I feel like these pops are the perfect Sunday Funday treat. I mean, they aren’t overly sweet, there’s no added sugar, they are sweetened only with honey, they’ve even got the good for you ingredients of bananas, almond butter, coconut milk and almonds…delish! Yes, they are dipped into chocolate, but hey, use dark chocolate – it has all kinds of benefits. So you see, you don’t have to feel too bad about these sweet little indulgences. They are also incredibly creamy and delicious, making them the ideal treat for these warmer days. Clearly the perfect Sunday treat. Best part? You can make them today, enjoy one in four hours and then have seven more for later. Yup, yup! Now that’s what I call Sunday preppin for the week.
I mean, you’ve got to make sure you have some chocolate on hand for each and ever day of the week… Otherwise, how will you get through?
So you guys, I have serious business to chat about today. Edible flowers. Yeah, that’s my serious business. But hear me out. See, I am loving using edible flowers in everything lately, they are just so fun. But umm….I just learned that a few of the flowers I have been picking from my yard are poisonous and I pretty much had a mild freak out that I was going to kill everybody I was feeding. OK, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Only one of the flowers I picked were poisonous, and no one ever ate them, I just used them for photos, but still! I guess I never thought that the flowers in my own yard could be harmful. I realize how stupid this is, but I just wasn’t thinking about it. Once I realized this, I spent the next hour hovering over my computer researching what flowers I could actually eat. I was really surprised to find there are a decent amount of poisonous flowers. Who knew? NOT ME.
Question, has this moment ever happened to anyone else?? Clearly I am not a gardener, but I’m hoping my dad can soon teach me a few tricks. He has always loved to have a veggie garden, but fell off the wagon since moving to Colorado. The whole everything freezing overnight in the summertime thing is a HUGE turn off. Apparently though, when we lived back in Ohio (a place where things can actually grow!) dad would pick the dandelion greens from the yard and put them in his salad. Go dad! My mom and I would pick his tomato plants, that’s what we were good for, eating!
And speaking of my mom, I made her come over on Friday just to try these salted chocolate dipped banana almond pops. I had to see her face when she took the first bite. If she rolls her eyes, you know you have an awesome recipe, and guys? She totally rolled her eyes big time while eating these healthy pops. And yes, I did say healthy, like I said before, no added sugar (I used honey, but vegans can use maple syrup if desired), no butter, no cream (cause why use cream when you can use Almond Breeze Coconut Almond Milk?!?!), loads of heart healthy almonds, coconut and dark chocolate. These pops are practically antioxidants sitting on a stick. Gosh, don’t you just love how I can turn things into healthy treats (or my kind of heathy anyway)? I seem to be really into making things healthier deserts lately. It’s phase, but I am liking it.
Here’s the deal, the base of the pops are SO simple to make, just add some very ripe bananas, almond butter, almond milk, a couple of tablespoons honey (or maple syrup) and some vanilla to a food processor and blend until creamy. Then pour the batter into popsicles molds or just use paper dixie cups. Insert popsicle sticks and freeze. A little before you take the pops out of the freezer, make the malted honey sauce. This sauce is totally optional and not something these pops necessarily NEED…but, if you are looking for more of a dessert, like chewy caramel, then make the sauce. It’s really easy, just add everything to a pot, bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes. Let it cool slightly, then dip the frozen pops into the sauce and place back in the freezer. And then the chocolate layer. Now this is a MUST, you have to put the chocolate on these. You could skip out, but that’s just kind of lame. Sorry, but it is true.
Plus, the chocolate shell is just dark chocolate and coconut oil, so nothing fancy. Then sprinkle with roasted almonds, coconut and sea salt. EAT. See, pretty simple, kind of annoying all the freezer time, but still, pretty easy to make, so yummy and so much fun!
Oh, and clearly these pops are crazy creamy, which is crazy awesome!
