{"id":5127,"date":"2011-05-23T10:49:42","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T14:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uncommongoods.pro\/?p=5127"},"modified":"2011-11-29T17:47:27","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T22:47:27","slug":"gift-lab-summer-treats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/2011\/gift-lab-summer-treats\/","title":{"rendered":"Gift Lab: Summer Treats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Customer Service representative Meya made some colorful fruit and veggie mango pops with the new Quick Pop Maker<\/a>, and a recipe she found in Perfect Pops<\/a>. But will her teething daughter find them as tasty as they are healthy?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

1) Product Name: Quick Pop Maker & Perfect Pops<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2) Background Research<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Summer\u2019s coming and as a parent to a teething infant, I know the best thing to help sooth them is something cold for them to crush on. So my goal was to find an ice pop recipe that I can make in a jiffy that my teething 8 month old could enjoy as well as the rest of the family.<\/p>\n

3) Hypothesis: <\/strong><\/p>\n

I will no longer have to worry that I forgot to pop the teethers in the freezer when the moment hits.<\/p>\n

4) Experiment: <\/strong><\/p>\n

My mission: Use the book to find a pop that my whole family will love and with the magic of the Quick Pop Maker<\/a> create instant ice pops in a flash.<\/p>\n

I unpacked, washed, dried and immediately stuck the quick pop maker in the freezer. Then I set out to find the perfect pop recipe. My criteria for my recipe was a pop made of fruits\/vegetables, with no added sugar (natural sugars are okay) or salt. A recipe on page 60<\/a> caught my interest>: watermelon-beet juice and carrot-apple juice striped pops.<\/p>\n

But going over the ingredients I thought, “I must have lost my mind.” Beet juice stains are no joke, and even with the small amount required (2 tbs) I wasn\u2019t willing to risk it. I decided to omit it from the recipe. In the end I also omitted the agave nectar because I couldn\u2019t find any that was pasteurized. I tasted the carrot and apple juice mixture and it really did need something to sweeten it up so I added some mango puree. While it succeeded in sweetening up the mix, it also really changed the color.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s what I did next:<\/p>\n

1. Remove Quick Pop Maker from the freezer. Insert sticks and pour about \u00be ounce of 1st mixture or Puree; allow layer to freeze completely.
\n2. Pour \u00bd ounce of next mixture or puree into each cavity directly on top of the 1st layer; allow layer to freeze completely.
\n3. Pour another layer, fill the base up to fill line in each cavity; allow layer to freeze completely.
\n4. Remove the pops with the Super Tool.<\/p>\n

Pretty easy!<\/p>\n

5) Results: From start to finish the whole process took about 20 min. I decided to juice or puree fresh fruit, so that added to my time. As did making the striped pops, because I had to wait for each layer to set.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

6) Conclusion: I was surprised at Leya. She really loved these popsicles. I took this first picture thinking that I had sometime while she ate her way through the pop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Little did I know! By the time I texted my mother a picture of Leya eating the pop, she was 2\/3 done. As for her sore gums, I had a very happy baby on my hands. So much so that I decided to make her another the very next day (this time it was only an apple-carrot puree). Okay, so I guess I\u2019m not that great at following a recipe but these pops were so good and were quick and easy to make. I can\u2019t wait to try some of the other recipes. If you don\u2019t think your infant can handle the pop stick or you just don\u2019t want the mess, you can always cut a piece off and put it in a mesh feeder.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Quick Pop Maker<\/a> is $50 and comes with everything you need to make a batch of pops in just 9 minutes. Pick up a copy of Perfect Pops<\/a>, $16, for some fun recipes to get you started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meya makes healthy homemade pops with the new Quick Pop Maker <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":5140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[741],"tags":[61,82],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}