Strawberry Banana Yogurt Popsicles

This past weekend was a hot one! I found myself browsing recipes to try to find something that I could make to beat the heat. As usual I find many a recipe over at The Slow Roasted Italian. This was no exception, as I found just the recipe I needed. You can see their recipe here. I changed nothing about it, that is how good it is!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 pounds ripe strawberries, washed and hulled
• 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup non-fat plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Combine strawberries, 2 tablespoons sugar and lemon juice in a food processor and blend until smooth. 

Divide half of the strawberry mixture in your popsicle molds and set it aside.

In a small bowl combine bananas, yogurt, 1 tablespoon sugar and vanilla and stir to combine.

Add banana mixture on top of the strawberry mixture in the popsicles molds, filling them about 2/3 full.

Pour remaining strawberry mixture on top.  Freeze 4-24 hours until completely frozen.

Don’t have a Popsicle mold? Use an ice-cube tray, younger kids love to eat them this way too. Place a layer of plastic wrap over the top and insert toothpicks or popsicle sticks to keep in place while freezing. ENJOY your summer!

Roasted Cauliflower

First off, I can’t take credit for this recipe. I got it from Rachael Ray. It is the BEST cauliflower recipe ever! My kids don’t eat or like cauliflower for that matter or any veggies really and we eat the entire head of cauliflower with this recipe! I am at the point now that I automatically get 2 heads of cauliflower when I make this. (YES it’s that good!)

INGREDIENTS

4 cloves garlic, halved
About 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets (the smaller the better)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (must get this cheese, you can substitute, but this is the best!)

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, the true “parmesan” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

DIRECTIONS

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400°F. 
2. In a small pot, combine the garlic and EVOO; heat over a low flame and gently simmer until the garlic is light golden brown in color and very fragrant, about 10-15 minutes. Remove the garlic cloves and reserve.
3. Pile the cauliflower on a baking sheet and dress with the lemon juice, about 3-4 tablespoons of the garlic-infused oil, thyme, and salt/pepper. 
4. Toss to combine and spread the florets out in a single layer. Roast to brown at the edges and until tender, 20-25 minutes. 
5. Cover with the grated Parmigiano Reggiano and roast for 5 minutes more. 
6. Serve warm if you can manage to keep from eating straight off the pan (this is what m and my hubby end up doing!)
7. Those garlic cloves you used to season the olive oil are great in mashed potatoes, potato salad, or mixed up in anything you can think of!