My Life My CleanPop
A year ago today my life was filled with a perfect schedule of school drop off, followed by a 9-5 job, ending with dinner and family. This contrasted with a few years earlier when I owned my own catering company and did anything from 300 person parties or take out desserts or full meal menus. After I decided I could no longer sustain the life of a caterer, I went to work with my husband in his printed wholesale apparel company. I really enjoyed it – I did all the art and new designs for our products and I was head of operations. I loved it and I was good at it. It was easy and things were quiet. No overnight bake shifts getting ready for a 7 AM Bris. No standing on my feet all day and working parties every weekend. It was a welcome change.
Then I picked up a bucket of UrbanPops and met Sophia Cohen for the first time. She was 9 months pregnant and looked like she was going to keel over. I knew exactly what she was doing. Working all day and all night to get out amazing product – and now she was running on empty. That was me. I knew that look. I knew that feeling - and I told her. She didn’t know who I was but we totally bonded over exhaustion and the food industry. Watching Sophia burn the midnight oil unearthed something in me that had been hiding for years since I closed my catering company. It was passion. Pure passion about what you were doing, making and producing. I started consulting for her and helping her shape her business that was born to be amazing. Every day that I worked with her, I would come home changed a little more. Excited about something and I didn’t understand why.
After about 6 months, I started brainstorming on what I wanted to do with my food passion. I still don’t know to be honest, but I started a blog. My husband built me a website with one of these template blog things and here I am. It launched in March and I have been in love ever since. I love being inspired and inspiring others. I love feeding people. I love teaching people. I want to make it easier for my readers to put out beautiful, simple, clean food that doesn’t take all day or a lengthy education. I want my reader to want to cook and feel confident doing it. I love my blog.
Naturally, growing closer with Sophia created an opportunity for UrbanPops and My Life My Menu to work together. Her ice pops are amazing homemade artisan pops with only natural ingredients. However, we really wanted to create a line of pops to target the health conscious market. We decided together to launch the CleanPop. It’s an ice pop with no refined sugar - only natural sweeteners – and very little of it. It’s light and refreshing and can be eaten at anytime with zero guilt.
Yesterday, we had the opportunity to participate with Lottie’s Kitchen in a very special event that supports the sick, the elderly and the homebound. We were able to launch the CleanPops at Lottie’s Kitchen and both Sophia and I did demonstrations for frozen desserts. I taught my Sangria Granita recipe from my July 4th Menu Planner, and Sophia taught everyone how to make our Banana Peanut Butter CleanPop.
We had such a blast and were so happy that everyone loved the pops as much as we did. I always love teaching. And I really loved being able to interact with my readers - it was so amazing to meet some of you! I can’t wait to keep producing amazing recipes and products for My Life My Menu.
Please feel to contact me if you would like to set up your own cooking class - for an event, one-on-one, or for a group or party at mylifemymenu@gmail.com
Check out my amateur video below!
Yield: about 6-8 ice pops
Rating: Such an easy healthy snack. Very simple, but you do need an immersion blender or standing blender.
Ingredients:
½ cup water
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter*
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
3 frozen bananas, peeled**
Directions:
Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Take an immersion blender (or use a regular blender if you don’t have an immersion blender) and puree everything until it is completely smooth and silky – a minimum of 2 minutes. Take your filling and pour into your ice pop molds and add your sticks. Freeze at least 6 hours or overnight.
When you are ready to serve, fill your sink with hot water and hold the molds in the water for about 5 seconds. Gently pull the pops out and serve!
These will last about 4 weeks in the freezer, wrapped tightly.
*In an ideal world, try to use a natural organic peanut butter if possible – peanuts have very high amounts of pesticides. Also check to see that there are no added sugars. If you have a nut allergy concern, feel free to use sunflower seed butter- a great alternative.
**Whenever you are left with over-ripe ugly bananas, just peel them and wrap them in plastic wrap. Then pop them in the freezer for this or any other banana recipe.
