Kids Cuisine

My daughter officially thinks I am too cool. I recently bought one of those popsicle mold sets, and she was quite excited about making her first homemade ice pop. Being a mom (and, therefore, totally lame), I suggested we make the pops with chocolate milk instead of something completely devoid of nutrition. Fortunately, she is only 4 and she had no idea her popsicle was healthier than it could be.

The downside was the delayed gratification. She wasn’t as thrilled when learned she could make the pops that night, but they had to freeze for several hours. As I put her to bed, she asked me if she could have her pop for breakfast. Reflexively, I started to say no. Then I thought to myself, “It’s just chocolate milk. I wouldn’t say no to chocolate milk with breakfast.” In fact, if you look at the labels on most cereal boxes, they have more sugar than even your typical popsicle.

So I agreed. The next morning, we had a blast eating our breakfast pops. It was like a little a.m. party before the rush off to work and daycare. She urged me to join her, and I conceded (only to please her, of course). Later that day, she asked if we could add raspberries next time. Wonderful! Now we’re adding fresh antioxidant-rich fruit.

I see popsicles for breakfast as a new trend in our household, and a great one for summer. I’m ready to start making some more ice pops that she thinks are oh so bad and I know are oh so good. If it will be for breakfast, I might try orange juice pops (I’ll bet it would be even better adding some yogurt to make it like a creamsicle). Considering her interest in raspberries, I’ll bet she would love to try this raspberry popsicle parfait. These healthy pineapple pops sound delicious, and if you have kids you probably already have the ingredients for these grape juice popsicles. Shoot, maybe we’ll even go vegan with a soy yogurt popsicle. Sweet!

Photo of popsicle by Alexander Staubo.