sunday kids' craft: fresh fruit freats

My oldest daughter has been asking me for weeks to make fresh fruit freats (that's my made up name for frozen treats).  We experimented with these last summer because they fit my criteria for cooking with kids.  What are my criteria for cooking with kids?  Well, I'm glad you asked!  Anything I do with my children in the kitchen must be:

1) Messy

2) Stain clothing

3) Messy

4) Fun
Oh and . . .
5) Messy

Not the criteria you were expecting . . . right?

Well, I guess these aren't my cooking-with-kids criteria so much as they are the four things that seem to happen anytime I try to cook with my kids.  We make a crazy mess - i.e. when we made our own chewing gum.  We stain our clothing.  And we have a ton of fun! 

Now, I'm going to be honest, it's not in my nature to like making messes or stains on clothing.  But when I hear the giggles and see the smiles that result from these messy stains, I can't help but feel as happy as they do.  

So . . . I promised my oldest daughter that on the 4th of July we would make our first batch of fresh fruit freats.  We made four popsicles and two dozen ice cubes.  

Grab the following crafty ingredients or a variation and make your own freats:
-3 to 4 cups of fresh fruit (washed and cut up)
-2 cups of orange juice or white grape juice (White grape juice will make sweeter freats and OJ freats are a little tart.)

 
1)  Frist things first . . . scrub those hands.  This craftipe (ooo . . . I just invented a new word for recipe and craft!) is hands-on - literally.

2)  Divide your bowl of cut up fruit putting 3/4 of the fruit in one bowl and leaving 1/4 of the fruit in the other bowl. 

3)  This is the fun part . . . start squashing.  That's right . . . smash, squeeze, pound - whatever it takes to make smashed fruit.

4) Mix juice and smashed fruit.

5) Pour juice/fruit mixture into popsicle molds and/or ice cube tray.  (We used a mini-muffin tin because, oddly, I could not find our ice cube trays anywhere.  I also couldn't find one of the popsicle tops.  Where is everything going in our house?)

6) Put a few pieces of the unmashed cut-up fruit into each popsicle mold and/or ice cube mold.

7) Cover molds and ice cube tray (or mini-muffin tin) with plastic wrap and freeze.

**To easily remove ice cubes from tray dip the bottom of the tray in a sink of warm water for a few seconds.

My girls drink plain old fashioned water pretty well, but they drink it even better with a few of these ice cubes plopped into the glass.  Or use these ice cubes in a pitcher of lemonade, sangria or punch for a party or shower. 

Delicious and pretty!

Craft on!