More Ice Candy Projects - Milo and Buco-Sago Flavors

I had a holiday off at work today and yesterday when I announced it to the little girl she immediately drafted a to-do plan for us. She declared that we shall be making this a day of ice candy projects. She planned to make buco ice candy, milo ice candy, another batch of mango ice candy (she just finished the last of the batch we made last week a few days ago) and even kamote (sweet potato) ice candy (I don't know where she got the idea that she can make ice candies out of these but I didn't remind her anymore about it when we were in the market this morning).

I don't think I will have the energy to make all of the flavors she suggested but I figured the buco and the Milo ice candy flavors would be interesting flavors for her to try so we set out to buy the ingredients this morning. First stop was the buco stand and she enjoyed watching the buco meat being scrapped off. Funny, I just realized it was her first time to see and feel a buco fruit (and we've been to Antique where coconuts abound many times already. Sheesh). Then we headed to the grocery to buy the other ingredients (milk, Milo) and lastly, the wet market for our 2-day supply of fish and meat. 

I really love bringing Maia to trips like this because I've been looking forward to it since she was a baby. I love to cook so naturally I imagined spending a lot of time doing market errands and grocery shopping with her. And days like this - turning a simple recipe into something edible - with her are days which I really relish. (Insert picture of my dream kitchen and with us busy in it. Sigh.)

So we first set out to make the buco flavored ice candy since I thought it would be best to make it while the buco meat is at its freshest. Mid-way through however she was already demanding we switch to making the Milo-flavored one. But I was able to coax her to finish the buco first and when it was already time for the Milo flavor, she just totally took control and pushed me out of the way. 

I posted the recipe for the buco-sago sticks here. The Milo-flavored ones are really the easiest to make. Mixing the chocolate milk powder with water, pouring them unto plastic wrappers and freezer would have been okay already but I wanted to make the mixture creamier and sweeter so I just added a cup of evap + condensed milk mixture to achieve my desired sweetness and creaminess.

To make about 12-15 sticks, I used:

1 cup of Milo (chocolate milk powder)

1 cup of warm water

1 cup of evap + condensed milk mixture

We just mixed it thoroughly and you'll see that the mixture is really more chocolate-y than the drink. I think kids will really feel like they're eating the frozen version of the ready-to-drink Milo (the ones sold in tetra packs) when they bite unto these.

we don't have a funnel so i improvised.
see how creative mommies can get?

We also made popsicle versions of the flavors we did today and we're just waiting for them to freeze so we can finally enjoy them. 

waiting, waiting, waiting

Time For Ice Candy!

Summer has landed. It's a good thing we've been out most weekends because our electric bill would probably have skyrocketed by now had we been at home during the past weekends. Our airconditioner usually starts its day during siesta time in the afternoons once summer makes its presence felt.

Yesterday we purposely took a break from all the 'gala' and resolved to stay indoors to rest. I wasn't feeling well Saturday night so I was very agreeable to the invitation of rest. I didn't plan for any activities for Maia and me as well because I thought I'd just go with the flow for a change. So Sunday, while I slept in for an extra hour, Tibs took the liberty of preparing our breakfast (he only cooked eggs but well, at least he stepped up). He fixed Maia a sandwich and called me when breakfast was ready.

While we were eating, Maia (in her usual chatty self) retold how her past week went and was sort of briefing us of how the stay-out helper was doing (and yes, the little girl did confirm that Ate has been sleeping while she plays with her toys. sigh. kids don't lie, di ba?). She mentioned too that one time her Tito JR (my baby cousin who is her current bestfriend) ate ice candy one time and Ate did not let her take her share because she was coughing (okay, i give you 1 pogi point for this ate). Poor little girl. I took pity and asked her if she still wants ice candy. I decided I might as well introduce her to ice candy making. I asked her if she's interested to make some and of course, the answer was a loud YES! Her face always lights up every time she gets excited and that is really refreshing to see.

So off we went to the nearby market to buy some fresh mangoes, milk and ice candy wrapper. Even if she hates how the wet market smells and abhors the sound of fish/meat being butchered into pieces (i really think she has the potential to become a vegetarian), she still enjoys going to the market with me because she loves riding jeepneys.

When we got back, we immediately went to work. After an hour, we were able to make 21 pieces of 4-inch long ice candy sticks and 2 popsicle sticks. Plus about 2 glasses (I guess ) of the mixture which went straight to the little miss's tummy (ang sarap, Mommy! ang sarap ng mango milk!).

Let me just share with you our very simple ice candy recipe.

You will need:

a pack of 1x10 ice candy plastic wrapper
1 small can of condensed milk
1 big can of evaporated milk
2 cups water
2 pieces ripe mangoes, flesh scrapped and diced into small pieces to fit into the ice candy wrapper(we bought the big kind. 1 kilo = 3 pcs)

you will also need a small funnel.

How we did it:

Basically, we just dumped and mixed everything into a bowl and funneled it to the plastic wrappers. I just made sure that the milk was mixed well so that the sweetness is distributed evenly. The little girl had so much fun stirring the mixture so I let her stir to her heart's content before we started packing the ice candy individually.

After we were done packing, I let her count how many pieces we made. She still couldn't count correctly after 12 (she'd usually skip to 14, 17 then 11, 20) but I helped her count till we were able to count 21 pieces. "21! Yey, 21 sila!"

she would scoop into the mix and taste it every 10 mins or so.
masarap talaga ang mango milk, mommy!

"Daddy, papatigas muna natin to sa ref ha? Mamaya mo na tikman. Masarap talaga sya daddy. Masarap ang project namin ni Mommy!"

We set aside about a cup of the mixture because I also wanted to make some popsicles. I let her help me put the sticks into the freezer as well. After we've placed everything into the freezer, we cleaned up (surprisingly it wasn't as messy as I'd expected it to be) and before we knew it was already the little girl's nap time. The morning seemed to have zipped by in a flash.

Maia would jump out of bed every 10 mins to check if her ice candy was already frozen and ready but she eventually stopped when I told her the sticks won't freeze if she keeps on checking on them. She finally yielded to sleep but I think she still dreamed about her ice candy because I caught her smiling in her sleep a couple of times.