Cantaloupe Salsa

Cantaloupe Salsa

 

This recipe was actually called "Line-Fighting Salsa" because of its great dose of wrinkle-reducing Vitamin C.  It came from a magazine, and I'm sorry I don't know which one.  Fitness?  Southern Living?  Good Housekeeping?  Mississippi Magazine?  Bon Appetit?

 

I ripped it out because I thought it sounded like a nice salsa for fish.

We eat grilled fish pretty regularly and cantaloupes are in season so I thought it would be a nice time to try it out.

 

It was delicious.  The boys chose to eat their tilapia plain, but David and I both chose the salsa.  David recommended more chile next time, so if the boys aren't going to eat it, then maybe I will add more jalapeño.

 

There's really nothing too it. 

 

Dice up 1/2 cantaloupe, 1/3 peeled cucumber, 1 seeded jalapeño, and 1 small red onion (which I didn't add since we're not raw onion fans).  Stir in together with 3 Tbsp of fresh lime juice and 1/4 tsp sea salt.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

 

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Enjoy!

Nectarines and Basil

Nectarines and Basil

I saw a short blurb in a recent magazine (maybe Vegetarian Times?) where a chef said one of his favorite things to do with basil is pair it with fruit, like nectarines.

 

So, I followed the photo with the blurb and made a side dish for dinner last week.

 

 

No recipe needed.

I think we all enjoyed the fruit and herb combo!

 

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Apples

Cinnamon Apples

 

My friend Kami, who makes the best whole-foods dishes for her kids, sent me this recipe from Taste of Home for a sweet treat.  It's a quick dish that can be made ahead of time and pulled out after dinner.

 

There are only 4 ingredients, all of which I have on hand, except for the red hot candies.

I couldn't find them anywhere!  Do they only sell red hots at Valentine's Day? 

Well, honestly, I only looked in 3 stores, but still.

 

So I went with hot cinnamon Jolly Ranchers, and I think they worked just as well.

 

 

I boiled water, sugar, and Jolly Ranchers in a saucepan until the candies fully dissolved.

 

Then I carefully added in my peeled & quartered apples, and let them cook until they were tender - about 15 minutes.  You could go longer, as long as the apples stay intact.

 

Here they are after 10 minutes. 

 

When they're tender, you place the apples in a serving dish and pour the syrup over the top.

Let them cool for a couple of minutes, then cover them and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

 

I wish I had a plated photo of this dish, but they disappeared so quickly! 

They were good and cinnamony, and a nice after dinner treat.

 

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Enjoy!

 

Pineapple Puree

Pineapple Puree

Brennan chose this recipe from the You Are What You Eat Cookbook  and got the ingredients at the grocery store.  He was not to be deterred!

It was a great smoothie/puree that is easy to make and easy to customize.

We trimmed an entire pineapple and pureed it in the blender. 
Then we added two bananas and blended it again.

We chilled the smoothie before dinner and everyone really enjoyed the thick, sweet treat.
Instead of chilling, you could also add ice to the blender for a chilled treat.

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Enjoy!

Baked Apples with Raisin Compote

Baked Apples with Raisin Compote

This super easy, 4 ingredient dessert comes from the You Are What You Eat cookbook that I reference so often!

You could easily customize this dish in many ways.

You core your apples and slice them in half, stuffing the center with a mix of regular and golden raisins.  Then you drizzle the apples with 100% maple syrup and bake at 400* for 20 minutes.

The apples are soft and the raisins and maple syrup taste great!

Really delicious!

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Enjoy!

Blueberry and Mixed Berry Kanten

Blueberry & Mixed Berry Kanten

When I lived in Hawaii there were two desserts that I always sought out at any party where food was being served - Sweet Mochi and Kanten.

I made a version of sweet mochi awhile back, but it wasn't nearly as good as the mochi I've had in Hawaii, which usually looked like this:

source

I'll have to continue working on my mochi skills.

But, on to Kanten!  I had several recipes for fruit Kanten, a traditional Japanese dessert.

It was amazing to me that all of the recipes started with 4 c of fruit juice, but the measurements for the remaining ingredients all varied widely.

I sort of split the difference and tried my first Kanten, which we really liked.

Kanten has 3 main ingredients:  juice, cut fruit or berries, and Agar Agar flakes.

At Kroger I asked Brennan to pick out the juice and berries for our first Kanten.

He chose a mixed berry juice and blueberries.

