Inexpensive Low Calorie Fruity Treats

After reading a recent post on the blog A New Life in the Country, I was reminded how I used to make my own smoothie ice lollies a few years ago, but in recent years I just haven't bothered.  During the current hot spell and the school holidays it is nice to have something in the freezer that I and Little Bird can reach for, to cool us down on a hot day.  Shop bought lollies can work out quite expensive and it's good to have something that is quite healthy too and not too loaded with calories. With this in mind, I splashed out and bought myself a new small lolly mould set (£1.50 from our local discount store) and decided to make some lollies again.

I used a handful of frozen berries from the freezer (approx. 10p), one Morrison's Saver low fat strawberry yoghurt (8p approx.), added a splash (100ml) of semi-skimmed milk (10p - I get mine from the milkman by the pint, so it is a little more expensive) and whizzed the whole lot up with a hand blender.  It took minutes and I had more than enough to fill the six small moulds, plus a bit left over to drink for less than 30p, much less than you would buy them for in the supermarket.  If you want to go a bit upmarket and you are not counting the calories, you can always use other types of yoghurt with fresh fruits or fruit lollies can be made with fresh fruit juice (watered down or not) or juice with fruit added. 

 

Once whizzed it looked like this.

 

 

Voila! - Fruit Smoothie Lollies.

 

I don't know what the calorie count of these lollies would be, but I suspect easily less than 50 calories as the moulds are pretty small and all the contents pretty low in fat.  Although the moulds were an added expense, they will pay for themselves time and again hopefully, and they fit in the freezer perfectly (unlike the current set I have which annoyingly catches on the roof and shelf).  I'm now looking forward to eating them once frozen.

Whilst I had the fruit out of the freezer and wanting to use up a sachet of low calorie jelly I found in the cupboard, I also decided to make some low calorie fruit jellies.  I put a few of the berries in the bottom of some French ceramic yoghurt pots and added the liquid jelly once made up before leaving them to set in the fridge.  The 1pt sachet of jelly and 100g (approx.) of fruit made 5 jellies which will make great light puddings over the next week or so. 

Very simple and inexpensive.  Great for kids parties too.   They can also be made in clear plastic cups or glasses so that the fruit in them can be seen.