Healthy Homemade Popsicles

When I started drinking green smoothies on the regular, I quickly wondered what they would taste like frozen, and started using my popsicle molds to freeze the extra. I quickly ventured into the world of healthy homemade popsicles and I’ve never looked back.

These four colorful recipes are easy to make, fruity and just fun!

They make healthy snacks for kids, parents and friends. With no-mess homemade popsicle molds, I can easily toss one into a lunchbox and it acts as a fruit offering plus an ice pack. They are a bit thinner and icier than my Lime Popsicles, perfect for enjoying as you dangle your feet off the side of the dock at the lake.

After my family packed up and moved to Florida, we discovered a love of icy treats to combat the crazy heat of summer. The freezer was packed with popsicles.

It felt necessary for survival with two young toddlers and a lot of hot days. Easy recipes for homemade popsicles were at the top of my Google searches, especially as we ventured into the worlds of sports and providing snacks for the teams, classmates and friendly gatherings.

Tasty Ingredients

I first made these four variations for my daughter’s gymnastics fundraiser. I wanted to do something fun and Florida-esque, and these seemed like a fun way to do that. They were super simple to make and sold out!

When I shared about the fundraiser on Instagram, I got a lot of requests for the recipes. Here’s what I’m putting in mine:

Yellow: Depending on the ripeness of your pineapple and the color of your mango, these will either be bright yellow or a fun yellow-orange hue. I used water because the other fruits are so sweet they definitely hold their own in the flavor department without needing fruit juice.

• Orange
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Water

Red: Because I didn’t want to pit cherries I bought a frozen pack. Paired with fresh strawberries and bananas, they blended easily. The pomegranate juice was used to make a ruby red color. Feel free to swap the pomegranate juice with cherry, red grape or cranberry. Make sure whatever option you use is 100% fruit juice with no additives.

• Cherries
• Strawberries
• Banana
• Pomegranate juice

Blue: These were the most fun to experiment with to get the right color, though they do call for a unique ingredient—butterfly pea powder. I found mine on Amazon, yet you might be able to source some locally if you have a specialty food store. While this powder comes blue, I found adding 1/4 tsp of baking soda brings out the rich color I wanted. Science is so cool!

• Bananas
• Butterfly pea powder
• Peaches
• Baking soda

Green: Since I already knew that the best green smoothie created the gorgeous green color I wanted, I just adjusted the recipe and turned it into these! It is the best starter green smoothie around and will turn any smoothie skeptic into a smoothie lover in no time.

• Spinach
• Pineapple
• Mango
• Banana
• Water

How to Make Healthy Homemade Popsicles

These tasty treats are quite easy to make. Each color makes about ten popsicles, so feel free to double or triple the ingredients to get the number you need. All you need is a blender, the molds of your choice and a funnel.

1. Choose the color you want to blend first and gather those ingredients. They can be fresh or frozen, whatever you have on hand. Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until completely smooth.
2. Carefully pour the blender contents through a funnel into the molds, making sure to stop at the max fill line. Do not overfill!
3. Store the filled molds in the freezer for at least 4 hours.

If you overfill the molds, they can break open in the freezer as they expand. If your molds don’t come with a small funnel, you should be able to find one at your local grocery store.

Storage Options

Now that you’ve got some gorgeous popsicles, how do you store them? I’ve got two great options when it comes to homemade popsicle molds. You pick the ones that work for you and just make sure you’ve got room in your freezer to store them.

Option 1: For those that can’t or don’t want to clean out molds, go with some disposable popsicle sleeves. These come with a funnel and tell you exactly where to stop filling so your freezer doesn’t become abstract art when it bursts.

Option 2: For those that can wash out and store molds, go with some reusable silicone popsicle molds. They are a bit of an investment since you’ll need a few packs to get started yet they are an environmentally-friendly option.

Now that you’ve got the right sleeves, let’s make some healthy homemade popsicles!

Turn Smoothies into Popsicles

Do you ever blend a smoothie, pour it into a glass then notice about an inch left in the bottom of your blender container? I can never bring myself to just rinse that out, yet it’s not enough for a whole second smoothie!

Grab one of your popsicle molds and a funnel and pour that smoothie remnant into a mold! Then you’ve got 1-2 popsicles that you didn’t even have to work for. They make great post-workout snacks, easy grab n’ go or an after-park treat for the kids.

You can do this with any smoothie recipe, yet a few of my favorites to freeze include the Best Green Smoothie, the Strawberry Banana Smoothie and the Mocha Coffee Smoothie (it’s like a frozen coffee!). You can even just blend your favorite smoothie recipe and then turn it into popsicles to have on hand. It’s amazing.

More Popsicle Recipes

I love a good popsicle as much as my kids, and created several recipes to keep the freezer stocked at all times. Grab one of the easy homemade popsicle recipes below and let’s get blending!

• Creamy Strawberry Popsicles
• Green Smoothie Popsicles
• Elderberry Popsicles for Sore Throats
• 2-Ingredient Watermelon Popsicles
• Creamy Healthy Popsicles

Don’t forget to rate + review this recipe once you try some. What colors did you make? How did they turn out? I want to know!