The Agar Agar flakes area two types of sea vegetable.  It's important to get a good quality version.  I got this one from Sandy who is my ingredient expert.

Because the juice Brennan chose was a smoothie-kind, I used 3 c of the juice and 1 c of water.

With normal juice you'd use 4 c of juice.

You start by pouring your juice in a sauce pan and sprinkling on the agar agar flakes.

This can sit for a few minutes.

See below for additional ingredients that you could add in.  If you are using any other ingredients, you can add them in as well at this point.

Then you boil the juice and reduce the heat to simmer.  It boils up pretty quickly.

I saw on Pinterest that if you lay a wooden spoon over a pot it won't boil over.

Not sure if it always works, but it did this time!

Let it simmer for 20 minutes or so, then remove it from the heat so it can cool down a bit more.

I chose to put my berries in an 8x8 glass dish, but you could also make your Kanten in individual ramekins.  The amount of fruit to use in this dish varied from a couple of tablespoons to 2 cups.

I placed about a cup or more of blueberries in the bottom of my dish.

Then poured the juice on top and transferred the dish to the refrigerator.  It needs to chill for about 2 hours, uncovered.

Then it has the consistency of a fruit filled Jello.

Scoop some out for each person and enjoy!

I think next time I'd like to try a clear version so you can see all the fruit.

I'm thinking about apple juice and strawberries.

Some of the recipes had additional ingredients.

Some of the additions recommended were: 1 tsp ginger juice, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 Tbs orange juice, up to 1/4 c natural sweeteners like brown rice syrup, and lemon/lime/orange zest.

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どうぞめしあがれ (douzo meshiagare)

(Japanese for Bon Apetit!)

Alicia's Soft Rice Porridge

Alicia's Soft Rice Porridge

I started thinking about eating a more plant-based diet earlier this year because of two things.

First, our friends Mike & Mary got interested in the subject and I was curious.

Second, I received Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet for Christmas and finally read it.

It made so much sense to me, and I asked David to read just one chapter from the book.

That led us into an entirely new way of thinking about nutrition, and we haven't looked back.

This recipe comes from Alicia's book. I haven't served this to the rest of the family because they're happy with their breakfasts, but it is a breakfast that I like and have made several times for myself, always a little differently.

I thought I'd better post it on the blog so I can always come back to it when I need a change in breakfast - I tend to get in a rut and need a change up.

We always have leftover cooked brown rice (or another grain) in the fridge, so this is a perfect use for it.

I'll tell you how I make it, then include Alicia's original recipe below.

You start by heating up a cup of leftover cooked rice and a cup of water in a saucepan.

Bring it to a boil, the cover and simmer it for 15 minutes.

The original recipe calls for 2 cups of water - it's waaaay too much for me.

I got with 1 cup and strain out a little before transferring to a bowl.

The original recipe also says to add your dried fruit to the saucepan with the rice and water, but I rarely remember to.  I usually just toss the chopped fruit on at the end.

I've used apricots, raisins, and dried mango in this dish.  All are great.

Then you place the dish in a bowl and add your toasted seeds and a chopped umeboshi plum.

The plum is obviously totally optional.  I love them, but not everyone does.

The original recipe calls for Toasted Sunflower Seeds.

I never toast them - just toss them on raw.  I'm sure they're even better toasted.

I've used raw walnuts, chopped raw almonds, and raw pumpkin seeds in this dish.  All good.

It's a filling breakfast, and I love the customizability (real word???) that allows me to use what I have on hand, or what sounds good that morning.

Enjoy!



Watermelon Granita with Mint and Lime

Watermelon Granita with Mint and Lime

This recipe is modified from the Vegetarian Times' Farmer's Market Cookbook magazine.

It's a great dessert that my boys were only too happy to help me make this weekend.

Brennan attempted a granita from a kids' cookbook a couple of weekends ago, but we didn't have the ingredients on hand.  So he made up his own version (including bottled lime juice and vanilla extract, blech).  Didn't exactly work but he was so proud of his efforts!

I promise the one below is really, really good!

A granita is a semi-frozen dessert that is similar to a sorbet or an Italian ice.

We started by creating a flavored, simple syrup over medium heat.

Brennan heated water, sugar, lime zest, and a mint spring until the sugar was dissolved.

We used this sweetener, but regular sugar will work.

