If you've been following Joy In Our Journey.com for any length of time now, you probably realize that I'm regularly on the lookout for great tasting, truly healthy recipes for my family - and for my sweet tooth.  ☺

    I recently hosted a Zoku Holiday Pops Party because I've enjoyed using Zoku products in the past.  While I did use recipes that contained sugar at the party, I'd like to share some healthier options for making delicious frozen treats. 

    Are you ready?  Here you are! 

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Note:  This recipe is not 100% THM-friendly due to the use of orange juice.  If desired, use fresh lemon juice combined with water and powdered sweetener in place of the orange juice for a delicious Lemon-Cranberry Popsicle.

• 9 ounces orange juice; divided use

For the cranberry sauce:

• 6 ounces fresh cranberries (about 1-1/3 cup)
• 4 ounces orange juice (½ cup)
• ½ cup granulated sweetener (like Swerve Sweetener or Truvia)
  
• zest of one orange

MAKE THE CRANBERRY-ORANGE BASE

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, dissolve sweetener in ½ cup orange juice. Stir in the fresh cranberries and cook until the cranberries begin to pop, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and place sauce in a bowl. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools. Place in refrigerator for at least two hours.
2. Remove Cranberry-Orange Sauce from the refrigerator and place into a blender. Add in 6 ounces of orange juice and blend until smooth (mixture will be slightly thick).
   

ASSEMBLE THE POPS

1. Remove Zoku Quick Pop Maker from the freezer. Insert sticks and pour about ¾ ounce of cranberry-orange base into each cavity; allow layer to freeze completely.
2. Pour ½ ounce orange juice into each cavity directly on top of the cranberry-orange layer; allow layer to freeze completely.
3. Pour another layer of the cranberry-orange base up fill line in each cavity (approximately ¾ ounce per pop); allow layer to freeze completely.
4. Remove the pops with the Super Tool. Repeat with remaining pops.
   

Makes 6 popsicles.

• 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
• 2 tablespoons warm water
• 2 tablespoons granulated erythritol-stevia based sweetener like Swerve Sweetener or Truvia
  
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ¼ cup pure pumpkin puree
• ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) heavy cream

MAKE THE PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE BASE

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the instant espresso granules with 2 Tbsp. warm water until granules have dissolved completely.
2. Whisk in the sweetener, vanilla, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, cold water, and heavy cream until thoroughly combined and smooth.
3. Chill mixture (if not chilled, pops will take longer to freeze).
   
   

ASSEMBLE THE POPS

1. Remove Zoku Quick Pop Maker from the freezer. Insert sticks and pour the pumpkin spice latte base until you reach the fill line.
2. Let freeze completely; then remove the pops with the Super Tool.
   
3. Repeat with remaining mixture.
   
   Makes 6 popsicles.

Leave out the light rum if you prefer a lower carb, non-alcoholic treat.

• 1 cup (4 oz) fresh or frozen raspberries
• ½ cup (3 oz) fresh or frozen blueberries
• ½ cup (2 oz) fresh or frozen blackberries
• 2 oz light rum (optional)
• *½ cup simple syrup (1/2 cup sweetener, dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water and cooled)

MAKE THE BERRY MOJITO BASE
Combine all ingredients in a blender. Pulse the machine until the mixture begins to smooth, but still has a little texture to it.

ASSEMBLE THE POPS
Remove Zoku Quick Pop Maker from the freezer. Insert sticks and pour the Berry Mojito base into each cavity until you reach the fill line. Let freeze completely and remove the pops with the Super Tool. Repeat with remaining pops.

*The amount of simple syrup you use will vary depending on the sweetness of the berries.

• 1 cup heavy cream, divided
  
• 2/3 cup water
  
• 2 Tbs. instant espresso powder
• 1/4 cup granulated sweetener like Swerve Sweetener

In a saucepan over low heat, combine and heat 2/3 cup heavy cream and water (but do not boil). Whisk in espresso powder and sweetener until dissolved. Remove from stovetop and let cool slightly, about 10 minutes. Stir in 1/3 cup heavy cream. Refrigerate until cool, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin from forming.

To assemble the pops, remove Zoku Quick Pop Maker from freezer.  Insert sticks into the pop maker molds and pour in the cooled coffee base until you reach the fill line. Let freeze completely; then, remove the popsicles with the Super Tool and enjoy. Repeat to make the remaining pops.  Makes 6 pops.

