Strawberry High Protein Popsicles

Losing weight and not feeling starved or bored was not easy on the many diets I was on in my lifetime. How I eat now is the most liberal diet, if you could even call it that, that I have ever had the pleasure of being on. Most of my success has come from food hacking my way to good health getting everything I want. My original vanilla ice cream is low in fat and high in protein, but these popsicles are even higher in protein. I am not really much of a sweet eater, but I try to get my sugars and proteins in together wherever I can. What I like about these popsicles though is that they are lighter and fruitier rather than just sweet.

One of the food hacks I do regularly is to strain the lactic acid out of my Greek yogurt and cottage cheese by putting them into coffee filters that I set in a sieve over a bowl. I wrap it up and let the unhealthy sour liquid drain out of it for a day or two or even longer. This makes a more tasty and decadent product. After many days the yogurt is practically cream cheese!

With only 1/2-cup of cottage cheese having 14-grams of protein and the Greek yogurt having 11-grams for 3/4-cup this combo was better than any ice cream I could buy in the store. Both the cottage cheese and the Greek yogurt are both low in fat and I used full-fat on both because I am not trying to lose weight so these could be made with low-fat to get the fat down even more.

To make these blend 1.5 cups of each the strained 5%-fat Greek yogurt and 4%-fat cottage cheese with two cups whole frozen strawberries, 2/3-cup sugar and 1/3-cup pineapple juice. Blending the cottage cheese with the yogurt added an extra creaminess to the mix while cutting out some of tanginess of the yogurt. After blending everything up it reminded me of strawberry Yoplait yogurt while freezing it reminded me of the “Push-Up Pops” I would buy once in awhile from the ice cream truck in my childhood years. I really am happy that I push myself for something better and something different because it generally pays off and these will now be in my freezer on a regular basis. I am going to try peach ones next!

“I think people shouldn’t eat things that damage them, and should eat things that taste good and that provide the essential nutrients, while making them feel good and function well, is that a diet?” -Ray Peat