Strawberry Cheesecake Popsicles

It only takes a couple days for us to eat a batch of popsicles, so today I made these Strawberry Cheesecake Posicles from Cooking Light, which are not poisonous by my husband's standard. (He did tell me that if I sneaked mayonnaise into these, he would be filing for divorce. Can you tell how much he likes mayo?)

These are fantastic. I skipped the graham cracker crumbs from the original recipe because they require effort right before serving, which just didn't happen tonight. Everyone in our family liked these. The cheesecake portion of the popsicle tastes like ice cream and whipped cream, according to AJ. It's so delicious, I'm tempted just to make cheesecake popsicles. Ooo, then I could dip them in chocolate. 

So far Dave's ranking, and I'd agree, for the popsicles is:

1. Strawberry Cheesecake Popsicles

2. Key Lime Popsicles

Both are definitely worth repeating. And if you don't have popsicle molds, don't worry. Our molds are smaller, so I put the leftover in a plastic cup and shove in a plastic spoon for the stick. Easy as can be.

Strawberry Cheesecake Popsicles

5 oz. evaporated low-fat milk

1/4 cup sugar

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

1 tsp. vanilla

3 Tbsp. corn syrup

1 tsp. lemon juice

10 oz. strawberries

Combine milk and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook 3 minutes, until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and add cream cheese. Whisk until smooth. Stir in yogurt and vanilla. Set aside to cool.

Place remaining ingredients in a blender, and puree until smooth. Divide half the cream cheese mixture into 6 (4 oz.) popsicle molds. Top evenly with strawberry mixture, and then fill with remaining cream cheese mixture. Stir slightly to swirl. Freeze 4 hours or until solid. Makes 6-8 popsicles. 

Key Lime Popsicles

My kids and husband happily ate these popsicles the first night, although my younger son was a bit slower due to the tartness. My older son proclaimed them to be one of the best things he's eaten and certainly the best popsicles ever. My husband said that I could make these again. The second night I mentioned the secret ingredient that gives these popsicles their green hue, and my husband realized there was avocado in these popsicles. He set his popsicle on the table and refused to touch it.

So maybe popsicles with secret ingredients that my husband deems to be poison isn't the best way to kick off my plan of making a whole bunch of different popsicles this summer, but my son picked these to be the first ones made. He thought the avocado would ruin the popsicles when we were making them, but it really just provides the coloring and helps to provide a creamier texture.

Here's the version from Cooking Light with my slight modification. These will be repeated in my house if my son has any say in it.

Key Lime Popsicles

3/4 cup water

2/3 cup sugar

4 large lime peel strips

1 large avocado, chopped

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup key lime juice (bottled is fine)

Lime zest remaining from lime

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup coarse graham cracker crumbs

Combine water, sugar and lime peel strips over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and cool completely. Discard lime peels.

Process lime simple syrup with remaining ingredients, except graham cracker crumbs, until smooth. Poor mixture evenly into popsicle molds. (It filled 6 Lego figure popsicles with extra left to fill 3 medium plastic cups.) Sprinkle evenly with graham cracker crumbs, pushing slightly down into the lime mixture. Freeze at least 3 hours before serving. (If necessary, insert the stick after 30 minutes in the freezer. Lego figure molds have the sticks built into the popsicles.) Makes 7-10 popsicles.