Strawberry Pineapple Lime Popsicles

It has been scorching hot outside all week here, and though I love warm weather, I don't love the kind of heat that feels like it's suffocating you!  I would give anything to have a backyard with a cool, refreshing pool these days, but since I don't think my apartment building plans to turn the parking lot into an outdoor pool any time soon, I've been settling for the next best thing for cooling off - popsicles!  (okay, maybe the second next best thing, after a cold beer)

This was my second attempt at making homemade popsicles this year, and I took a much different approach with these than my last attempt.  My banana date popsicles were yogurt-based, which gave them a creamy texture, but these strawberry pineapple lime popsicles are fruit-based, so they have more of an icy texture that's similar to the standard storebought kind, if that makes sense?

I can't decide which ones I liked better - they're both so good!

With strawberries at their peak right now, I've been buying them faster than I can eat them, so I decided to use some of my extras in a popsicle.  I also had some pineapple to use up before it went bad, so I combined the two, along with some lime juice and a bit of honey for added sweetness.

The sweet strawberries and honey are perfectly balanced by the tart pineapple and lime in these juicy popsicles, and I love that they're sweet enough to eat for dessert but are still natural and healthy (and full of lots of vitamin C!)

As you can see from the pictures, I spent a little too long photographing my popsicles and they were starting to melt quite a bit towards the end!  I couldn't help it though, I just loved the bright colours that photographed so well!

I should also mention that I attempted a swirling pattern in these by pouring the pineapple and strawberry mixtures into the molds separately, then swirling them together a little with a knife.  Unfortunately, it wasn't until the last popsicle that I realized it works a lot better if you alternate pouring the two mixtures in layers so they're more evenly distributed.  I just poured them in two equal parts, so you can see how the pineapple part was mainly at the bottom and got a little overwhelmed by the strawberry colour.  I still think they look pretty though, and now you can learn from my mistake!

Below is a picture of an almost eaten popsicle so you can get an idea of the fruity texture.  It's quite different from the last picture in my banana date popsicle post, but like I said, I still love them both!

Hope you all stay cool and have a great weekend!

Pineapple Strawberry Lime Popsicles

Adapted from Jennifer Murray on About.com

Makes 4-6 popsicles, depending on the size of your popsicle mold

Ingredients:

1 cup diced strawberries

1 cup diced ripe pineapple

4 teaspoons fresh lime juice

2 teaspoons honey (optional)

Directions:

Add strawberries, 2 teaspoons lime juice, and 1 teaspoon honey to a blender and blend until smooth.  Transfer to a glass or measuring cup and rinse out the blender.

Blend the pineapple, remaining 2 teaspoons lime juice, and 1 teaspoon honey until smooth.  Transfer to a second measuring cup.

Alternate pouring pineapple juice and strawberry juice into each popsicle mold (I found alternating two portions of each worked best), then use a knife to gently swirl together (but not enough so that they complete blend into one colour!)  Freeze.

I had to add one more picture of my plate after I'd removed the melting popsicles - I thought it looked so pretty!

Tropical Chicken Cups

I've never been to an Oscars party and I usually don't last through the whole awards show, but I've been seeing a lot of Oscar menu ideas lately and I decided to make myself an Oscar-themed appetizer this year to eat during my favourite part of the show, the red carpet!

The four Best Picture nominees that I've seen are Moneyball, The Help, Midnight in Paris, and War Horse, so if I wanted to make something to match one of those, it would mean either baseball food, Southern food, French food, or.. horse food? None of those really appealed to me today, but when I read that The Descendants takes place in Hawaii, I decided to make something Hawaiian to eat because it seemed like the perfect thing to brighten a cold winter day. Even though I haven't seen The Descendants, I may have to root for it now - it deserves to win just for inspiring these delicious tropical chicken cups!

My sister showed me the original recipe for coconut mango chicken cups on Liv Life because she thought they'd be up my alley, and she was right! I hadn't seen this blog before, but it has tons of fantastic looking recipes and photos so I can't wait to try more from it. Kim says that she's made her chicken cups for lots of different gatherings, so I knew they would be good. Hers had mango chutney and curry paste in them, but I decided to give them a Hawaiian twist by using pineapple instead, and I added in avocado because I think it pairs really well with pineapple. I left in the coconut milk and lime juice so that the whole thing would have a tropical taste!

These were pretty easy to make and were bursting with bright flavour! I think they'd make a perfect party appetizer that would be very quickly gobbled up (I know from the surprising rate that these disappeared from my own plate!) You could probably make a vegetarian version of them too by replacing the chicken with black beans, or even adding some coconut sticky rice for a bit more substance.

I realize you won't have time to make these in time for tonight's Oscars yourselves, but they'd be great for any occasion (and really, it's a bit of a stretch for me to call them Oscar-inspired anyway)! And now that I know what a great vessel wontons make for appetizers, I keep thinking of other filling ideas that would be fabulous in these - and if you decide to experiment, let me know what works!

Are you watching the Oscars tonight, and did you make any Oscar-inspired food?

Tropical Chicken Cups (with Pineapple, Avocado, Coconut, & Lime)

Adapted from Liv Life's Coconut Mango Chicken Cups

Makes 24 cups

Ingredients:

24 wonton wrappers
1 tsp canola oil
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 cups cooked diced chicken (or you could use fish instead!)
3/4 cup light coconut milk
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1-1/2 cups diced fresh ripe pineapple
1 ripe avocado, diced
salt and pepper
cilantro for topping (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a mini muffin pan with non-stick spray. Press 24 wonton wrappers into the mini muffin tin, pressing any folds firmly to the sides. Bake for 5-10 minutes, until golden. Set aside to cool.

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté about 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Add the chicken, coconut milk, and lime juice, and cook for a few minutes until coconut milk is mostly absorbed. Gently stir in pineapple and avocado. Season generously with salt and pepper, tasting to adjust any amounts to taste. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Spoon filling into wonton cups (you may have a bit of extra filling, which you can taste before filling the wonton cups to make sure it’s to your liking). Sprinkle chopped cilantro on top, if desired (if you're serving these to a big group, you may only want to put cilantro on half of the chicken cups because a lot of people don't like it). Serve warm or at room temperature.