Red, White, and Blue Frozen Yogurt Pops

Happy 4th of July!

This is my take on the nostalgic "firecracker" ice pops. My daughter has two great loves in her life. And although I know she loves her Momma and Daddy, the two things she goes gaga for right now are 1) FRUIT and 2) YOGURT. I've been making her blended fruit and yogurt pops (with plain yogurt, sweetened lightly with honey), and I can honestly say it's a treat that I don't mind giving her. It's a healthy and fun dessert the whole family can enjoy!

Our pick-your-own fruit is in the height of it's season around our area right now. We picked these raspberries and blueberries ourselves at our local orchard. What a fun activity for kids! Although the farm probably should've weighed my daughter before we started picking (about half of what she personally picked never made it to her basket) :0)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup raspberries or strawberries (strawberries will be more naturally sweet)
• 6 TBSP orange juice
• honey
• large container of plain or vanilla yogurt (I like greek-style) - or about 1 and 1/4 cups.
• zest of one lemon
• 4-pop, ice-pop set

Directions:

• Place 3/4 Cup of yogurt into a bowl. Add 1 TBSP of honey and half of the lemon zest. Stir to mix. Place in the refrigerator until you are ready to put the pops together.
• In two separate small sauce pans (or do one batch at a time), simmer blueberries and raspberries or strawberries with 3 TBSP orange juice each, for about 8-10 minutes, or until the berries are broken down and the sauce begins to thicken slightly. Take them off the heat and stir in the remaining lemon zest (divided between the two fruits), and 1 TBSP of honey to each, or more to your liking. If you are using raspberries and don't care for the seeds, you can strain the mixture by pressing it through a fine mesh sieve at this point.
• After the fruit sauces have cooled slightly, add 1/4 cup of the yogurt to each and stir to mix well.
• To assemble the pops: (Because all pop containers will be different sizes, make sure to allow room for all "3 layers". My amounts may make more than you need for your pops!) Start with the red layer and divide the sauce between the 4 pop containers. Then add the white "yogurt only" layer. Then end with your blueberry layer!
• Freeze for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
• If your pop makers are like mine, they will release easier after running some warm water over the outside of the cap.

Three little yogurt-pop angels at the Riverside Fireworks Symphonia.