Frozen Chocolate Pudding Banana Popsicles

I'm a little disappointed. My husband dosn't even look at me like I am crazy anymore when I come home with things like a boatload of bananas. I miss the old days.

I couldn't help it! The bananas were $.25/lb! And I had high hopes and plans for these particular bananas!

Here's my math - we buy bananas every week + summer is here = fun healthy banana Popsicles for hot summer days! As an added bonus my compost pile is definitely going to be fat and happy by the time I am done!

I found 150 count Popsicles sticks at Family Dollar for $1.00 - not bad. I went to several different stores before I actually found them as I was determined NOT to go to Michael's where I knew they were. Why? Because it's nearly impossible for me to walk out of Michael's without spending $20 bucks I didn't mean to spend.

So anyways, here is what I did. First, I peeled and cut the bananas and stuck the Popsicle stick through the cut end. Then I placed them on a cookie sheet with wax paper (although later I learned I liked the plastic wrap better - although you could probably use parchment paper too). Make sure none of the bananas are touching. If they are touching when they are freezing and you pull them apart there is a good chance it will damage the banana.

(Hint: After they are made and already frozen you can store them touching - just not while they are freezing).

Go through your stockpile (if you have one) and look for some fun crunchy type coatings for your nanas. It's not a must to have a coating on your nana's but they do freeze (look) better. Without the coating all the pudding just runs down and pools around where the bananas are laying. Here are a few things I found in my stockpile to use for my coatings:

Okay - not the healthiest, I know but I was going with the whole chocolate/peanut butter thing.

Pour some of the Peanut Butter Capn' Crunch in a baggie and hire your 4 year old son to smash them up.

I also found some white chocolate chips that I thought would be a good match -

And this tiny sample bag that Blue Diamond sent me -

This was only enough to do one banana but since I was experimenting - what the heck. I thought the almonds and cinnamon brown sugar flavors would be interesting. My husband had suggested that peanuts would be good but I told him I didn't have any peanuts in my stockpile. You mean go out and actually (gasp) BUY peanuts? That kind of misses the whole point in trying to be creative - and stuff - by using things in my stockpile - don't ya think?

I also used cinnamon sugar graham crackers and if I had any pretzels I think I would have used those too...maybe.

For my pudding mix I used 2 1/2 cups of milk (instead of the suggested 2 cups). I didn't want the instant pudding to thicken up on me too much because it would be hard to dip/coat the nanas. Next, just take your nanna and swirl it around in your pudding like so...

Then roll it around in your coating like this...

And this....

Place them back on your cookie sheet and freeze them again until the topping is completely frozen - usually another hour or so.

And Wha La!

I think it was a huge hit! The white chocolate was definitely their favorite - of course it was. Now only 489 more banana pops to make...