Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles and big news!

For my birthday, well I guess really for Aria's birthday, but in my mind it was for my birthday, my parents gave her me a Hamilton Beach Fast Pop Maker.  Have you guys seen these or used a similar brand?  It is so flippin sweet! (pun unintended, but I'm keeping it).

I didn't exactly like the recipes that were in the booklet so I made up my own since I had a ton of lemons and a ton of strawberries on hand and wanted to use them.  Please excuse the iPhone pictures, I have been crazy busy cleaning getting the house ready for showings!  That's right!  The big news:  The house is officially up for SALE!!!  Let the offers commence!  (Well, at least in my head they are all vying for the house, even if that isn't true in real life).

Anyway, here is the recipe I made up.

Strawberry Lemonade Popsicle Starter

1.5 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 cup water
1 cup sugar (I know I could have used something else here, but I was in a rush and knew I had it on hand)
1 package fresh strawberries, washed and tops cut off
plus some extra cold water

In a saucepan heat the water and sugar and cook until dissolved all the way.  Once the mixture is dissolved, let the pan cool.  After it has cooled, add in the lemon juice.

While the sugar water is cooking, put the strawberries in a processor (I used Aria's baby bullet) and puree them up.

Add both solutions together in a pitcher and add cold water until the pitcher is full (not exact science for this one, the more water you add, the less tart it will be later though).

Let it chill in the fridge.  This works out because the pop maker needs to freeze for 24 hours before making the pops.

juicing an endless sea of lemons

we just made two...at first

waiting 9-11 minutes

Brad releasing the pops from the mold

action shot

Ta Da!  Delicious homemade popsicle!

So as far as the pops go, you just add the juice to the pop maker and let it sit for 9-11 minutes, use the gizmo to pop the popsicle out and voila, strawberry lemonade popsicle!

Brad liked them a lot and asked for some different flavors.  He thought it was a bit too tart, but I liked them the way they were.  The batch will most likely make a ton of popsicles since we have made 4 and it hasn't really made a dent in it.  I will most likely add some more water to the mixture so that Aria doesn't have a pucker face the whole time when we make some for her tomorrow.

One really cool feature with this one is that you can immediately freeze another batch, which of course we had to  try out.  They turned out as delicious as the first!

There are a ton of other maker gizmos out there and are actually quite affordable, especially when they are gifts!  Thanks Mommy and Daddy!