato slices from when we had veggie burgers.

I also had a few leftover strawberries and a whole darn mango. The back story on the mango was that I was going to make pure mango ice pops this week, but after seeing all the leftover veggies laying around, I decided to use the mango to balance veggie pops instead.

Here was the general process.

• Gather leftover veggies and fruits - steam any super hard veggies.

   

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• Blend up the carrots. Then add other stuff - like more veggies and berries.

   

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• I was being lazy and did not steam the zucchini. It still worked out okay.

   

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• Add some honey, 1 1/2 cups water and the mango - and keep blending

   

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• End up with a creamy, lovely orange mixture.

   

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• Poured mixture into molds and freeze. I ended up with about 9 ice pops.

   

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Sometimes when you make ice pops without a recipe, you end up with issues. For example, these pops could have been a bit sweeter. They’re fairly savory. Also, because I used barely any sweetener, they stuck in the molds a bit more than I like. If you fail to add enough sweetener to ice pops, you can get harder, less mobile ice pops.

Next time I’d steam the zucchini first, because it took a while to blend, and because the zucchini didn’t entirely blend down, the pops have tiny white flecks that upset the constant orange flow.  I’d add more honey, or maybe a tablespoon of organic white sugar. I’d also add some leftover orange juice or a few more organic berries because they could have used natural sweetness too.

Cedar was nervous to try them, thinking I used yams (he’s been weirdly anti-yam for a year now???). After I assured him they were yam-free, he tried and liked these ice pops. He was extra impressed with the excellent bright color. Dave liked them too, but like me, he felt they could be sweeter. He also felt the mango taste was very strong, which is odd, because flavor-wise, I felt that the carrot taste was the strongest, while Cedar said the berries were.

My main point isn’t to the pin-point the flavor though, it’s to say, you can use ingredient freedom (go leftovers), and still get pops people will eat. These pops got a fairly decent review at my house – people will eat almost anything if you freeze it first.

• Learn more at Homemade Organic Ice Pops 101

Ice pops are one of the most searched for terms here at Growing a Green Family.  I can only assume that this means that Growing a Green Family readers are extra super smart.

Ice pops aren’t only delicious and a great way to cool off when it’s hot, but homemade popsicles are also very eco-friendly, thrifty and fun. Homemade ice pops are also usually way more healthy than store-bought pops, if you make them right.

Seeing as how I love ice pops and readers seem to love ice pops, I figured I’d gather all the ice pop posts together in one easy to browse location. If you really love ice pops, you can book mark this page, and check back sometimes to see new ice pop posts as I add them.

ICE POP BASICS

• Learn about all the best benefits of homemade popsicles.
• Pros and cons of making your own homemade popsicle molds.

ICE POP GEAR

• Non-toxic popsicle molds for homemade popsicles – including tips on how to buy, which molds are best and how to use them.
• Ice Pop Joy – a luscious book full of ice pop recipes.
• Stainless steel non-toxic popsicle molds
• Reusable bamboo sticks for stainless steel ice pop mold.

ICE POP RECIPES

• 50 amazing homemade popsicle recipes – veggie pops, fruit pops, ice cream pops, herbal tea pops and everything in between.
• Pure Sunshine Organic Ice Pops
• Soda pop ice pops – pink grapefruit and root beer
• Leftover organic veggie (and fruit) pops
• Homemade Organic Watermelon Ice Pops
• Boozy, sweet and savory homemade ice pops for adults

]]> http://www.growingagreenfamily.com/homemade-organic-ice-pops-101/feed/ 3 http://www.growingagreenfamily.com/book-review-ice-pop-joy/ http://www.growingagreenfamily.com/book-review-ice-pop-joy/#comments Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:55:39 +0000 Jennifer Chait http://www.growingagreenfamily.com/?p=7780

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 by Anni Daulter; published by Sellers Publishing Inc. (March 11, 2011)

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.

