Lets Make Buddy Bee Some Pops!

Buddy Bee loves his popsicles!
The Bee could eat 10 a day if we let him.  He is always standing by the fridge, reaching up to request a "POP".  We loved the Popsicle brand Slow Melt Mighty Minis because of their small size and slow melting feature however, the nutritional benefit left something to be desired.  When a product's first six ingredients are water, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, juice, and then more sugar, for this Mama it was time to find a better popsicle alternative for my little Bee. There are so many healthy pop alternatives in the stores but many of them are just too big for the Bee.  He is a tiny little squirt and he does not need a pop the size of his head!  So, I was determined to make my little Buddy Bee his very special pops myself. 

On our next shopping trip Buddy Bee and I picked up the supplies needed to make Buddy Bee's pops.

We first picked up a very nice selection of Langers frozen 100% juice concentrates.  The frozen concentrate was cheaper than the bottles of juice and I like the capability of keeping it frozen until I needed it.  We also picked up a packet of Knox Gelatin and we can't forget our giant box of craft sticks that we found. 

We were now ready to make some pops!

Because I was using the gelatin I had to heat the juice on the stove first. 

The gelatin was to make the pops slow melt. 

I then poured the juice in ice cube trays.  Not the perfect mold for popsicles but I wanted to try it before I bought actual popsicle molds. 

My first batch of pops made 73 popsicles. 

The total for my little project was $3.64 making the pops $0.05 each. 

Mighty Mini's are $ 0.16 each.

Yay!

I put the trays into the freezer and once they started to harden I added the popciles sticks. 

The next morning Buddy Bee had a very special treat waiting for him.

Buddy Bee trying his first popsicle made by Mommy.

He likes it!

Like I suspected the shape was very awkward for the Bee. 

Good morning happy boy!

Pops before breakfast is a very exciting thing for little Buddy Bee!

I feel fantastic that I can now give my little boy a healthy alternative for his very important pops. 

We have not started giving the Bee juice to drink. It's a personal decision that we made because BB was happy with water and nursing and we did not want to introduce something that might take away from his contentment with those other things so, this is truly a special treat for him. 

Buddy Bee pops lined up in the freezer.

Working on getting the whole thing in his mouth.

Buddy Bee liked his new pops okay but was still requesting his old pops. 

The taste was great but the texture left something to be desired.  The recipe I was following added way too much gelatin making them more like frozen jello which, if you can imagine that it not a very nice texture....goopy and kinda clumpy.  So on to batch #2 we went.  This time I decided to cut out the gelatin all together to see how they would turn out and how fast they melt.

Langers spring blend 100% juice all ready to be made into pops.

I did a lot of research on pop molds and finally found a smaller version from KidCo. 

They turned out perfect and are so easy to use. 

I only filled them half way to make them the perfect size for the Bee.

Out came the 1000 count craft sticks box which, cost me $4.97.

The pop molds came with handles but because I wanted to make the pops smaller I decided to use the craft sticks. 

I wasted a lot of time waiting for the first batch of pops to harden enough to add the popsicle sticks so, this time we got a little creative.  I put a piece of foil on top of the molds, cut a small slit in the middle of each mold, and then slid a craft stick into each one. 

A few hours later we had some very yummy pops for the Buddy Bee. 

Buddy Bee is not the biggest fan of the orange pops but he loves the other 2 flavors we have now made. 

Mommy and Daddy might be known to enjoy a BB pop as well!

YAY for healthy, homemade, inexpensive popsicles for my little Buddy Bee!