Watermelon Popsicles
Plus, Five Dinners in Real Life
Hi!
How’s your week going? I’ve been paying too much attention to the news this week and unsurprisingly it’s affecting my mood. It feels a little phony to be cheerfully writing about watermelon popsicles when really what I want to do is stand on my roof and let out a primal scream.
Parenting, though, has honed my ability to do and feel multiple things at once. I can feel worried and consumed by things in the world that are out of my control while also setting my worries aside for a moment to enjoy popsicles with my kids.
So let’s enjoy some popsicles!
At this point in the summer I’m buying watermelon almost every week. We love it around here. I really love a watermelon and strawberry salad. On a hot day it’s a juicy and refreshing combination of tart-sweet fruit that tastes like best of summer.
I don’t make a lot of homemade frozen treats, because let’s be honest, it’s much easier to just buy popsicles and ice cream at the grocery store. Once or twice each summer, though, my kids and I will make watermelon popsicles.
Recipe of the Week: Watermelon Popsicles
This simple watermelon popsicle recipe is a great way to use up leftover watermelon before it goes bad. It’s also a good way to use overripe melon that has a mushy texture.
You can find the full recipe with helpful tips here, but all you really need to do is chop up watermelon and use a blender to turn it into juice. Pour the juice into popsicle molds and in a few hours you’ll have watermelon popsicles.
If you don’t want to make popsicles, just chill the watermelon juice and serve it over ice. Add a squeeze of lemon or lime juice to boost the flavor, or combine the watermelon juice with lemonade.
A few tips:
Seeds: If the watermelon has black seeds, you'll need to blend slowly on a low speed to avoid chopping up the seeds. You can then strain the seeds out by pouring the juice through a mesh strainer or a colander.
Pure juice: If you’re just drinking blended watermelon as juice, you can strain it through a fine mesh strainer to give it a thinner, more pure consistency.
Lime: The watermelon popsicle recipe on my blog includes lime juice, which is optional. Citrus perks up the flavor, but kids don’t always love the tartness. You can skip lime, or add just a little squeeze (or go crazy and add juice from a whole lime).
Sweetness: If the watermelon is underripe and has no flavor, the popsicles won’t be sweet and flavorful either. In this case you can add simple syrup to the watermelon juice before freezing it. Or, add another type of sweetened berry juice or fruit punch.
Electrolytes: For an extra-hydrating treat, add coconut water to the watermelon juice. The watermelon masks the flavor almost completely.
5 Dinners in Real Life
I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? I hope that my week of real life dinners will provide helpful recipes & cooking ideas for your family. Here’s what my crew ate last week:
Monday: I needed a photo of the salmon with cilantro-lime dressing that I’ll be sending to paid subscribers this month, so that’s what we had for dinner. I served the salmon and cilantro dressing with steamed potatoes and asparagus. I wish I had made a double batch of the creamy dressing because it was really good over the potatoes, too.
Tuesday: I made a big salad with miso-lemon salad dressing for the Hubs and I. The kids had a little bit of salad and Trader Joe’s breaded chicken tenderloin breasts. The frozen chicken is basically chicken fingers, but I have to admit it’s pretty good.
Wednesday: I made quick broiled tacos and restaurant-style Mexican rice. I love how streamlined the recipe for broiled tacos is - it makes taco night easier and faster.
I don’t follow a recipe to make the very basic version of Mexican rice that my kids like. I searched around and the closest recipe I found is easy, authentic Mexican rice from Thewoksoflife.com. The only difference is that I don’t add any spices, I just add salt to taste and serve chopped cilantro on the side.
Thursday: I’ve been playing around with a recipe for grilled soy sauce BBQ chicken and the version I made tonight was good, but not as good as I need it to be. I’ll keep trying! I served the chicken with grilled broccoli (just toss broccoli florets + olive oil in a grill basket) and capellini pasta.
Friday: It was a hot day and no one was super hungry for dinner. I had baked a loaf of focaccia bread that morning, so we mostly just ate bread and fresh fruit for dinner. Later that evening, we all enjoyed popcorn and bowls of Tillamook strawberry ice cream while watching TV together.
Cookbooks
Kismet by chefs Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson captures the feel and flavors of the LA restaurant of the same name. I really love this cookbook because Kismet is currently one of my favorite take-home restaurant choices in our neighborhood.
I’m looking forward to slowly reading every page and earmarking recipes I want to try - there will be lots! Any cookbook that has an entire chapter dedicated to marinated feta recipes is going to be a cookbook I love. There’s also the amazing chili crisp, the fennel tzatziki, the roasted chicken, the salads…If the recipes are anything like the food at Kismet, you can expect simple dishes with a lot of unique flavor.
That's it for this week! Let’s all agree to take a break from the news this weekend and enjoy our family, friends and sunny weather.
xo
Jenny