Strawberry, Banana & Yoghurt Popsicles!

It is sweltering hot here in Bangkok at the moment (90% humidity nearly every day) and motivated by my $1 popsicle container purchase the other day I decided to make these fruity popsicles before I went to bed last night. Super easy, super healthy and perfect for this type of weather. The ingredients below made 8 popsicles.

Here's what I used:
1 punnet of small strawberries
2 large bananas
1 cup of natural greek yoghurt

Here's what you do:
Wash the strawberries and cut the green tops off. Cut the strawberries in half and place in 1/4 cup of water on the stove for about 5 minutes to soften them up. While they are softening up, peel your bananas and slice. In a blender or Magimix, place the strawberries, banana and 1 cup of yoghurt and blend till the mix is smooth. Pour the mix almost to the top of your popsicle container (remember to leave some room at the top as it will expand in the freezer). Put in the freezer and leave for at least 4 hours or better yet, overnight.

This morning I ran some tap water underneath the popsicle containers to make it easier to pull them out. I think a silicone container would be easier but I have not seen any in the shops. These were a bit too cold for my son so I happily finished it off for him. Enjoy!

Raisin Crazy #1: Chewy Banana & Raisin Mini-Muffins

Delicious!

My husband's parents are coming to visit us for a week, they arrive tomorrow, so as part of the mandatory clean up and getting ready I decided to clean the fridge so I could write a shopping list. Hiding in the back corner  I found a large packet of raisins. Who knows how long they had been there for! They were still within their 'eat before' date so I decided to cook as many recipes as I could with them. The problem is that I really don't like raisins and if I have to eat them I try to just swallow them whole.

So rather than search my cookbooks I turned to the internet today. I adapted the recipe used from SparkRecipes. I have never made chewy muffins before and these are definitely chewy so be warned. They were also so incredibly tasty that I ate 3 in a row, raisins and all! The recipe made 24 mini-muffins and 9 medium sized. I have frozen most of mine to use as snacks.

The original recipes lists sugar and olive oil as ingredients. I completely left the sugar out (who needs it!) and used apple sauce as a substitute for olive oil.

waiting to go in the oven

Here's what you need:
1.5 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup apple sauce or 1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of both cinnamon and nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 medium bananas, mashed
1/3 cup raisin
1/2 tablespoon honey
**1/4 cup sugar if you want


Here's what you do:

Place your mini cupcake papers inside your muffin tin and preheat your oven to 180C. In hindsight I would have used foil muffin holders or a silicone tray as mine became a bit stuck after baking.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl: baking soda, salt, flour, and combine well. Make a hole in the middle of the mix with a wooden spoon and then add your 'wet' ingredients: milk, banana and vanilla extract. Mix all together well. I use a KitchenAid (*love*) but by hand is just as easy. Add the raisins. While I was watching the mix combine I thought that honey would make a nice extra so I quickly drizzled about a half a tablespoon of honey into the mix.

Fill your muffin papers up to about 2/3 of the way or a little more. Mine were nearly to the top because I had so much mixture. Bake in the oven for about 17 minutes. Mine browned quite quickly and I panicked a bit and took one batch out too early and they were still quite doughy.

I was too impatient to let them completely cool before I tasted one and as a result the muffin stuck to the paper. It shouldn't happen once they are completely cooled. That's it, super easy and tasty! My mother-in-law has promised to teach me her amazing Lemon Tart recipe next week so stay tuned.