Healthy Summer Snack: Strawberry Basil Ice Pops

I recently went to Mexico for a week, leaving my plants the the capable but busy hands of a dear friend.  As my plant babies would not be getting watered every day, I moved them to the shady part of the deck to keep the hot afternoon sun from baking them.   Apparently they love it there, because upon our return home, we were greeted with more oregano, spinach, rosemary, parsley, and basil than I have salads and chicken to make.  Enter a Strawberry Basil ice pop recipe from The Hungry Engineer.

A side note on basil: Basil, once it flowers, tends to produce a more bitter taste in the leaves. Pinching off the flowers is recommended unless you are specifically looking to seed.

Strawberry Basil Ice Pops

½ cup sugar (I used a little less than this)

½ cup water

½ cup basil, packed

1 pint (or lb) strawberries, stemmed and hulled

1 tablespoon lemon juice

I added in a splash of lime juice and vanilla, which are not in the original recipe.

Heat water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally till sugar is melted.

Remove from heat, add basil leaves, cover and let steep for about 20 minutes. Strain out basil leaves and combine strawberries, basil-infused syrup, and lemon juice in a blender. Blend till pureed.

Pour puree into cleaned ice pop molds and allow to freeze for at least four hours.  The recipe yielded a little more than necessary for six ice pop molds.

To remove from the mold, let sit in hot water for maybe 10-15 seconds, then gently loosen the plastic mold from the ice pop.

I tried one with my lunch today, and, OMG, they are really really really good!!! Perfectly sweet, and at less than 100 calories per ice pop, perfectly healthy.

Does anyone have any great recipes that use a lot of oregano?

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