ice cream

So I finally got a blendtec about 2 weeks ago.  I use it all the time now.  At least 2 times a day and sometimes more.  I have to say it isn't perfect, it has jammed on me, and can't seem to ever finish an ice cream cycle without me having to push the ingredients down.  In that respect, I guess the vitamix and it's tamper would be nice.  However, I wouldn't trade the capacity of the wild side jar for anything.  It's the only thing that will make enough green smoothie in the morning for my family.   OK, enough about the blendtec.  I'm happy to have such a powerful blender that cleans up so easily.  This recipe is actually a modification of a recipe in the blendtec book.  Their strawberry ice cream had lemon juice in it.  I didn't have lemons so I left it out.  Today I made the same recipe with cherry.  Also turned out well.  A bit tangy, but still sweet enough for my tastes.  Would have been better with sweet cherries, but I have pie cherries this year.  Anyway, on to the recipe.  LOVE it - couldn't be simpler.  Can't say that the half and half is wonderful for you, but at least I know exactly what is in my ice cream, and over half of it is frozen fruit.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup half and half
• 3 Tablespoons agave
• 16 oz. frozen fruit

In a high powered blender, blend until smooth. (unless you want a couple of frozen chunks of fruit left.)  

We have tried this with strawberry and cherry, but I have plans to try it with other fruits in my freezer like peaches, pineapple (will probably throw in some coconut with that one.), loganberries, raspberries (may need another tablespoon of agave for that one.)  You get the idea.  I bet it would even be good with the tropical blend of fruits I use in my smoothies sometimes.

apple crisp

I had a lot of apples the other day so I decided to make an apple crisp.  I couldn't believe that I didn't have one blogged.  This is what I ended up making the other night.  It is a combination of 2 recipes.  The one with the least sugar (none) on the bottom, and the least sugar and butter on the top.  It turned out tasty.  Honestly I prefer my apple crisp topping to be a bit more crisp and clumpy than this was, but I don't think you can achieve that effect without more sugar/butter.  (although I did see a recipe today that used granola on top.  That might just solve the problem and work well.  Definitely something to try in the future.)

Ingredients

• 6 cups sliced and peeled apples
• 1 cup sweetened dried cranberries (we actually didn't use these, but I put it in here because the original bottom had it and I'd like to try it.)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (we didn't use these either.  Not sure why, DH was baking, but I do like nuts in the mix so I put as an option for next time.)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375.  Spray a 2 quart baking dish with cooking spray.  
2. In a large bowl, toss apples, lemon juice, cinnamon and cranberries if using.  Pour into the prepared baking dish.
3. In another bowl, mix oats, brown sugar, and flour.  cut in butter until crumbly.  Stir in nuts.  Sprinkle on top of the apples.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is golden brown.

chia jam

This is probably my favorite way to use chia so far.  But truth be told I haven't experimented much, and most of what I did was before the holidays hit, and before DH started traveling a lot.  I do remember this jam, and made it more than once.  So simple, so tasty, and so healthy.  YUM!  Oh, and I forgot to mention super quick - no slaving over the stove.  You can realistically make a batch at a time when you need it.  Again, thanks to my friend Amoreena who fiddled with this recipe and came up with correct proportions.  This is her favorite combination for strawberries.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup strawberry puree -I just thawed some frozen strawberries and pureed them in my blender or food processor, or with my immersion blender - can't remember which.
• 1/4 cup chia seed
• 2 Tablespoons agave

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in a pint size jar (or other container)  
2. Let set until thickened.  Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or freeze.

Can it possibly get any easier?

You can use any fruit and/or sweeteners, but you need to adjust amounts to suit your tastes.  Strawberry is nice and sweet so it doesn't require much added sweetness.  

Love this on waffles, toast, pancakes, french toast, rolls, bread...

Orange cottage cheese salad

Sometimes I have to admit I'm a bit wacky.  I go on these "we should eat healthier" kicks and then I post a recipe like this.  But hey it is a fruit.  Actually I checked out deals to meals and did a free trial and actually made 1 week of their food.  This recipe is from there, but in no way original I'm sure.  I've seen it at a multitude of church functions.  I'm actually not sure how I've never managed to make (or possibly even eat) this salad before.  I think I've had the orange jello salad with marshmallows but never the cottage cheese version.   I actually really liked it - as did all of the kids (except picky toddler.)


Ingredients

• 1 16 oz cottage cheese (IMHO it has to be Breakstone - one of the few ingredients I'm super brand specific on.)
• 1 small package orange gelatin 
• 1 8 oz container cool whip
• 1 8 oz can pineapple tidbits, drained 
• 2 11 oz cans mandarin oranges, drained.

Directions

1. Pour cottage cheese and jello into a bowl.  Stir and mix until jello is evenly mixed into cottage cheese.  
2. Fold in drained fruit and cool whip.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Grape salad

This salad was simply delicious.  It is basically the dip that I've seen at numerous events, but with the fruit stirred in.  If you ask me, there was a bit too much dip for the amount of grapes, and we used probably double the amount of grapes called for.  This would be delicious with any type of fruit.  Top on my list to try would be strawberries.
Next time I would probably just make a 1/2 batch of sauce.
Update 10/27.  I have made this a couple more times cutting the cream cheese mix in half and it was great that way.  (One time that I paid attention I actually had 3 pounds of grapes and I still only used 1/2 the cream cheese.  Much better than the original 1-2 pounds for the entire batch of cream cheese.)  Forgot the almonds/pecans both times though.  And purposely didn't add the brown sugar. :)

Ingredients

• 2 bags seedless grapes (we used a black and red)
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• optional - sliced almonds or chopped pecans

