National Blueberry Popsicle Day!

It's National Blueberry Popsicle Day!

Have you ever made blueberry popsicles? I haven't made blueberry and I'm not sure why not! I guess I probably just didn't think about it. Here's a few recipes to get you started!

Blueberry Bliss Popsicles

Ingredients:
2 cups blueberries
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
9 small paper cups
9 wooden craft sticks

Directions:
1. Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Mash everything together with a potato masher, squeezing as much out of the blueberries as you can.
3. Place a strainer over another bowl and dump the blueberry mash into the strainer. Use the back of a large slotted spoon to push through the strainer as much juice as possible.
4. Throw away the blueberry skins left in the strainer.
5. Pour the contents of the bowl into a pourable measuring cup.
6. Line up the cups and pour the blueberry mixture into each one. Fill them up about 3/4 of the way full.
7. Place a wooden craft stick in each cup.
8. Put the cups in the freezer for about 4 hours or until frozen.
9. Peel off the cup from the frozen pop and enjoy!

Blueberry And Vanilla Parfait Pops

Source: Food.com

Perfect for a hot day, and so yummy. Great way to get rid of canned or frozen
fruit! You can mix and match the flavors of yogurt and types of fruit, too:
cherries and chocolate is my favorite.

Ingredients:
2 cups low-fat vanilla frozen yogurt, slightly melted
6 wooden popsicle sticks
6 popsicle molds, as large as possible

Directions:
1 Pour 1/3 cup of blueberries into each mold. Cover the molds with tinfoil, insert the popsicle sticks so that the tips are inside the blueberry mixture, and freeze overnight.

2 Take the molds out and remove the tinfoil (not the sticks!) Spoon in 1/3 cup of vanilla frozen yogurt into each mold, making sure not to pull out any sticks while doing so. The softer the yogurt is, the easier this will be. Put in the freezer for two hours or so to allow the yogurt to settle and refreeze slightly.

3 Take the popsicles out and enjoy!

Banana Blueberry Swirl Popsicles

Source: Martha Stewart

Perfect for hot summer days, this frosty treat showcases swirls of creamy
yogurt, sweet blueberries, and bananas. Although Martha uses Stonyfield Farm
BaNilla lowfat yogurt, you can substitute your favorite flavored yogurt in this
recipe.
Makes 10 ice pops

Ingredients
3 to 4 ripe bananas (1 pound)
1 1/2 cups yogurt
3 tablespoons sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions
In the bowl of a food processor, puree bananas until smooth. Add yogurt,
sugar, and lemon juice; pulse to combine. Remove half of the yogurt mixture;
set aside.
Add blueberries to processor, and pulse until just combined. Layer blueberry
and reserved yogurt mixtures into ten 1/3 cup ice-pop molds. Using a wooden
skewer, swirl the two flavors together. Insert ice-pop sticks. Transfer to
freezer until frozen, about 8 hours
Dip molds quickly in hot water to unmold.

Blueberry Fruit Pops

Source: US Highbush Blueberry Council

Ingredients
1 can (15 ¼-ounce) fruit in heavy syrup* such as pears, peaches or apricots
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup fresh, frozen or canned drained blueberries

Instructions
In a blender, puree the canned fruit with all the syrup and lemon juice. Transfer to a large measuring cup or pitcher. Return ¼ cup of the fruit mixture to the blender. Add blueberries
Blend until pureed.
Holding a 6- or 8-ounce plastic cup at an angle, spoon in a layer of fruit puree then a layer of blueberry puree. Repeat to make 4 layers filling the cup about two-thirds
Set cup upright and insert a plastic spoon or wooden ice cream stick in the center. Repeat to use all the pureed fruit and blueberries.
Place cups on a baking pan for support and freeze until firm, 4 to 6 hours.
To serve, place pops at room temperature for 5 minutes then twist from cups.

Quick notes
Per pop: 50 calories; 0 g protein; 13 g carbohydrate; 0 g total fat; 1.4 g fiber
* Note: Fruit canned with less sugar will produce frozen pops that are more
solid
Number of servings (yield): 8

Blueberry Equivalents
One dry cup (8 fl oz.) of fresh or frozen blueberries is equal to:
90-129 large blueberries
130-189 medium blueberries
5 ounces by weight (3 cups to a pound)
2/3 cup pureed
1/2 cup pureed and strained
2/3 cup after simmering 5 minutes with 2 tbsp. water
1 cup frozen blueberries = 2/3 cup thawed blueberries

I hope you enjoy those recipes and might be able to make some popsicles. IF you don't have the ingredients needed, you could make popsicles from blueberry juice. You could make some lemonade with blueberries mixed in or mashed blueberries. I would think one could use blueberry jello and add a bit of lemon juice or mix with some lemonade too.

Enjoy! They sure sound good to me and today is definitely a popsicle day! It's 90 out and HUMID!