As a homemade mother, I am always looking for ways to treat my family in thoughtful and healthy ways. Nothing is better than a cool popsicle in the middle of a hot Chicago summer, but most of the ones at the grocery store are loaded with artificial flavors, artificial colors, and icky high fructose corn syrup. So, when my parents asked what to get Evelyn for her 2nd birthday last month, I immediately thought of the Zoku Frozen Pop Maker I’d seen in a recent Williams-Sonoma catalog. I knew it would be a big hit in our house.

The Zoku is super easy to use. The maker is chilled in the freezer, and once you take it out you can make three batches of pops before it has to be re-chilled. I was surprised by how easy it was to pull out the frozen pops just 7-9 minutes after I poured the juice into the maker.

I made my first batch of pops this morning. Round 1: I poured leftover blueberry smoothie into the maker, waited 7 minutes, and pulled out a perfectly tasty and perfectly healthy dessert treat.
Round 2 and 3: I mixed lime juice, water and honey. I dropped in a few fresh strawberry slices into the maker, poured in the lime mixture, waited 9 minutes, and pulled out a totally refreshing (and pretty!) snack!