Fast Sunday Banana Pops

The girls have both had the stomach flu this weekend, so we didn't take them to church. Ed went to help with nursery and I stayed home. Dinner's going in the slow cooker and filling the house with tummy-grumbling aromas. So what's a Mom to do on fast Sunday afternoon with two sick girls? Make food, of course!

I got this idea from my visiting teacher Heather (of the Black & Brown Chocolate Chip Cookies.) She and I share a love of cooking and always have lots to talk about, usually followed up by emailing recipes. Heather has kids in elementary school and she said they've had PBJ in their lunch boxes all year so she was trying to branch out and get creative with their lunches. One idea was frozen bananas, dipped and rolled in a variety of things. We brainstormed until my mouth was watering and I have been wanting to make some ever since.

What we did today -

4 bananas, peeled & cut in half

8 wooden craft sticks (lollipop sticks from the candy-making aisle at Michael's; could also use the straight end of plastic spoons)

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 to 3 T vanilla yogurt

Handfuls of puff cereal, graham crackers, oats, flax seed, and some stale danish butter cookies leftover from Christmas, finely crushed in food processor

Jimmy sprinkles and mini M&M's, also leftover from Christmas

Cut bananas in half. Spread a banana half with peanut butter/yogurt mixture, then roll in crumbs and sprinkles. I had sprinkles on one plate and crumb/M&M mixture on another. I had to mix the M&M's with the crumbs because if any part of the banana were to have only M&M's on it I know the girls would just eat them off and abandon the rest of the popsicle. This way we have a fighting chance.

Lay on cookie sheet and carefully insert a pop stick in the bottom of banana half. Freeze for 3 hours or until solid.

(Hazel insisted on one plain one)

Other things to try -

Dip/spread any of the following or combinations of them:

Peanut butter

Yogurt

Honey

Melted chocolate

Cream cheese

Fruit puree

Roll in:

Sprinkles

Crushed cookie/cracker/pretzel crumbs

Wheat germ or flax seed

Granola/oats

Coconut
Mini chocolate chips /M&M's/candy

Coarsely crushed Rice Krispies/corn flakes/cereal

Chopped nuts

One of my favorite treats to get on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, CO was a chocolate-dipped frozen banana at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Frozen bananas are creamy like ice cream, mmm. And what's great about making them at home is they can be a healthy snack or a sweet treat, depending on what you use. Either way, they're mostly banana, a whole food that most kids like.

I haven't asked Heather if she's sent these in lunches yet. I worry they would thaw in the lunch box and then be kind of messy, but maybe if you packed them in foil with an ice pack? I don't know; I welcome thoughts. And I also welcome the next 2 hours passing quickly so I can gobble up one of these bad boys. After ending my fast, of course.