The other day I had a hankering for an orange popsicle.
A lot of orange popsicles are paired with ice cream, like the classic Creamsicle. Unfortunately for me, I am sensitive to milk products, so can’t eat those. I’ve got to find an orange-only sicle.
At the store, I saw the Outshine brand of “ice bars” and there was one called Tangerine Carrot, FRUIT & VEGGIE BARS. At first, I was put off by the idea of vegetables in my popsicle. Not so sure that would be a winner. Vegetables and fruit in one cold treat? But, then, tangerine got top billing on the box, so it must be pretty good.
I’m always up for trying something new, at least once. I have been taking a class at work this Spring about being more healthy. This has expanded my understanding of calories, exercise and a healthy diet. This bar was only 60 calories, so I decided to give it a try. How bad could it be?
Well, if I was looking for tangerine to be the star of this popsicle, I was disappointed. T he initial thought was “this is downright bad! Why did they market this?”
Then I looked at the ingredient list. In order of appearance, there was apple puree, carrot juice, pear juice, sugar, tangerine juice, pumpkin puree, passionfruit juice and a few gums that are usually present in popsicles. That explains it. If I was looking for fruit and veggie health, then it was okay. But, if I was looking for tangerine, the flavor got hidden with everything else.
The pumpkin puree seemed a little over the top, but if I had been part of the testing crew, it might have been a good addition. If they were trying for a bar that gave a person fruit and vegetables in a bar, they hit their mark. My problem was I thought I was getting a tangerine tasting popsicle and I didn’t get that.
Since then I have changed my expectations about what these bars are, and they are actually pretty good! When I am done with the box, I might even buy more.
And as to trying to find a bar that has tangerine or orange in it, I haven’t been back to the store to look.
But I recently found a great recipe for orange sauce in one of Mark Bittman’s cookbooks called “Orange Cream Sundaes” that I can have over rice or soy ice cream and is said to be reminiscent of the Creamsicle.
I might just have to do a little cooking soon…