photo by velostricken
Cool treats are one of the highlights of summer. With fresh fruit coming into season throughout the summer, each month can offer something new and refreshing. Set aside the high-calorie ice cream, and have your children help you make healthier alternatives that taste great and satisfy your sweet tooth. You can stock up your freezer with homemade treats for less money, and you can control the ingredients.

Smoothies
Fruit smoothies are cool and refreshing and can be made with healthy ingredients, such as fruit, juices, milk and yogurt. You can opt to make them like a fruit slush or more like a shake. Mixing them up takes only a little imagination and a blender. If you want it thicker, add more fruit; for thinner smoothies, add more liquid. You can pour smoothies into cups and freeze them to enjoy a frozen, fruity yogurt treat to eat with a spoon. If you can’t resist adding ice cream to your smoothies, then go with the low-fat variety.

Consider the following fruit combinations: watermelon and lemon iced tea; strawberries and bananas; bananas and yogurt; mangos and orange juice; peaches and bananas; strawberries, blueberries and raspberries; pineapples and oranges; strawberries and watermelon; kiwis and strawberries; apricots and nectarines.

We like our smoothies to be like milkshakes. The following is our favorite recipe.

Cheery Cherry Smoothie
1 bag frozen cherries
2 cups strawberry low-fat yogurt
4 cups milk
ice cubes

Blend and adjust milk and ice until it’s a consistency you like and serve. We occasionally add low-fat ice cream.
Serves 4

Fruitsicles
Fruit pops can be made in many combinations using ingredients such as fruit juice, sweetened-drink mixes, yogurt, pudding, pureed fruit, chocolate milk, saved juice from canned fruit and gelatin. Molds can be as simple as an ice-cube tray or paper cup, or you can buy fancier plastic molds. Consider layering different ingredients, such as pudding, yogurt and gelatin, in one mold. Our family favorite is pudding pops.

Pudding Pops
1 (4-ounce) package of instant chocolate or vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups milk

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and pour it into molds. Serve when frozen.
Serves 8

Cook’s note: If you’re using paper cups instead of molds, wait until the pudding is partially frozen and insert wooden sticks for handles. You can also add nuts, marshmallows, chocolate chips, ice-cream sprinkles or whipped topping to the pudding pops prior to freezing.

More Fun Summer Treats
After a while, smoothies and frozen pops can lose their fun factor, so I like to have a few surprises up my sleeve. You can try frozen fruits such as grapes, peaches and bananas. Children can eat them plain or dip them in yogurt. You can also cut a banana in half and insert a wooden stick. Spread yogurt on the outside or dip into melted chocolate or honey, roll into crispy rice cereal or granola, and freeze.

I don’t completely ban sugary desserts. I can control ingredients when making them at home. My children love root-beer floats. When made with low-fat frozen yogurt and diet root beer, it’s not a bad choice once in a while.

For a special surprise, try strawberry pizza.

Strawberry Pizza
2 packages of refrigerated sugar-cookie dough
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 (8-ounce) blocks cream cheese
1 container whipped topping, thawed
fresh strawberries
1 cup broken mini pretzels
chocolate syrup

Press cookie dough onto greased pizza pan or cookie sheet. Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 10 minutes and let cool. Hand mix sugar, vanilla and cream cheese, and fold in whipped topping. Spread mixture onto cooled cookie crust. Arrange sliced strawberries and broken-pretzel pieces on top, and drizzle chocolate syrup over it. Chill in refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.
Serves 8

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