Homemade treats! And one epic fail!

Items #6, #60 - Homemade Goodies!

Two days of special desserts took place on our 2 days off this week! Both were on the list but the recipes I found on Facebook were what really inspired these fun activities!

#6 - Make Homemade Popsicles

A friend of ours gave us popsicle molds last year and we had tons of fun using them for Kool-Aid popsicles. This year, however, we decided to branch out, looking for more unique recipes, and we found one!

The recipe we found suggested Sprite, but we prefer Sierra Mist (Ok, truthfully, Mommy prefers it so they must all deal!) 

We filled the molds to the top with the gummy bears. Not shoving them down, but making sure there were plenty! The hubby was shocked by how many I got down in there, but I loved the flavor so many gave it! (The lonely bear fell into the one mold that no longer had a stick.)

Top it off to the brim, very carefully, with the soda, and put the sticks in. Pop them in the freezer in a safe spot. We started this at around 10 in the morning and enjoyed the treats after dinner, so they had plenty of time to freeze, but we also had to watch out when we took things out! 

A tip: Run hot water over the outsides of the mold when you are ready to eat them. It helps loosen them enough to slide right out.

They were a hit! The bears were frozen so they were a bit hard to chew, but they gave the soda a great flavor! And they were fun! 

#60 - Make Homemade Icecream

Ingredients:

1 large ziploc bag

1 small ziploc bag

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 Tbsp Sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract or 1 Tbsp cocoa powder

Lots of Ice

6 Tbsp salt

Combine the milk and sugar in the large baggie. We added vanilla to one and cocoa to a second one so that we could try both flavors. Using syrups would give you a lot more flavor options, but for this first try we stuck to the basics.

In the smaller baggie place the ice and salt.

Put the small baggie in the large one and shake for a good 10 minutes!

In the future, and for you, we would suggest that you switch the baggies around. With the ice being on the inside we were forced to scrape the ice cream off the ice bag. When I did this sort of thing in school we put the milk on the inside and wrapped the whole thing in a towel to keep our hands from freezing.

Whichever way you decide to do it, the ice cream comes out great!

There was just not much! Each baggie made about a serving for a small child. (Yes, I would probably make more for me!) But that was perfect for us before we went wasting a whole gallon of milk on it! We now have a recipe that we enjoy and we can multiply it to make a large batch for the kids to shake while we make dinner!

This was a hit!

Now for our fail! =(

A long time ago I found a blurb on someone's Facebook or Pinterest about turning a Mountain Dew into a glow stick. This was years ago! And I guess I didn't really think we would ever get the chance to really do it, because I didn't write the recipe down in full. (My note read: 1/4 bottle Mountain Dew, Baking Soda, and 2 capfulls of Peroxide)

Well, we got the chance to try it! Using the ice tubes from some tea jugs, we divided a can between the two, doled out the peroxide, guessed on the baking soda.

And when they didn't glow we began experimenting, adding more peroxide to one and more baking soda to the other. Epic fail is a good term!

We were shocked to discover that when we came back to them this morning the Mountain Dew had been drained of all its color!

Anyway, while we have failed, we would love to know if anybody knows how to do this! So if you have the recipe on how to PROPERLY do this little trick, please let us know! We would love to do it again for this weekend's Great American Backyard Campout!

And let us know if you try the popsicles or ice cream, and let us know what you think of them! 

Have an awesome week, and get ready to hear about our awesome backyard camping fun on Sunday!