     Growing up, my siblings and I had slush-type mugs where we froze the inner core in the freezer and pulled it out later to fill with drinks of our choice (or our mom's choice).  ☺  While I really enjoyed the slush-type mugs of my childhood, these Zoku Slush & Shake Makers are the grown-up version of the type I had growing up.  Using the Zoku Slush & Shake Maker, you can literally make healthy slushies, milkshakes, and fruit smoothies in as little as 7 minutes on your countertop.  Nice!  The included spoon works so much better than any spoon I've had in my kitchen.  You're going to love it.

     For my Zoku Holiday Pops Party, I made two different slush recipes for my guests:  Peppermint Latte Slush and Oregon Chai Slush.

     The Oregon Chai Slush is so simple that it really doesn't require a recipe:  follow the directions on the box of Oregon Chai Concentrate (with sugar/honey or sugar-free version) to make chai.  When chai mixture is cooled, pour 1-1/4 cups of chai mixture into frozen inner core of Zoku Slush & Shake Maker.

     I've adapted this recipe to fit the low-carb lifestyle.  Enjoy!

• 1/2 cup cream
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup powdered sweetener of your choice (Swerve Sweetener or Truvia)
• 2 to 4 shots freshly brewed espresso or espresso powder dissolved in water (see directions on container of espresso powder)
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract, or to taste

Whisk the cream, water, powdered sweetener, espresso, and peppermint extract until the sweetener dissolves, about 2 minutes.  Remove Slush & Shake Maker core from freezer and place in frozen cup in holder.  Pour Peppermint Latte Slush mix into Slush & Shake Maker; stir until thick.  

     I hope you'll give some of these great recipes a try!  We've really enjoyed our Zoku frozen dessert products.  EnJOY!

   I'm thrilled to be hosting a Zoku Holiday Pops Party in my home this coming weekend, thanks to Tryazon.  I'll be demonstrating how to use a variety of Zoku frozen treat dessert products for Christmas treats and for year-round frozen dessert treats.  And of course, there will be lots of laughter, Christmas music, snacks, and possibly a few surprises for the guests!

    Want to know why I've agreed to review Zoku's frozen dessert makers for you all? 

    The main reason is that I think you should all know how easy it can be to make healthier, homemade frozen treats for your family, containing natural, health-promoting ingredients, without:

• food coloring/artificial colors
  
• artificial flavors
• "natural" flavors (which are usually not natural at all)
• chemical whitening agents like titanium dioxide
• artificial sweeteners
• loads of sugar

    Now, keep in mind that some of the recipes and options I'm going to make will contain sugar, but at least I can control the amount of sugar and calories in these frozen desserts.

    The second reason I agreed to demonstrate and review these Zoku products is that Zoku has come up with some pretty nifty tools since the original Zoku Quick Pop Maker became available in 2009!  I thought it would be fun to give these a try and let you know how well they work (or don't work).



    Here are the Zoku products I'll be demonstrating for my guests:

    If you're looking for a unique gift for your children or grandchildren - or the children on your block of the neighborhood, the Zoku Quick Pops Maker or Slush & Shake Maker are going to be a hit with them all.  ☺

    And my daughters are a testimony to that.  Their friends love the popsicles and treats made with their Zoku Quick Pops Maker! 

    I'll send out an update with photos of our party and how these products worked for making quick, fun desserts for Christmas.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what amazing, fun dessert treats can be made with Zoku products.  We were!

   

    This post was originally published on http://www.JoyInOurJourney.com. If you see this posted elsewhere, it has been illegally scraped, and I'd love it if you would let me know. Thanks!

Get Social With DanceCrazy/SalsaCrazy on Facebook and on Twitter (@SalsaCrazy)

    Designed for beginners, DanceCrazy's 7-DVD set is designed to take you step by step through the entire learning process of all the major social Ballroom Dances. 

    I started with DVD 1, which showed me the fundamental Ballroom Dancing concepts of timing and footwork.  I've got a good sense of timing, since I'm a musician, but the footwork?  Ack!  ☺  I've got a lot to learn still!  Ha!

    The 7 DVDs in this set cover the Foxtrot, Waltz (2 DVDs), Swing (2 DVDs), and Rumba (2 DVDs).  I really like the fact that with these DVDs, I can go back and review as often as I want, so maybe by the time I reach 50, I'll have some of these dance moves down.  I can hope, right?