• Sour Girl Ice Pops

   

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• Purple Fantastic Tofu Ice Pops

   

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• Classic Vanilla Tofu Ice Pops

   

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• Peanut Butter & Chocolate Ice Pops

   

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• Tropical Tofu Ice Pops

   

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• Pistachio Tofu Ice Pops

   

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• Island Breeze Ice Pops

   

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• Pink Princess Ice Pops

   

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• Rockstar Ice Pops

   

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• Harvest Pops Ice Pops

   

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• Granola Goodness Ice Pops

   

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• Lavender Flower Power Ice Pops

   

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• Ice Pops For Breakfast

   

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• Bluebird Ice Pops

   

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• Blackberry Swirl Ice Pops

   

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What 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.

Before I post my entire review of the new book, Ice Pop Joy, I thought I’d post at least one recipe from the book.

Pure Sunshine Ice Pop

There are all sorts of delectable looking ice pop flavors in Ice Pop Joy, such as lavender flower power, watermelon pops and even a creamy looking granola ice pop. I didn’t make one of the fancy pop recipes yet though. I decided on the fly to make some pops. Because I didn’t want to go to the store, I picked a recipe called Pure Sunshine (shown above) because I had all the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients for Pure Sunshine Ice Pops:

Ingredients for Pure Sunshine Ice Pops

• 2 cups chopped strawberries
• 4-5 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup purified water
• 1 cup ice

INGREDIENT CHANGES I MADE:

• I used all organic ingredients, which I suggest you do as well.

• I only had 1 3/4 cups of organic strawberries, so I substituted some organic frozen raspberries to make up the difference.

• I didn’t have fresh mint. I did have some dried organic mint. I wrestled with adding it or not – worried that it might not blend down right. I ended up using it and it blended down fine, but really fresh is always better when it comes to herbs in ice pops. Also, remember, if you use dried herbs, use less, as dried herbs pack more of a flavor punch than fresh.

• I used tap water, not purified.

Blend your ice pop mixture until smooth

To make your Pure Sunshine ice pops:

• Put all your ingredients into a blender.
• Blend until smooth.
• Pour mixture into reusable non-toxic popsicle molds.
• Freeze.
• Eat and enjoy.

This recipe made 6 large pops + a few tiny pops

I was able to fill 6 full sized ice pop molds with this recipe. Plus, for fun I made some smaller snack sized pops – for when a big pop is too much. I used our Fred Cool Jazz Ice Cube Tray to make the smaller pops (shown below). These small pops equal about 6-7 bites – a sweet little snack!

Ice pops made in Fred Cool Jazz Ice Cube Tray

Taste test:

What I thought: I thought the texture was excellent. Sometimes fruit-based ice pops can turn out a bit hard, but these were easy to bite into, yet still held together and didn’t melt all over the place. I thought they tasted good too, although they were a little too sweet for my taste. I think, had I made them with zero raspberries, that they would have been the right amount of sweet though. Raspberries really add kick. I also should have added more lemon juice. I didn’t measure, just guessed. I could tell that more lemon juice would have equaled really good taste.

What Dave thought: Boyfriend Dave says, “They smelled just like raspberry candles, but in a good way, like candles you’d want to eat.” He also said that if you don’t like raspberry seeds in your ice pop, skip these, but he didn’t mind them. Flavor wise Dave says, “These taste really good like raspberries and somewhat like strawberries. The raspberries overpowered the strawberries. This pop wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet though. It was refreshing and something I’d for sure eat on a hot summer day.” Dave, like me, also liked the texture.

Cedar loved the taste!

What Cedar thought: Cedar’s exact words were, “These popsicles are AWESOME!” He said that about four times. Then said he loved the raspberry taste and that the texture was a little hard at first, but, “Perfect once you get half-way thought the pop.”

If you’re looking for an excellent summer strawberry pop, then Pure Sunshine fits the bill. However, I’d make sure you have enough strawberries around. I only used 1/4 cup of raspberries and they took over the entire pop mixture. Of course, like I always say, one of the best things about ice pops is that they’re hard to mess up. Experimenting with new ice pop flavors is okay.

