28 May 2006

Mango Pops & More Awesomeness on a Stick

I am so happy that mangos (also spelled correctly mangoes) are in season right now. I was excited to see that the Sunflower Market had them organic for 88 cents each. For days, I was imagining biting into a juicy mango and having no cares in the world! Then the day came and the Sunflower Market had some sort of mango-shipment-problem and I was told to come back at a later time. I went the following day and they were still out. I was planning on checking out Henry's market anyway, which is owned by Wild Oats, and it turned out they had organic mangos for 79 cents each! Way better. So, I bought 4 and two of them quickly went into my belly straight-up, into smoothies, frozen, and into this wondeful Mango Ice Cream from The Everyday Vegan. This recipe is super-simple and easy and only calls for a few ingredients. The fruits are mostly mango with a bit of frozen banana, agave nectar and a few other secrets.

After I froze the ice cream (and of course, sampled some) I decided to utilize the containers that make popcicles and put some of the mango ice cream into the molds with my own sticks. What a great idea! Now I had 4 pops and still some ice cream for scooping leftover. Thanks Dreena!

Since I was on a "fruit-on-a-stick" kick, I decided to take some fresh bananas and cut them in half and dip them into goodness. I made the same chocolate mixture as I have in previous posts, and topped it with the following: First, we have one banana dipped in chocolate and rolled in "Let's Do Organics" colored sprinkles, colored with spinach, beet and turmeric instead of crap. Then I dipped 2 bananas in chopped raw pecans and one of them in shredded coconut. How wonderful.
I decided to cut up a few chunks of banana as well as take out the organic frozen strawberries (in a fresh container) and dip those in the leftover chocolate. I still had some leftover chocolate and my friend Bob was sitting across the counter from me while I was dipping and he decided the bag of pecans and bowl of leftover chocolate sounded good (and it did) and he pretty much finished the rest of it by then.

This is a close up of 4/6 strawberries I dipped. Guess where the other 2 are?!
And what you see above is my own take on Catherine's Hippie Bars. Yes, the first test-batch is gone. Come on, the recipe was for a "Party of One" and there are 2 of us (plus occasional guests) here. This time I didn't follow her recipe, or any recipe by that matter. I took about 20 dates, some agave nectar, walnuts, oats, cinnamon, cashews, sunflower seeds and mixed it all together. You can see I started to cut into bars, but wanted to show the whole slab at once.
And here's some sun tea I spontaniously made today. It's a bit cooler (yeah, 97 degrees still) and at around 3pm I decided to brew up some cranberry apple tea with mulling spices (alspice, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, etc.). It only needed to be out there for about an hour (laugh) because the sun was at it's peak, I think. I almost regretted making this so late in the day but then I remembered where I live. I took it down from the infamous "AZ brick wall", and it was hot to the touch. I took out the bags and now it's chillin' in the fridge. I know it tastes good, as it smells good and I should really do this more often...
Fin.

23 comments:

Flo @ Yielded Heart said...

I made mango-pineapple sorbet today and the whole time I was thinking fruit bars... fruit bars...and then, here they are. They look so awesome!

Your bananas on-a-stick are a different story. I almost didn't want the kids to see them, but then Zurielle did, and guess what she said?

"Yummy!"

I also like the cute jar sitting on the brick wall.

Dr. Melissa West said...

Wow! Wow! Wow! Can I come to your house? I *love* mango too. It is my absolute favourite. The ice cream on a stick is fantastic. I gotta get some molds and make something like this for my darling daughter.

I have been going crazy with ice tea lately too. There is something about warmer weather and ice tea, gotta have it!

Eat Peace Please said...

Kai, the banana pops aren't really bad. You can use less chocolate chips and add more cocoa powder and then they are like nothing! I just added agave and soymilk to it and heated in the microwave (which has made a comeback appearance since the chocolate...). I would say it's a healthy, yet indulgent treat!

Dragonslayer, yes you can come over. Only if you can trade me some of your cupcakes (or muffins?) and those p.b. cookies! You don't have to necessarily buy molds, just use some shallow or thin cups or containers around the house and add sticks to them. Or if you buy the molds they usually come with sticks, but I don't care for them.

Anonymous said...

Everything looks so great and yummy!! Maybe one day my creative vegan streak will come but, for now, I'll just keep drinking smoothies!!!

funwithyourfood said...

Well my secret ingredient was instead of using soymilk in my dark chocolate, I used... coconut milk. It was great! Doesn't tastes like coconut at all but it give the chocolate a slightly different taste. tell me what you think : )

Teddy

funwithyourfood said...

Btw
mango pops = YUM : )

Freedom said...

If you've checked out my blog recently you will note that I have The Everyday Vegan on loan from my local library and I have been going nuts making things from it - this recipe has been calling to me a bit and I think the awesome photo is enough to motivate me to make it!

Dreena said...

Ok, Leslie, those mango pops look even BETTER than you explained on my blog. I have to do this myself!! Plus, the banana pops and choco fruit... your kitchen is a dreamland for kidlets, seriosuly!!

I chuckled at your "it's a bit cooler here now - 97 degrees" comment! Hoo boy, I have been drinking HOT tea and cocoa all weekend and last week. Rainy and cool here - equivalent of about maybe about 60 degrees for you (we have temp in celsius)... anyway, I can't wait to make iced tea - when the weather permits! :)

Grace said...

I want mango pops now! Your food always looks so good.

karen said...

Your snacks always look incredible. I'm taking The Everyday Vegan off my shelf and making stuff from it this week...

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

your frozen treats look so pretty & major yummy! i've gotta make some of those mango pops - i have the molds & now the inspiration. thanks leslie!

VeganHeartDoc said...

mmmmmmmm.... mangoes! I wish they just weren't so messy to chop up! The popsicles look delicious.

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Wow..I must try this banana pops idea, that's it. The mango ones look heavenly, as well~

KleoPatra said...

Sun tea! Great idea!! Your sweets look SWEET!

Anonymous said...

I wish I liked mango. It looks so amazing in your pops and I see it on sale in Chinatown all the time. But, sigh, me no likey the taste. I'll have to experiment with some other flavours (mmm...berries). Those bananas look amazing too.

Awesome blog!
Megan

Patty said...

oh looks so yummy. When I get back from the east coast I am going to make those.
Might try the hippy type bars to take on the plane ride.
You make such good food!

Harmonia said...

OMG. everything looks so great!
Yum!

My MwM are up!

:)

Dori said...

WOW! What a treat.... awesome treats!

Anonymous said...

Now, about these bars... I have developed an (expensive) Lara Bar habit, and I make everything else myself, so why not those too? Do you pulverize everything into bits in the food processor and then press it into a pan? How to you store the leftover ones (if there are any)? I like to pre-make a bunch of stuff to eat for lunch snacks all week. . .

Eat Peace Please said...

Caitlin, I cannot give you the exact recipe I have because I am testing for Catherine's (see my links) upcoming cookbook. You can ask her to test, but I can't give you details. For my personal bars that I made myself, I just toss in dates and agave nectar in a small bowl. I mash the dates with a fork and then slowly mix in nuts/seeds/fruit/spices or whatever you want. I don't run them through a processor, I just put them whole. You could do that if you like to make the peices smaller, as it seems like LaraBar does this. It's really easy and non-baked. You should put the mixture in the fridge to firm up for an hour or so. Does this help?

Anonymous said...

These sweet treats all look so delicious and the mango pops look so refreshing. I could feel my mouth beginning to salvate a bit just looking at all those chocolate creations.

Lyrically speaking said...

my mouth is watering over the strawberries and the ice creams

jenny said...

Wow, wow, and wow!!