Tag Archives: fruit

Food

The Easiest & Yummiest Strawberry Dip

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Ok, I feel a little guilty posting this as a recipe because it is so easy!!! I had it for the first time almost 15 years ago at my (now) best friend’s bridal shower. Since then it is a go to treat for all entertaining I do during the spring. And I always get at least 1 person who has never had it and wants to know how to make it, so here it is in all its simpleness;).

Ingredients:

1 box of cream cheese (8 oz), you can use neufchatel instead of full fat cream cheese
1 jar of marshmallow creme (about 7 oz)
Strawberries to dip

Process:

Leave the cream cheese on the counter to let it soften and come close to room temperature. Either use a stand mixer (my fav) or a hand mixer and mix the two ingredients together. Put it in a nice bowl. That is it! You can store it in the refrigerator if you have any left over;). I tend to mix it up earlier in the day or even the day before but I do like it close to room temp!

Food

Seeding a Pomegranate

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As a child I was never allowed to eat pomegranates due to their staining. This is a super easy and effective way to seed a pomegranate. That means that you are left with beautiful arials that you can eat by the handful, juice, bake with or use in salads without any mess!

So how to you seed your pomegranates?

Food

Mango Greek Yogurt

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Everything dumped into a bowl!

This “recipe” is for Mango Yogurt but it would work in essence for any fruit. With Greek yogurt being so high in protein I wanted to find a way to incorporate it into my kids’ lunch time. But I didn’t just want the premade flavors. So I started playing with some flavors and sweeteners to cut some of the tartness.
  This is 1 of the recipes when I prep the fruit and let one of the kids do the rest! To make 4 side dish servings (went with peanut butter & jelly;) this is what I used:

Then just dump it all into a bowl and stir! Then I just divide it into 4 cute custard cups with a little sprinkle of sugar!

Food

A Tasty and Good-For-You Treat from #SafewayDairy

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B & L's Smoothie as part of our healthy lunch!The weather heating up around here means 1 thing: berry season!!! That means that the 4lb bin of strawberries were only $3.99!!! So of course we just had to get them! But that was a lot of strawberries at once to eat just plain, even for us. So while I was making my list off of the Vons.com site I decided to look for a great and easy recipe! I have been having a hard time filling up my kids lately and didn’t want a dessert. So I started looking at milk! I mean between the protein and the fact it would be cold, can’t go wrong with that right?

So I found a super easy and not to desserty recipe called B and L’s Strawberry Smoothie. Most of the ingredients are things we keep on hand (an essential point for new and untried recipes in this house) and they were all something I could buy at one store (Safeway)! I also knew that I could substitute local, raw honey for the sugar! I have been looking for more vehicles for raw honey because we all have horrible allergies and eating local, raw honey is supposed to help!

It was going to be a delightful end of the week treat to go with lunch! What can I say, I like to do something a little fun on Fridays when the school work is done. And it was so simple that at least 1 kid could help!

First off we went and stocked up at Vons! We needed yogurt for our smoothies and I needed Greek yogurts for breakfast! And of course we needed strawberries. My kids love grocery shopping with me. But that might be because they bribe them with a cookie;). Seriously, while I might grocery shop for a small army they all really do help and enjoy helping. They even carry everything in and help me put all the bags away.

So when Friday’s lunch time came around I assembled all the ingredients! Kids who were done with homework for the week got to help! The 7 year old got my crushed ice while the 5 year got to cut strawberries for the first time!!! This is the perfect recipe for kids to practice their cutting because the pieces are all going to get blended anyway! So after I assembled all the ingredients, I just blitzed it with my stick blender! And even though it was dessert, I topped it with a little light whipped cream. It made the kids feel extra spoiled! Paired with PB &J, it is a super good for you and filling meal!!!

B and L’s Strawberry Smoothie

  • 8 strawberries, hulled
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 3 tablespoons white sugar (subbed in equal amount of local, raw honey)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 6 cubes ice, crushed

(This post’s existence, but not the content, was sponsored. This shop was compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias to celebrate National Dairy Month.)

 

Food

Peach, Peach, Peach

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I love peach season but once you bring them home they just don’t seem to last all that long. I got some from my friend Bethany’s tree on Monday and decided to make some peach puree to freeze. Why? Well, you can use it to flavor oatmeals, make smoothies and so much more! So how?

First, put a pot of water on to boil. Then, cut an X into the bottom of each peach. Once your water is boiling, drop your peaches in for 1 minute.

Then pull your peaches out and plunge them into an ice bath. An ice bath is literally a bowl of water and ice. You put the fruit into it in order to stop the cooking. This is a technique called “Shocking”. The peaches only need to be in there a little bit until they are cool to the touch. Then so to your slit in the bottom and use a knife to peel them! Chunk them up and put them in a bowl. I added a little honey because these are just a touch tart and the kids would prefer it sweeter in oatmeal.

Then take a stick blender to it and blend away! I took the puree and put it into an ice cube tray. Then I popped it into the freezer. Tomorrow I will put them into a zipper bag and take them out as needed.

This is super easy and a great way to extend the season! You can use this technique for just about any fruit!

So what all would you use fruit purees in?

Food

Seeding Pomegranates

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Ruby orbs of juicy goodness. Yes, I am talking about pomegranate seeds. At Trader Joe’s they charge about $3.99 for pomegranate seeds. They look like they are about 1 pomegranate’s worth, maybe less than 1. Now on the other side. Here are 3 pomegranates that I bought for 50 cents a pound at a farmer’s market. But then there is the business of seeding them. It is super easy if you just plan ahead a little.

The first thing I do is cut them in half. Then I submerge them in a bowl of cold water. Let them sit for a while and the membranes start to absorb the water. That enables the pomegranate to release the seeds a little bit. After they sit just break out the seeds but do it under the water. Tossing out as much of the peel and membrane as you can.
Then run fresh water after you skim off as much of the membrane as possible. Then agitate the seeds in the water and leave them alone for a bit. The yucky bits (including dud seeds) will rise to the top. Then I dump them onto paper towel and then in a bowl. I tend to stick them in the fridge and just pick up some for a snack or throw them in salads. The other fun thing to do is stick them in the freezer. Then I drop them into all kinds of drinks from mixed drinks to lemonades.