Green Monster Pops

Green Monster Pops

Do you think of ice cream and frozen treats as indulgences that you shouldn’t be indulging in? Author Christine Chitnis has brought us an entire book of ice creams, ice pops and other frozen treats that not only taste great, but are good for us in her book Icy, Creamy, Healthy, Sweet. All of the recipes are dairy free and yet incredibly satisfying using alternative milks, juices and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables – even coconut water for some beautiful ices. How brilliant to take the green smoothie craze and turn it into a Green Monster Pop featuring pineapple and healthy greens! Look at that image…you will feel down right virtuous serving these and once you have a popsicle mold – and you can find them very inexpensively, even under $10 – you will be able to make these quite quickly and easily.

From Icy, Creamy, Healthy, Sweet by Christine Chitnis (Roost Books; April 2016; $21.95; Hardcover).

When it comes to getting my daily greens, I’ll try just about anything. While I love big, crunchy, straight-from- the-garden salads, I also love blending my greens into smoothies. Sweet, creamy, and refreshing, it only makes sense that a blended green smoothie would work perfectly in pop form. Feel free to experiment with the greens: I prefer spinach because the taste is very subtle, but Swiss chard and kale also work well, though their flavors are a bit more distinct. I love the sweetness of freshly made pineapple juice, though you can feel free to substitute ready-made juice. If you’re serving these to kids, play up the cool green color, and before long, they’ll be slurping up their daily serving of health- infusing greens!