Honey Lavender Popsicles

A lighter ice cream in popsicle form where the sugar and cream is replaced with honey and a bit of condensed milk.
By Joy Zhang

My mother has been reiterating a message recently over our phone calls — “Always take care of yourself. Your health is most important.” I’m convinced my mother is Confucius in a disguise you see, she’ll often repeat these deep life lessons in simple 1-2 sentence structure that are seemingly so simple yet deafeningly profound.

Buy the new Honest Cooking Magazine cookbook today!

A few examples:

“Take care of your eyes. Sit too close to TV, read in dark, you go blind.”

or

“Skin is most important on woman. You no take care of skin, you old very fast.”

and certainly my favorite…

“You eat too much, you get fat.”

It’s easy to become caught up in the natural groove of things — living in these modern busy lives of ours, we often set aside our health on the back burner. It takes a lot of time, discipline, and maintenance to eat healthy, exercise daily, and somewhere in between, to find free time for yourself.

But should it be that way?

The power of stress is often understated, yet it has become such a prominent part of our every day lives. We all owe ourselves the commitment to stay respectful towards our bodies — be good to your body and it will be good to you. Sometimes things are just as simple as that.

The weather has been beautiful here in Texas. Our garden is in full bloom, including our lavender that served as inspiration for this recipe. Originally this was made as an ice cream but I decided to go with a lighter version in popsicle form and replaced the sugar and cream with honey and a bit of condensed milk. It’s soothing and dreamy in every regard. Enjoy!