I hope you and your family like this sneak peak ice pop recipe. Coming up soon, a review of the entire book Ice Pop Joy.

+ Read the Ice Pop Joy review.

[All images ©Jennifer Chait]

On the post I did about non-toxic popsicle molds a reader, Joy, left a comment about some stainless steel popsicle molds, which I’ve always wanted but never heard existed. Well, folks they do exist. Check this out…

This ONYX – Stainless Steel Popsicle Mold is made with 18/8 stainless steel. It’s a single serve style ice pop maker too which is what I recommend because it’s easy to clean and use.

Each set comes with one stand, 6 molds, 6 lids and 12 removable silicone rings that ensure proper stick placement.

The bummer issue about this mold set is the sticks. I’m leery of buying a set like this due to the fact that you’ve got to use wooden sticks which means ongoing costs and waste. However, these are pretty slick otherwise. If you could find some sort of reusable stick you’d be in business.

+ ONYX – Stainless Steel Popsicle Mold

Also check out 50 amazing homemade popsicle recipes.

In a previous post we looked at Non-Toxic Popsicle Molds for Homemade Popsicles. Then I got an email question about popsicle molds, asking if homemade molds might not be more eco-friendly than non-toxic popsicle molds you buy.

Maybe… in terms of reuse but there’s a big BUT involved here.

Homemade popsicle holders may be good because you get to reuse stuff you already have on hand, thus saving you money and saving the resources it takes to make new popsicle molds and ship them to you.

BUT

What about the sticks? That’s my issue with homemade molds. Yeah one popsicle stick may not be very large, but imagine an entire summer of sticks stacked up. How many homemade popsicles does you child eat in the summer – how about all year round? My son can eat three + ice pops a day in the summer and he normally eats one a day even in cooler weather. Got more than one kid? That’s a lot of sticks; we’re talking 500+ for one child. What if every child on your block had 500 sticks. Can you see that pile of wood?! Wooden sticks aren’t very reusable either. You can wash and reuse but in my experience most kids chew them.

ALSO

Many homemade items you might use for homemade popsicles are oddly shaped and not suitable for kiddos. You’ve got options like…

• Paper cups – what the vast majority of homemade popsicle makers suggest. NOT eco-friendly.
• Plastic cups – what many other people suggest but you have to make sure your plastic cups are BPA free.
• I saw a super cute suggestion which involves mini aluminum baking cups (shown above) but again you’ve got those damn sticks to contend with.
• Reused yogurt cups – which one, are rather wide and large for a smaller child and two, are also not very eco-friendly. It’s nice to reuse yogurt cups but better if you buy those large containers of organic yogurt rather than tiny cups.

PS You shouldn’t use glass of any kind as homemade molds. Getting the ice pop out could be tricky and the glass could even break.

The best idea?

Krystina Castella, author of Pops!: Icy Treats for Everyone offers the following about sticks.

I believe ice is not a pop until it has a stick. Sticks help to get the pop out of the mold, prevents icy liquid from getting all over your hands and can be used as a design feature to give your pops style. I collect sticks of all sizes shapes and materials and try them out when making my pops. Wooden coffee stirrers, bamboo barbecue skewers, cocktail stirrers and cocktail picks are available in many forms, colors, shapes and sizes making great aesthetic sticks.

So, if you collect reusable sticks of some sort, say like bamboo skewers or non-plastic cocktail stirrers and then use them with reusable yogurt cups or mini molds you could come out ahead green-wise. However, you’ve got to be careful that kids don’t get sticks that are too small (choking hazard) or too sharp. It could take some hunting to find the perfect reusable mold-stick combo.

All in all, this is why I suggest an excellent set of non-toxic popsicle molds, reusable sticks included. Homemade popsicles should be easy and fun and all this hunting down of safe reusable sticks and molds seems like it would zap the easy right out of homemade ice pops.

That said, I’m not always right. Tell me what you think. Is it greener to use what you have (yogurt cups, etc) than to buy popsicle molds?