The recipe calls for a long curl of lime zest that you remove before freezing.  Brennan instead decided just to zest the lime.  It worked just fine.

Then we chopped up about 15 cups of watermelon and pureed it in the blender.

Thomas then strained it to get just the juice.  We added lime juice to the watermelon juice.

We removed the mint sprig from the simple syrup and combined it with the watermelon juice, and poured it all into a 9x13 inch baking dish, and popped it uncovered into the freezer.

After 45 minutes I took it out and used a fork to incorporate the frozen parts with the rest of the juice.

Then we checked it and "fluffed" it with a fork every 30 minutes (or so) for 3 hours.

This photo below shows Brennan mixing it up again after about 2 1/2 hours total freezing time.

After about 4 hours freezing time total, it's ready to serve.

At that point, cover the granita with Saran Wrap to keep it from freezing solid.

A wonderful fresh fruit dessert for summer!!

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Enjoy!



Fruit for Dessert

Fruit for Dessert

We have had a lot of sweets around the house for the last month or so with Easter baskets, birthday party gift bags coming home, and a recent trip to Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati with Thomas and Brennan.  They chose several international sweets that we've been enjoying a little at a time.

But it's not often that we eat real dessert after a family meal.

What we've been doing instead each night is enjoying fresh fruit with flavored Balsamic vinegars.

I shared on our family blog that we have a new Olive Oil and Balsamic store in town. 

Thomas and I enjoyed a special tasting with friends last month.

Our favorite fruits to dip in Balsamic are fresh strawberries and fresh pineapple.

With strawberries we like the Fig Balsamic.  I chose that one the first time I went to our local store.  I absolutely loved it.

With pineapple we like Thomas's choice - Cinnamon Pear.  Mmmm.

While fancy Balsamics are certainly not necessary to dress up fresh fruit, it sure makes it fun and more like dessert for our family!

Enjoy!

Strawberry Soup/Smoothie

Biggest Loser

Strawberry Soup/Smoothie

Yes, another recipe from my latest cookbook!

I was intrigued by this recipe - Strawberry Soup - and Thomas asked me to try it so I did yesterday for our afternoon snack.

In a blender you simply puree thawed frozen strawberries, lime juice, Greek yogurt and honey.

And while the boys enjoyed it as a "soup" - 

 - we all agreed it would be perfect as a smoothie.

It is rich like a strawberry shake and filling!

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Enjoy!



Green Machine Smoothie

Whole Living's

Green Machine Smoothie

I pinned this smoothie on Pinterest and decided to try it out this morning.

I had never made a smoothie with water before so was eager to try it out.

Brennan wanted to try it too.

I'm sure I made a face much like his at first.



It was actually good.  It's something I would drink on a regular basis.



I read the reviews and it said that you have to overpulse it so that it is good and smooth.

After running this on the normal smoothie setting, I then hit High Pulse for a few seconds.

Worked great!

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"Enjoy"



Orange Creamsicle Fruit Dip

Madigan Made

Orange Creamsicle Summer Fruit Dip

I saw this delicious recipe on madigan made and served it at a couple of parties this summer.

It's light and refreshing and goes so well with cut summer fruit.

You mix vanilla pudding mix, Cool Whip, and orange juice and chill.

And serve with your favorite cut fruit.

It tastes so much like a creamsicle!

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Bon Apetit!



Watermelon Agua Fresca

Watermelon Agua Fresca

This was one of my favorite drinks I learned to make when we lived in Mexico.

This weekend Thomas had a friend staying over so I made this with breakfast yesterday.

What a hit!

Agua Fresca or Agua de Fruta is sold throughout Mexico - in restaurants, at resorts out by the pool, and by street vendors everywhere.

Thomas got addicted to the mango version when we went to a resort in Manzanillo.

It's super easy and delicious.

You blend 4 cups of a watery, fresh fruit with 1/2 cup of water and 2 Tbsp of sugar. 

The amount of sugar varies with your taste and the sweetness of the fruit.

I usually stick with 2 Tbsp.

Once blended it's important to strain it for pulps or seeds.  I usually end up with just 1/4 c pulp left after smushing it through with a spoon. 

Then garnish with lemon, lime, or mint.

If you have a flavored simple syrup on hand, you can substitute that instead of the water and sugar.

Lime simple syrup is really popular with watermelon.

Other popular fruit varieties are:  cantaloupe, mango, papaya, guava, strawberry, and lime.

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Buen Provecho!