Purple Choco' Berry Popsicle or Smoothie, Healthy, low fat!

 Purple Choco' Berry Popsicle or Smoothie, Healthy, low fat!

My son and his best friend were enjoying a very warm day outside.  It was time for lunch.  The battle was on! Trying to get these two to stop playing, long enough to eat, is nearly impossible.  What works best? Bribery.  Yes.  Bribery.

While they were eating their lunch, I started the Popsicle-making process.  They were watching as I put their favorite things in the blender.  I didn't bother telling them that I was using all non-fat dairy products, as well as, no sugar added frozen fruits.  I used honey to sweeten, which added to the bribe. I don't know a lot of kids who don't love honey. I really like buying the frozen berries because the only ingredients are, the berries. No extra sugar, or preservatives.  I don't have to worry about spoilage, very low cost as well.  I use them for many things.  Very versatile, as well as delicious.

Did it work? Beautifully, as you can see.  They thought they were getting a treat by getting a Popsicle.  I knew they were getting lots of good vitamins and minerals to go along with their healthy lunch.


I have a two-Popsicle freezer mold, so I used the remainder of the mixture to make myself an 8oz smoothie.  I put a scoop of my favorite protein powder in it, added ice and more non-fat, organic milk, then enjoyed my own special treat!

Purple Choco' Berry Popsicle or Smoothie, Healthy, low fat

1/2 cup of Low Fat, organic Chocolate milk
1/2 cup of 2% organic white milk
1 cup of low fat cottage cheese
1/2 cup of frozen mixed berries
1 tablespoon honey (more or less to taste)

Place ingredients into a blender and puree until smooth.  Pour into Popsicle molds or add extra milk, water, or (as I did) ice cubes to turn into a smoothie.

You may also want to add some more liquid if you see your mixture is too thick to puree well.  It will freeze anyway, just don't go overboard, so the flavors won't suffer.

If you don't like cottage cheese, yogurt would be a good substitution.  However, I find yogurt to contain such a large amount of sugar that I don't use it frequently, outside of enjoying one serving in a given day.  One teaspoon of sugar is about 4.2 grams.  The drinkable yogurt we have has 14grams of sugar in a 3.1fl oz bottle, that is roughly equivalent to, 3 teaspoons of sugar. There are benefits to yogurt, but as with anything, too much of a good thing is not good.  Let me also point out, that the cottage cheese is not identifiable in the finished product.  The flavors are so beautifully compatible, it doesn't make a huge difference.