Frozen Blueberry Popsicles, 3 ways

Popsicles?

Yes, you read that right. I'm posting popsicles today. In October. 

Summer may be long gone, but you know what? I don't care! I love popsicles. I really do. I eat them year round. Homemade popsicles are a great snack and one of my go-to's after dinner. Mine are mostly fruit, unlike those heavily preserved store bought ones that claim they are 0.000001% real fruit. These ones only require a few ingredients, and you can make them all year round by utilizing frozen fruit. Thank goodness for frozen fruit, I don't know how I'd survive all winter without it!

I was actually at my sister-in-law's about a month ago, when she handed me a popsicle mold-

These lovely multicolor molds to be exact. Her two oldest, our niece and nephew, were going to be staying that weekend at our house. 

"Do you want to make the kids some popsicles?" She asked me.

"Of course!" I replied enthusiastically (it doesn't take much to get me to make popsicles). 

"BLUEBERRY POPSICLES!!" my niece interjected zealously.

And blueberry popsicles they got! True to form, I couldn't bring myself to only prepare blueberry pops. I had to make them a bit more artistic.

I ended up making three different variations of the blueberry popsicle, intertwining some of the popsicles with vanilla yogurt. I think you can tell from the pictures there are 3 slightly different colors. Some are layered with the vanilla yogurt (my favorite!). For some of them, I stirred some vanilla yogurt into the blueberry. And finally, I figured I better have some plain blueberry, so there were some of those mixed in there as well.

I made a blueberry puree out of a bag of frozen blueberries. I dumped the bag into a good-sized sauce pan, added a wee bit o' sugar, and cooked those berries down. I removed the pan from heat, allowed it to cool, and then got to work pouring the mixture into popsicles molds. Super-easy. The berries break down perfectly, the small amount of sugar is just enough, and blueberries and vanilla go together like milk and cookies. 

Fun for more than just the kids! 

These were my favorite.

Today is the hubby's birthday! Happy Birthday Hubby! Unfortunately, he had to go out of town. To fire school. To learn how to use a fire extinguisher. LOL. No, I'm not kidding. Apparently, he was supposed to do this when he was first hired, which was almost 4 years ago. Anyhoo, he's stuck in Maryland today. I think this is his first birthday in 9 years that we haven't spent together. Luckily, it's a short trip, he'll be back tomorrow. We'll be doing cake and ice cream on Thursday. I figure it gives me more time to figure out my cake strategy :)

I'll be spending his birthday at the doctors. Boo. Something happened a couple of weeks ago that caused a flare-up in my back. I think it was when I was mowing the lawn and a wasp landed on my arm. I, of course, shrieked and let go of the lawn mower. I was on a slight incline, so while the engine died, the mower kept going. All the way into the woods. Dragging it back out was the bad idea. At any rate, the hubby figured I better get some tests done while we've already met our health insurance deductible for the year. We shall see what I find out.

Have a great day everyone!

Ingredients (makes 11-12 popsicles):

1 (16 oz) bag of frozen blueberries

1/4 cup sugar

8 oz container of vanilla yogurt

Directions:

1. Place blueberries and sugar in a medium-size saucepan. Heat, stirring occasionally, until berries have broken down. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

2. To assemble: For layered pops, place 1-2 tbsp vanilla yogurt at bottom of popsicle molds. Top with 1-2 tbsp blueberry puree. Repeat until the molds are full. Place a popsicle stick into the molds, and freeze for 4 hours or overnight. For swirled pops, fill molds 3/4 full with blueberry puree. Fill remainder with vanilla yogurt. Take a butter knife and swirl the mixture. Place a popsicle stick into the mold, and freeze for 4 hours or overnight. For plain pops, simply fill to the top with blueberry puree. Place popsicle sticks in the middle of molds, and freeze for 4 hours or overnight. To remove pops from molds, run under warm water until the popsicles slide out. Store in an airtight bag in the freezer.

Printable Recipe

*Jessica's Note: With the above ingredients, I was able to make (4) layered pops, (4) swirled pops, and (3) plain pops.

If you liked this recipe, you may enjoy these-

Raspberry Jam Pops

Raspberry Kiwi Popsicles

Strawberry Chocolate Popsicles

Linked to: Treasure Box Tuesday, Create It Thursday, Thank Goodness It's Thursday, Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party, Snickerdoodle Sunday