Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this a couple of months ago, with the express purpose of making fresh fruit bars - no chemicals or sugar. Just used it last night for the first time and I was super impressed. I made three different small batches just to test it out: 1) blueberry/strawberry, 2) mango/pineapple, 3) strawberry/banana. These were a total hit with the kids AND my husband. I am very glad to see the kids eating "popsicles" that have no chemicals, additives, dyes, sugar, etc. And the ease of use is great. All I did was dump frozen fruit (purchased from farmer's market and frozen by me) into the blender, a splash of something citrus for flavor, and a little milk or fruit juice and blend. Pour into molds. DONE. Based on other reviewers' comments, I put them in the freezer for about an hour, and then inserted the sticks. Also based on comments, I sprayed the inside of the molds with nonstick spray, and also ran hot water over the bottom of the molds before trying to remove the pops. All went spendlidly. Most famous kid comment: "Mom, I can't believe I am not eating any sugar - this is great!" Edited 5/2/12: Oh Em Gee, so there are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many possibilities with this new toy! Fruit is coming in at the farmer's market now, and the combinations are endless. A few mint or lemon verbena leaves from my yard add a lovely hint of mint or citrus to combos you never would think of. Grinding up a key lime with the fruits adds a lovely citrusy flavor, and vanilla yogurt (homemade) is my new best friend with these pops. I use this so much that I even thought about purchasing one of those new "pop" books, but mine have been so fabulous that I don't even think I need it. I find myself making batches of blenderific fruit combos for pops, putting the pops in ziploc freezer bags, and then making more, just so we never run out. And summer's not even here yet. :-) Edited 5/10/12: I just keep getting awesomeness from this product. Ok so....we have found out that we definitely like our fruit bars with milk or yogurt (ice cream-ish) as opposed to more traditional "ice" type pops (popsicles). We've tried tea pops (no), soda pops (no) and crazy add ins (nuts, chocolate chips, etc. - no). We've come to the conclusion that we all like plain old fruit, yogurt, and some kind of juice (usually citrus for the flavor), but the combinations are endless. So many possibilities, so many combinations, and my five kids and I all have our favorites, all of which are different. Mine is Blackberry & Peach with vanilla yogurt and a small key lime with a splash of tangerine or orange juice. (Don't tell the kids, but sometimes I use mango rum instead of orange juice, LOL.) Have gotten a lot of mileage out of this in a short time, and again, summer is not even here yet. I have actually just purchased a second unit since with 7 people in my house, I cannot make them fast enough or keep them stocked. Tips: When you buy fruit, immediately take out the amount that you usually wind up throwing away because it gets oldy moldy (!) and wash/freeze it. Lay slices of bananas (I take 3 out of each bunch I buy) and strawberries (me - about 10 berries out of each big container), and whole blackberries, blueberries and raspberries on a cookie sheet to freeze individually (otherwise they freeze in clumps), then portion out in indivdual snack sized bags. You will ALWAYS have smoothie-mixins. Nearly the whole freezer on my refrigerator is stocked with little bags of fruit, LOL. The completed bars are stored in gallon sized bags in the standalone freezer and I try to never run out. Edited 6/1/12: Oh. Em. Gee. Times. A. Thousand. Just tried a batch of canteloupe/peach/mango with lime and vanilla yogurt. I think I died a little, because I caught a glimpse of heaven. I might write my own pop book, LOL. Edited 6/23/12: The awesome never ends. Ok, so I snagged a free Kindle "pop" book yesterday which had recipes for Dreamsicles and Thai Coffee pops. (Had lots of other great recipes, but these looked the quickest and most interestingly different flavors, and I had the ingredients on hand.) I HATED Dreamsicles as a kid. Still not my favorite, but my kids wanted to try them and I was impressed with the recipe as with only three ingredients, you can recreate the Dreamsicle flavor, and it really wasn't unhealthy at all. Very pleased with everything I have been able to create with this product. *****Word to the wise: When you purchase this, also be sure to purchase some food-grade popsicle sticks (don't get "craft sticks"!) somewhere, because even if you sterilize and reuse the ones included, there will never be enough.*****