Posts Tagged ‘blueberries’

Fun Food: Crazy Breakfast

Saturday, August 20th, 2011

During the school year, breakfast is a utilitarian affair – eat it and get out the door. But in the waning days of summertime, we want to savor those last few days when breakfast isn’t quite so rushed.

In honor of summer kid breakfasts, we decided to go a little crazy. We were inspired by Laura over at Family Spice with her breakfast smoothie popsicles. Mmmm…what kid would turn down popsicles for breakfast? And we have to give her props for sneakiness by putting protein powder, wheat bran, and flax meal into the popsicles. Ours is a pale imitation, but tasted pretty darn good anyway: We tossed yogurt, milk, strawberries, and flax meal into the blender for the main smoothie. Then we froze the mixture in popsicle molds for 30 minutes. In the meantime, we blended blueberries, strawberries, and orange juice. When the yogurt mixture was frozen just firm, we added the fruit mixture on top of the yogurt to make a colorful top layer.

Next we decided to try making a summer breakfast lasagna. This lasagna is made by layering homemade crepes with a sweetened ricotta cheese mixture and a raspberry/peach sauce. After we assembled it, we heated it at 350 for 20 minutes and served it warm - and it was tasty - but believe it or not it tasted even better the second day, served cold.

Last we decided to confound our kids completely by creating a breakfast salad. We were inspired by this Blueberry Breakfast Salad from Fruit and Veggie Guru, and by the Breakfast Salad with Cinnamon Toast Croutons and Maple Vinaigrette from A Spicy Perspective.

We made our breakfast salad with fresh spinach, blueberries, mango, and sugared walnuts. Then we created a mango-citrus salad dressing: Take 1/4 cup olive oil, juice of one lemon and one lime, 1 teaspoon white vinegar, and 2 ounces chopped mango; blend it up with the immersion blender to make it a smooth sunny yellow. Now that looks so good you could eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Weekend fun food: Because food should be fun.

Posted Under: Just For Fun, Nutrition | Tags: , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on August 20th, 2011

Fun Food: Star Cakes

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

Everyone – no really, everyone – seems to be cooking in patriotic colors over the Fourth of July weekend. Last year we did our best to come up with cool red, white & blue foods for the holiday (pancakes, potato salad, and blue chips and salsa). This year we found an even more exhaustive list from Recipe Girl that covers 100 red, white & blue recipes from breakfast all the way through to dessert. How could you ask for more? Well – how about a new recipe that’s relatively easy, tasty, easy on the eyes, and has no food coloring? Why, we have just the thing: Blueberry/Raspberry Upside-Down Star Cakes.

Blueberry/Raspberry Upside-Down Star Cakes

1 pint fresh raspberries, rinsed and patted dry

1 pint fresh blueberries, rinsed and patted dry

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 egg, lightly beaten

2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Carefully grease all of the nooks and crannies in two star-shaped muffin tins (to make a dozen stars). Drop a teaspoon or two of brown sugar into each star compartment so that it covers the bottom. Then drop the fruit into each of the star compartments (half raspberry, half blueberry) so that the fruit covers the brown sugar.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter. In a small bowl, combine the egg and milk; then add to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened.

Spoon the batter into the star compartments. You may need to spread the batter around a little bit to make sure that it extends to all the points of each star. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until light golden brown on top. Remove from oven and immediately flip over onto a platter or board. Makes 12.

Note: Place a sheet of foil underneath the muffin tin while the stars are baking (or place the muffin tin on a foil-lined cookie sheet). The fruit tends to bubble up and spill over.

These little stars are great for dessert, but you can also serve them as a festive coffee cake for a holiday brunch.

Happy Fourth of July weekend to all!

Posted Under: Just For Fun | Tags: , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on July 2nd, 2011

Fun Food: Grilled Fruit

Sunday, June 19th, 2011

So it’s Father’s Day, and of course your natural reaction is to toss a whole bunch of meat on the grill. But what if instead of (or alongside of) all of that meat, you filled up your grill with…fruit? Grilled fruit is incredibly tasty, a real crowd-pleaser, and best of all it’s just about the easiest thing you can grill.

Just about any fruit will work well on the grill as long as you prepare it properly. The heat caramelizes the natural sugar in the fruit, bringing a deep intensity to the flavors. And most of us have access to such a good selection of fruit in the summertime that it’s practically a crime not to grill some of it as long as you have the heat on anyway. Summertime grilling favorites include peaches, strawberries, pineapple, bananas, nectarines, cherries and raspberries.

To get ready for our Father’s Day fruit-grilling, we assembled a plate of fruit that was cut and cored but not peeled (so for example, we left the skin on the pears and pineapple but cut out the cores). Then we sprinkled just a little bit of sugar on each of the cut pieces. If you are grilling bananas, you need to dot each piece with a small amount of butter so that it won’t stick to the grill. And for small and/or fragile fruits like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, or cherries, you’ll want to arrange them on a piece of foil so that the pieces don’t fall through the grill. We also covered our raspberries with a dash of balsamic vinegar, so as they grilled they came out a little saucier.

Once you preheat the grill, watch the temperature very carefully. We tried to keep the grill no higher than 300 degrees. It helps to stand right next to the grill so you can make sure your fruit doesn’t burn. As soon as you see some nice grill marks on your fruit, flip them over.

After we served this plate of fruit, we were tickled by the reactions. “It tastes just like peach pie but without the crust!” exclaimed one young taster. Our seven-year-old was most impressed with the grilled pineapple. “This is amazing – did we just invent this?” he wanted to know. “Because we have to tell everyone to try it!” OK – done.

Weekend Fun Food: Because food should be fun.

Posted Under: Just For Fun, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , ,
This post was written by jollytomato on June 19th, 2011
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