Watermelon Pops & Healthy Popcorn

I have been online getting ready to put together a pre-thanksgiving healthy recipe compilation. While purusing the net I stumbled upon two WONDERFUL ideas for kids. {boy do I love browsing other peoples' healthy blogs and sites, it's so fun, I should do it way more often}

Both ideas come from Diana Stobo, a inspirational and motivational speaker, who lives in Northern California with her husband and three children. She is a classically trained Cornell culinary artist and is a raw food advocate who healed herself through food. 

You can find more kids recipes on her blog. 

Melon Pops

Ingredients

• 1 baby seedless watermelon
• 1 Tuscan melon or cantaloupe
• 1 honeydew melon
• Popsicle sticks

Directions

Cut melons in half, and scoop out seeds. Using a small ice cream scoop, spoon out melon balls, trying to get as much of the meat of the fruit as possible. Insert a popsicle stick on the flat part of the ball, and place on a covered plate in freezer for two hours. Serve immediately or keep in an airtight container in freezer for up to a month.

Chipotle Cheese CAULIFLOWER Popcorn

{I always make a few batches at a time, as they are gobbled up so fast.}

Ingredients

• 1 heads of cauliflower, broken into 1 “ florets
• 1-2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• ¼  cup walnuts, or sunflower seeds
• ¼  cup nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

Place cauliflower florets into a large ziplock bag and coat with olive oil. In food processor, blender or nut and spice grinder, add nuts or seeds, nutritional yeast and sea salt and process until finely ground. Pour over florets and close top.  Shake bag until cauliflower is well coated. Cauliflower may be eaten RAW, or place on dehydrator rack on a grid and paraflexx sheet.

Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 2 hours or moist, 6 hours for slightly crunchy, and 10 hours plus for harder consistency. If fully dehydrated, it will have a week shelf life!

ANOTHER REASON TO MAKE THIS POPCORN :: Read What Diana Says About Microwaving!

Microwaving anything, even water (especially water) is an extremely toxic and overall damaging process to your body, mind and the world.  But microwave popcorn takes the danger to an even more serious degree.  The chemical coating used in microwave popcorn bags is so toxic, as it breaks down when heated, it turns into a substance called perfluorooctanoic(PFOA),  a major carcinogen.  The butter flavoring that we all love, even causes more damage. The fake butter flavor is actually an FDA approved chemical called diacetyl that causes debilitating respiratory disease, affectionately known as “popcorn workers lungs”.  The medical name for this condition is “bronchiolitis obliterans”, suffered by those who work in the factory which packages microwave popcorn.  Although since discovering the butter flavored disease, many companies have discontinued  the product.  But, many have not.  So if you want to make popcorn, air pop it or jostle it over a hot kettle and enjoy it the old fashioned way.