Theo (my eldest) trying my Banana Crunch Popsicle

As a parent, we always want what is best for our children.

When it comes to their diets, we also want them to eat nutritious foods, but what I’ve realized is that as they get older, it becomes increasingly difficult to control what they eat outside of home.

This is why it’s so important to engage in conversations with our children and educate them about health and nutrition so that they will be able to make the best decisions on their own.

I play an easy “question and answer” game with my children in the car when we’re on the way to school or activities.

For example, I ask questions like: Is a donut healthy? Which is better - water or juice? Is an avocado a fruit or a vegetable? And so on.

And they just love it!

In fact, they even play it among each other… and it’s funny to listen to their wildly creative questions.

This morning’s question was “is Burj Khalifa bigger than space”. 🙂

Every child loves ice cream, popsicles, and other frozen treats.

But when you read the list of ingredients in store-bought varieties, I get turned off.

We only want what is best for our children, right?

So I’ve come up with creative ways to give them frozen treats without added chemicals or additives.

I make them fruit smoothie popsicles and home-made ice cream (which they love to prepare as well), and just yesterday, I made a banana and nut popsicle.

They were intrigued and curious as to why I was placing a banana on a stick, but my kids are now used to my “inventions” so they just follow me right along.

I still don’t know if they’ll like it, but they did say they wanted to try it. That’s half the battle!

Just a note, if you have very picky eaters, instead of the dried fruits, you can use chopped pieces of dark chocolate instead.

Chocolate can win over almost any child!

Just make sure it’s the good stuff… organic and more than 70% cocoa.

Happy popsicle making!

Ingredients:

Servings: 2 popsicles

1 banana, cut in half

½ C almonds, chopped (or your choice)

¼ C dried fruit, chopped (I had dried prunes but you can use apricots, goji berries, raisins, etc…)

Directions:

1. Mix the nuts and dried fruit together and drop onto plastic wrap. Spread the mixture out so that it will cover the banana when you roll it.

2. Place the banana at one end of the mixture. Lift the plastic wrap and roll the banana until it is completely coated in the mixture.

3. Place the popsicle stick into the banana. Keep it covered and freeze for at least 8 hours.

Note: If your children are picky about texture, you can also crush the nuts and dried fruits so it is more uniform. It will also be easier to coat the banana as well.

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Enjoy and let me know how these rate in your household!