    Each DVD is over 2 hours in length, with over 12 hours in the full DVD set.  The actual lessons are detailed, containing closeup photos and step-by-step "picture in picture" format so it's quite easy to figure out the dance steps.

    I will be verifying the winning entrant's giveaway entry options to make sure they are valid.  In the past several months, multiple winners were excluded from winning even though their names had been selected randomly as winners, because they said that they had signed up for email subscriptions but had not completed the process, which includes clicking on an email you will receive to confirm your subscription.  An email subscription to Joy In Our Journey.com is not a requirement to enter our giveaways, but if you do use an email subscription option to enter to win, please make sure that you click on the confirmation email that you will receive.  That will validate your entry.  Thank you!   :)

 

    This post was originally published on http://www.JoyInOurJourney.com. If you see this posted elsewhere, it has been illegally scraped, and I'd love it if you would let me know. Thanks!

    Many thanks to DanceCrazy and Tomoson for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

    No one should ever be abandoned.  Not sweet little kitties and puppies, a neglected child, or unborn babies in the womb.

    Want to know what I've been busily enjoying this month?  Meet our two new kittens, Missy and Gus, who were abandoned and left to die.

    We now are the proud owners of four cats:  two adult females who are about 4.5 years old (we've had them since they were 8 weeks old), and two new kittens, ages 12 weeks, that we've had for three weeks now.

    Here are two photos of Missy and Gus when they arrived at our home at about 9 weeks of age:

    My friend, Heather, who used to work at a local animal shelter, discovered these two little ragamuffin cuties abandoned in a baseball field park where she regularly walks her dogs. 

    They were scrawny as anything, and about 7 weeks of age, from what the veterinarian thought after examining them. 

    They both had an upper respiratory virus which causes sneezing, wheeziness, and runny eyes and nose, much like a common cold that we humans get from time to time. 

    After three trips to the veterinarian, two rounds of antibiotics and eye cream, and lots of loving care by Heather and her family - and my family, they are finally doing so much better!  We realize that they may deal with this upper respiratory virus their entire lives, or that they may be carriers of it throughout their lifetimes, but we took them knowing that this may be the case.

    We initially thought they were part of the same litter of kittens, but now, we're not so sure.  Missy is definitely 1-3 weeks older than Gus, based on what the veterinarian observed with their teeth on their most recent visit.  It's possible they have the same mother who was possibly impregnated twice within a couple of weeks' time, but we're just not sure.  It's also possible that they were from completely different litters but bonded together due to the need to survive.

    Anyway, THIS is why you haven't heard from me as much this month.  ☺ I've been holding and loving these sweet babies a lot, as well as making more of a priority to spend time with my teen daughters and husband. 


    I do have some blessings I can share about these kittens:

• They came litter-box trained and have had zero accidents so far!
• They are used to being around dogs, so when we dogsit for friends, it isn't a problem.
• They love to snuggle up in our laps.  LOVE!
• They sleep almost all night long, allowing us to sleep.
• Our two older cats are tolerating them fairly well now.  That was a concern at first.
• Gus, the long-haired cat, loves to be brushed.  This was pretty important to us because of his very long hair.  If he couldn't tolerate being brushed, that would mean he would be shaved to look like a lion or a poodle every June! 
  

    I'm wondering if any of you have ever rescued abandoned animals and raised them as pets?  How has it gone?

    The only training we are really needing to work on right now is that these kittens were fed some "people food" as babies, probably by visitors at the baseball park where they were living, so they can be a little bit of a pest when we are eating our meals.  I don't blame them; they were starving for quite some time.  So sad!  I do know I won't need to vacuum up the kitchen as often because they are the little crumb-gobblers that come running when they hear me in the kitchen!  Ha! 

    We've made a strong effort with our older cats not to ever feed them people food, and that has worked really well because they think our food is "gross"!  They only want their own cat treats and cat food.  So we'll have to work on these little babies and retrain them to stick to their own cat food. 

    But other than that, we're enjoying our little sweethearts.  ♥♥♥

    I hope your Thanksgiving was blessed, and you are focusing on the hope of CHRIST-mas.  ☺

     This post was originally published on http://www.JoyInOurJourney.com. If you see this posted elsewhere, it has been illegally scraped, and I'd love it if you would let me know. Thanks!