healthy kids
Cool Treats for Hot Days DIY RECIPES EVEN KIDS CAN MAKE by Sheila Julson
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any of us have fond childhood memories of cool confections from the neighborhood ice cream truck on sultry summer days. By creating homemade, hot-weather treats with our kids, we get to enjoy the delights of fresh, seasonal produce and inventive flavor combinations, while also providing our kids with kitchen fun, healthy fare without unwelcome additives and summertime memories of their own. “There are plenty of frozen treats from the grocery store that are in the natural or organic categories, but sometimes those still have levels of sweeteners, sugar or other preservatives that we don’t want or need,” says Annie Wegner LeFort, a Milwaukee-based chef and founder of the healthy living business EatMoveMKE.com. She has been making frozen pops for her 13-year-old daughter Vera since she was a toddler. Anything that is homemade is more economical and has less packaging, Wegner LeFort says. Pop molds can be used over and over, and even cups can be used and reused as molds to reduce waste.
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Crafting Cool Treats
36
New York City – Long Island
Making frozen pops can be as easy as mashing fruits and other ingredients in a bowl, pouring the mixture into molds and freezing them. A blender or a food processor can be used to make a smoother mix, with parents supervising younger kids. Older children that know how to use small appliances can safely blend—and clean up—without supervision. Wegner LeFort notes that young kids might enjoy straightforward flavor combinations, but older kids with more developed palates can experiment with herbs or exotic concoctions. Parents can deftly blend vegetables and herbs into frozen pops and refreshing summer smoothies without being detected by finicky eaters. She recommends adding spinach to fruit blends with berries or dark-colored fruits: “You don’t even really see the greens. They are overtaken by the blue and purple fruits.” Beets or beet juice, which is high in iron and vitamins, also add a beautiful color to berry blends. Cooked and mashed sweet potatoes lend a vibrant orange to red and yellow blends made with strawberries or pineapple. Gwen Eberly, a Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based chef who teaches cooking to kids and teens through the Zest! cooking school, recalls making healthy, decadent, frozen orange cream
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