Ultimate Health Report

Frozen Yogurt Banana Pops are a delicious treat for kids and a great way to use ripe bananas!

The Best Way to Make Frozen Yogurt Banana Pops

The instructions sounded so easy. Insert popsicle stick into banana. Dip banana into flavored yogurt.  Freeze.

The first time I made these, I did just that. I dipped, banana fell off the stick, into my bowl. I dipped again, yogurt wouldn’t stick to the banana. So I spooned the yogurt onto the banana instead, while the banana lay helpless on my paper plate.  

We found this is a much better way to make these frozen banana pops:

• Peel your bananas and cut into two or three pieces depending on the size of your banana
• Insert a popsicle stick into a banana
• Place bananas onto a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. FREEZE.  
• Once your bananas are frozen, dip in yogurt, and roll in your toppings.
• Lay on the same tray you used to freeze the bananas and let them refreeze.

What Toppings Work Well on a Frozen Yogurt Banana Pop?

There are lots of delicious toppings for frozen bananas. These are some of our favorties:

• chopped nuts
• granola
• toasted coconut
• chocolate pieces
• seeds
• sprinkles
• peanut butter drizzle
• mini chocolate chips
• crushed pretzels
• freeze dried fruit

How Long Do Frozen Bananas Last?

Once your bananas are frozen, place them in an airtight container. Your frozen bananas will stay fresh for two-to-three months without losing quality, but the fruit should stay safe for eating for up to 6 months.

If you start to notice a lot of ice crystals or discoloration of your bananas, then it is time to throw them out.

What is the Best Type of Yogurt?

There are so many types of yogurt out there and sometimes it is hard to know which is the best type to buy. These are a couple of things in mind when choosing yogurt.

• Ingredient List: try to choose a yogurt with few ingredients. The ingredients that should be included are milk and bacterial cultures. All other ingredients are added for improvement of flavor and texture and aren’t totally necessary.
• Added Sugar: yogurt naturally contains some sugar in the form of lactose. However, food companies often add large amounts sugar to make yogurt taste sweeter. To choose a healthy yogurt, pick the brands with the least sugar per serving. The closer you can get to 10–15 grams of carbs per cup the better.
• Fat Content: Yogurt can be made from whole, low-fat or fat-free milk. Although full-fat yogurt does contain more calories than low-fat yogurt, it doesn’t necessarily make it a less healthy choice. A lot of lower fat yogurts replace the fat with sugar. Choose the fat content based on dietary habits, food preferences and calorie goals.
• Live Cultures: Probiotic bacteria are used to make yogurt by turning lactose into lactic acid giving yogurt its tart flavor. These bacteria are referred to as ‘live cultures’. A lot of health benefits have been shown from these. Many brands do not put the probiotic content of their yogurt on the label because it is expensive. One easy way to tell if there are live cultures in the yogurt is to avoid yogurt that says ‘heat-treated after culturing’ because that process kills the bacteria.
• Greek Yogurt: This type of yogurt is very popular, in large part because it has twice the amount of protein as traditional yogurt and about half the carbs. It is also typically thicker and more tangy and is a great choice.