Directions

1. Wash, separate and dry the grapes.  
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla. (I like an electric hand mixer for this)  Add grapes and mix until evenly coated.  
3. Sprinkle with brown sugar and nuts (oops I added my brown sugar to the mix and thought it was just plumb strange to call for 2 types of sugar.  I should so learn to read directions. :)  Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Banana nutella rolls

I had these on the menu forever before actually trying them.  They were pretty simple to make.  Not sure how much I really liked them.  They sounded so yummy - nutella and banana, but I'm not a huge fan of mushy banana (although I do like them fried so I thought this would be good.  I do however think this would be excellent with another fruit that maybe wouldn't get mushy, and if you are more of a banana fan, I'm sure these would be great.  I'd love to try them with sliced strawberries or even raspberries.  YUM!
I found the recipe in my Rachael Ray magazine.  Not many changes except I didn't dust mine with powdered sugar and she did.  You could try that if you wanted something sweeter.  I also tried making a couple with just cooking spray (not brushed with butter - mostly because  I had 2 left and no more melted butter.  They are still good, but obviously better with the butter.)

Sorry for the picture -I totally need a new flash.  This also must have
been the week I had no dishwasher since it is on a paper plate.  I chose
this picture rather than a powdered sugar one to show the bananas
and nutella inside.  

Ingredients

• 8 egg roll wrappers
• 3 bananas, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
• 3 Tablespoons Nutella (didn't measure this at all and probably used more)
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter

Directions

1. Working 1 at a time, spread 1 teaspoon (more or less) of nutella down the center of the egg roll wrapper (leave room all around to roll up)  Top with 4 or 5 slices of banana.  
2. Brush edges with butter.  Roll up like a burrito.  
3. Brush the outside with butter and cook in a nonstick skillet over medium heat 4 minutes per side or until nicely browned.  

Striped strawberry/banana ice pop

So, as I posted a while back, I've been making a lot more smoothies lately - mostly green.  Somewhere I got the idea to freeze the left over smoothie into a popscicle - I think with a non-green smoothie because they sounded good - pina colada if I remember right.  Anyway, I have some very old ice pop molds - there are only 4, and I only have the stick part to 3.  I decided I wanted to make more ice pops because I could then control what went into them, and make them out of fruit rather than sugary syrup, sooo, for Easter, each of the kids got a different ice pop mold.  These are the ones we got.
      and I got a book.  From what I have seen in the book, I love it. Just what I was looking for and then some - going to make Tavio tell me even more I've turned into a health food addict, but Oh well.  It is good for him.
The book has chapters on fruit pops, veggie pops, yogurt pops, tofu pops, herbal tea pops, chocolate pops, and specialty pops.  I had Benjamin pick out a pop to try, and this is what he chose.  Of course it was one with Kale in it.  I was going to start with something simple like a plain fruit pop, but went for it with this one.  I did not have Kale so I used spinach.  I also added a bit of agave to the bottom part of the pop, and some strawberries.  I was afraid I wouldn't have enough mixture because the directions say it makes 4 (5 oz) pops, and I wanted to make 5 - but what I didn't know is that my mold is only 4 oz.  So, I had left over.  I would probably not make as much of the jam part again, or the other part for that matter.  The pops fill up fast. I ended up filling all of my star pops with 1/2 and half, and all of the orka molds with the bottom part, and I still had some left over which I figured I'll just use in my next green smoothie.  Anyway, this is what I did this time.
I have yet to try these, but Benjamin asked for a popscicle for breakfast and what was I to say -they have wheat germ, spinach and fruit -how can that be bad?   Then I fed them to the kids for snack and pre-school, but I was too busy to eat one.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup strawberries, chopped (mine were frozen and I chopped them in the pan as they thawed)
• 4 Tablespoons agave 
• 1 cup spinach
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 2 bananas
• 1 cup water (I'd probably use fruit juice here next time - that is what I do to naturally sweeten green smoothies.)
• 1 Tablespoon wheat germ
• 5-6 strawberries
• small squirt of agave (If using fruit juice, I'd leave this out.)

Directions

1. In a small pot over medium heat, combine strawberries and agave and let simmer until the liquid thickens a bit and becomes jam like.  
2. Pour a small amount of the jam inot the bottom of pop molds.  Let harden at room temperature (I put mine in the fridge - to hurry it along.)
3. Meanwhile, combine spinach, blueberries, bananas, water, and wheat germ in a blender.  Puree until smooth.
4. When strawberry jam is hardened, add spinach mixture, sticks (or tops of molds) and freeze.

These were a bit tricky to get out of the mold - not sure if it is the mold or the recipe at this point because I haven't used the molds enough.

Coconut glaze fruit salad

I made this fruit salad for Brandon's birthday.  It was soooo good.  Definitely a keeper.  The original recipe called for light coconut milk - I didn't have any but I did have some coconut cream.  I used a bit of that.  I really don't think it needed it.  The extract and lime were where the real flavor came from.

peach crisp

This recipe is from my taste of home magazine. I love crisps and this one was quite different and also quite quick. I really liked the crispiness the rice chex added. I also really liked that it was super easy and quick - even the cooking. I thought the flavor was just OK. I think I would prefer it if it had some added cinnamon, just because that is how I'm used to having my crisps.




Ingredients

• 2 cans (15 oz) sliced peaches, drained
• 2 cups rice chex, crushed
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 Tablespoon cold butter (I actually had just under 3 Tablespoons which I used with no problems.)

Directions

1. Place peaches in a greased 8 inch square baking dish. (I think my smaller casserole may have worked better.) In a small bowl, combine the cereal, brown sugar and flour; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over peaches.
2. Bake uncovered at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until topping is golden brown. Serve warm with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream