'Leftover' Popsicles

I wish that somehow you could step into my kitchen and really grasp how much I detest throwing away food.  It's physically painful for me, truly it is.  I'm like Erma Bombeck, surreptitiously eating the last spoonfuls off of every child's plate, except that I don't eat those spoonfuls, I put them in the fridge in wee little tupperware containers and think about them for days on end.  That's much healthier, right?

Well, if you also suffer from this affliction, take heart.  I'm going to help you right now.  I'm going to introduce you to the world of leftover popsicles.  No, no, sit down and hush up and stop making that stinky poo poo face or I'll make you go sit on the stairs with the two year old.  I'm not going to tell you to grind up your leftover Christmas ham and freeze it on a stick (although...hamsicles?  Hmmmm....).  No, the trick to a good leftover popsicle is balance.

First of all, you need a liquid.  The only thing I've learned about this step is not to use a carbonated drink, because they really don't freeze very well.  Although, this being said, I always tried it with a large ratio of carbonated drink to other ingredients - perhaps it would work better with a small ratio; you crazy experimenters out there will have to give me the low down on that.

And then, Bob's your uncle, really.  Go nuts.  Lots of stuff will freeze suspended (or dissolved) in your liquid of choice and use up all sorts of bits and pieces.  Canned cranberry sauce, for some reason, is not great at setting, but again maybe in a better mixture would work.

Now, this being said, the more traditional among you are probably going to want to use more 'standard' popsicle ingredients, but may I suggest stretching your minds just a tiny bit?  That last spoonful of hot chocolate powder can go in there.  The half-eaten container of raisins, yes.  A yogurt cup that's expiring tomorrow and no one is going to eat, absolutely.  How about the endless reams of apple peels that appear on your counters because of little people who insist on de-skinned fruit?  Those are great to puree and toss in.  Or when you buy oranges and they aren't actually those nice oranges that you wanted to buy but the ones that are all hard and don't have enough juice and you're all like "oh wow I cannot eat this orange" and you want to throw it away but holy hannah in a handbasket have you seen the price of oranges today?  Those too.

I made some up today and here they are:

Some cranberry cocktail, a bit of prune juice, and two yogurt cups of different flavours (I used nectarine and strawberry).  The toddler has been having a "touchy tummy", and hopefully these will help.  I won't go into details.

 I broke out the new popsicle molds for your admiration.  $2, marked down to 74 cents, at 50% off.  37 cents!  Oh I love a bargain.

And here's the trick I've found.  The first time you use your popsicle molds, fill up a measuring cup with water and check to see how much you need to fill up all of the molds.  Then when you're mixing your odds and ends, you can use the same cup to make sure you don't have too much or too little.

My 7 molds required 2 cups of liquid.  And it tasted quite nice.

Now go!  And make sure to share your creations with me!