I love to paint. Mostly with acrylics on canvas, but last year I began joyfully experimenting with indian ink and watercolors. I’ve expressed myself with paints since i was a child. There is something magical about bringing to life a vision or emotion to share visually with the world.
However, it’s been nine months since I’ve picked up a paint brush.
Recently I began to ponder why has it been so long since I’ve painted, and stranger yet - how come don’t I miss it? What I came up with is quite simple; I’ve still been creative during this time, but just in other ways. For example: I used duct tape to replace velcro on my son’s winter boots the other day (they’ll last the whole season so help me God), improvising dramatic play for what seems like days on end takes truck loads of creativity, and surely answering the question “What’s for dinner, Mom?” in a way that a) includes ingredients we actually have, b) can be prepared in 5 minutes and eaten by a child in full hockey gear and c) represents more colors than just...orange...is worth some sort of creative kudos. Right? (sigh)
Well I was feeling the creative mojo the other day so I made good use of it. Kids were fidgety and needed a project, so we whipped up a new HopeFULL recipe which took just minutes. We used fresh ingredients we had around the house and they turned out delicious (and not orange - yay!). Once they were frozen my kids actually had THIRDS. I was going to name them “Yes You Can Have Thirds Pops” but in the end decided to go with something else...
I call them Picasso Pops. ;)
I hope you enjoy them too!
Picasso Pops
1/2 cup packed fresh spinach
1/2 cup canned natural butternut squash
1/2 cup yogurt - we used organic BaNilla
1/2 cup juice - we used pineapple coconut juice
1 med banana
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until completely smooth, scraping down the sides if necessary. Pour into HopeFull tray or ice-pop mold, add wooden spoon-sticks and freeze.
(below is the typical amount we have left over from a recipe - perfect for a small smoothie tasting!)
