Monday 25 January 2016

Cooling down on hot days

Overall our summer has been fairly mild apart from a few hot days during which our old wooden house becomes like an oven despite insulation and fans so I have been experimenting with different icy-pole recipes from  I Quit Sugar and That Sugar Film blog.







Yesterday I made some Mango, Macadamia and Coconut icy-poles which are similar to the Mango Macadamia 'Weis' Bars featured in the I Quit Sugar Kids Cookbook  which is also available as an eBook. 

I made these a little differently from the recipe in the book and the next time I make them I will just mix all the ingredients together rather than have two different sections which would be quicker to make and probably less messy as it was rather a thick mixture which I found difficult to get into the moulds. 

This recipe isn't available online as it is part of the 8 week Program but I found a similar one for Mango, Coconut and Macadamia Ice Creams on The Nutrition Guru and the Chef if you want to see another variation.    

This is the way I made mine: 

Mango Macadamia and Coconut Icy Poles

2 270ml cans coconut cream (I used light)
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1 tablespoon rice malt syrup (I will leave this out next time)
1 cup diced frozen mango

Firstly I blended the rice malt syrup, coconut cream and coconut in the food processor then poured the mixture into the moulds. I just poured in enough to fill 1/3 of the mould. I then added some crumbed macadamia nuts which I had on hand. Then froze all this for an hour or so. 

Once it started to freeze after this time, I blended the remaining coconut mixture with the frozen mango before pouring it all into the moulds on top of the coconut mixture. Then the 'sticks' were added before putting the icy-poles into the freezer overnight. 

UPDATE 27/1/16: The CEO had one of these last night and he found the coconut cream, coconut and rice malt syrup layer much too rich so if you aren't keen on coconut perhaps make the layer a lot smaller and I think you could even cut out the rice malt syrup as well. As I mentioned the next time I make them I will just mix all the ingredients together and not have layers as we were both hankering to get to the mango layer. LOL!


These were quite refreshing on a hot, humid day. However, I found the coconut cream, rice malt syrup and coconut section a little too rich so, as I mentioned before, I will mix all the ingredients together next time and not have layers and I doubt that the rice malt syrup is necessary anyway. 

As I had used two cans of coconut cream I had some mixture left after filling the moulds so just kept that in the fridge to make up more icy poles as they were eaten. They don't stay in the freezer very long around here. 

While it is still summer I might also try the I Quit Sugar Aussie Splice Blocks which are designed to get some veggies into kids as they mix spinach in with banana, avocado and mango. One of the ingredients which I probably wouldn't buy, as I don't have growing children who aren't eating their veggies, is Vital Kids and when I clicked on the link to read what it was I was surprised at the statistics stated there that only 22% of Aussie children aged 4-8 meet their recommended daily serves of vegetables and that falls to less than 5% if you remove potatoes. That is quite amazing isn't it? 

22% of Australian kids aged 4 – 8 meet their recommended daily serves of vegetables?  When you take potatoes out of this, it falls to less than 5%.* - See more at: http://www.martinandpleasance.com/brands/vital/about-vital-kids/#sthash.vFpp8qXP.dpuf
22% of Australian kids aged 4 – 8 meet their recommended daily serves of vegetables?  When you take potatoes out of this, it falls to less than 5%.* - See more at: http://www.martinandpleasance.com/brands/vital/about-vital-kids/#sthash.vFpp8qXP.dpuf
The storms which were forecast to start on Saturday finally arrived in our neck of the woods today. On Saturday night I was out in the dark using the 'night' option on my camera to try and catch a photo of the lightning in the clouds but it was a bit hit and miss. As is usual during our Aussie summers, there are some storm cells which are destructive and some of our farmers have lost their crops in recent storms which is especially sad when they were ready to harvest. Let's hope and pray that the storms forecast for the next few days just bring some much needed rain without doing any damage. 

I hope my Northern Hemisphere readers are keeping warm and safe and that my Aussie readers are also keeping safe from the fires and inclement weather that has been the norm of late in some areas. 






 



19 comments:

  1. You're lucky, the storms just skirted around us. We were looking forward to the rain. Maybe next time? ;)

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    1. Yes Chris, they are a bit hit and miss I must say. We had no rain yesterday nor today despite the forecast for rain.

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  2. Now that looks yummy as. I might make some today.

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    1. Did you make them Lynda? I am going to put an update on the post about the coconut cream layer being much too rich.

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  3. Your icypoles look yummy chel, just the thing for a hot day. Dont like the look of that storm coming through so i hope all well in your neck of the woods xoxo

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    1. It has cooled down again here, Karen. Back to our normal summer weather thankfully.

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  4. Natural yoghurt with fruit and honey is another great iceblock recipe too. These look super yummy

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    1. Reckon I'll give theses a go too!

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    2. That sounds nice too, Phil. I must try it and replace the honey with rice malt syrup.

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  5. Replies
    1. A bit rich unfortunately, Chrissy but they are a work in progress.

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  6. It is always fun to read a little bit of summer in the midst of a cold winter here! Icypoles or popsicles are one of my favorites in the summer, I put away a bag of strawberries to eat in the middle of winter I'm thinking it may be about time to get them out and have a taste of summer!

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    1. Kathy, I imagine you would need to have a little reminder of summer time during your cold and long winters when everything is white.

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  7. My kids would love these, I'm going to whip these up tomorrow, thanks for sharing.

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    1. Clarissa, I hope they aren't too rich for your kids. My hubby didn't like the coconut but my son did.

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  8. These look GOOD Chel! I'll give them a try. Yes, stormy here too, but we are lucky in the Northern 'burbs, that they see to have mostly run their course by the time the reach us. Mimi xxx

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    1. We just had a storm go through Mimi and we got a fair bit of rain in the gauge. I guess you have heard the warnings for super cells tomorrow. Hang on to your hat!

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  9. These look delicious! I'm not sure my young boy would like so much coconut either so will make some with a smaller coconut layer.

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  10. Awesome post!I love the idea of a quit sugar.Thank you for the valuable information on this tips.

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