Food | Travel | Family | Life
Have a freezer full of frozen blueberries? Use them to make these moist blueberry muffins.
During the summer, I always make sure we freeze berries and fruit when they are in abundance. My favourite fruit to freeze are blueberries and cherries. You can do so much with them – like baking and jam. It’s always nice to enjoy those summer fruits throughout the year.
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It’s almost time for the long weekend! Time for food on the grill, hanging with friends, and of course, watermelon! Watermelon is the ultimate summer time fruit. Summer memories always include hot days eating cold watermelon. It is so refreshing and also so versatile!
Having this delicious fruit as a sweet treat is an easy way to serve it, but I love adding a savoury touch. I drizzle watermelon with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and finish with a sprinkle of feta and basil. Not a common pairing but oh so good!
The ideas on how to serve watermelon are endless. Check out all the fabulous recipes below!
Minted Watermelon and Cucumber Salad from a Virtual Vegan
Raw Watermelon Candy from The Taste Space
Maple Lemon Fruit Salad from Bake For Granted
Watermelon and Strawberry Fruit Salsa from I Say Nomato
Watermelon Lime Honey Popsicles from Sugar Love Spices
Watermelon, Feta and Tomato Confit Stacked Salad from My Kitchen Love
Skinny Greek Chicken Bowl with Watermelon and Feta from Flavour & Savour
Detoxifying Watermelon Mint Limeade from Justine Celina
Pink Power Smoothie-Juice from Occasionally Eggs
Grilled Peach, Strawberry & Watermelon Salsa from Bakers Beans
Watermelon Refresher from Bakers Beans
Watermelon Mint Paletas from Satori Design for Living
Vegan Watermelon Pizza Dessert from The Cookie Writer
Watermelon and Coconut Popsicles from The Cookie Writer
Watermelon “Cake” from Making Healthy Choices
Watermelon Rose Smoothie from Food Mamma
Watermelon Lime Spritzer from Food Mamma
Watermelon Feta Salad from Food Mamma
It’s looking like its going to be another fantastic week. Days that are hot, the kitchen is the last place I want to be. We happily throw things on the bbq, while hanging around on the deck. We tend to eat a little lighter when it’s hot and salads become main meals, using whatever is in season.
Grilling stone fruits like nectarines and plums and then adding them to greens makes a delicious salad, definitely not boring. The fruit takes minutes to cook and really brings out the flavour of the fruit. Olive oil and balsamic are all that’s needed to dress the salad. We also can’t forget the cheese, the perfect finishing touch.
Grill the fruit by cutting it in half, rubbing it with a little oil and placing it on the bbq. After a couple of minutes, remove from the heat and place on top of your favourite greens, like arugula. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, add salt and pepper and top with a sprinkling of feta. This is great as-is or made heartier with some chicken or beef.
It has been an amazing April so far while we have enjoyed an early summer. In fact, we broke a 100 year old record yesterday with temperatures climbing to 28 degrees! Needless to say, most people were outside, enjoying the patios or having drinks on their decks. While we bbq’d up some jerk chicken and lamb chops, we enjoyed this refreshing drink – strawberry burst!
This is the perfect drink to cool off on a hot day and great for parties. It’s nice to have some fun drinks for those that don’t drink alcohol or for the responsible DDs.
Fill your glass with ice and Sprite, or your favourite lemon-lime soda, add 3 TB of crushed strawberries and a squeeze of lime. Cheers!
I have been wanting to go to Hawaii for years. With a big birthday coming up next month, I decided that this was the year we were going, no matter how much hubby was resisting. I can’t wait!
I made this pineapple shrimp dish to get us into the tropical spirit. It’s a perfect balance of sweet and heat and super tasty. This dish comes together super quick and goes great with rice or all on it’s own. Make it even more festive by serving it in a pineapple bowl!
Pineapple Shrimp
1/4 cup pineapple, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 green onion, chopped,
1 pound shrimp
2 TB hoisin sauce
2 TB soya sauce
1 tsp sriracha, or as needed
cilantro
vegetable oil
sesame oil
Add some vegetable and sesame oil to a hot pan. Add the garlic, onions and shrimp. After a minute, add the pineapple and sauces and cook until shrimp are opaque. Sprinkle with cilantro and enjoy.
We have been enjoying our daily smoothies and I have been having fun coming up with some tasty combinations. Today was a good one and I could not wait to share.
The spinach smoothies haven’t been a favourite for the boys…until today. Today, they wanted more! That is a huge win. The greens combined with the tropical flavours of pineapple, banana and coconut worked really well together. The pineapple added the sweetness and the banana and coconut milk the creaminess. The coconut milk also made it dairy free so even hubby could enjoy it.
This tropical concoction will allow you to escape to somewhere warm, even if just for a minute.
Green Tropical Smoothie
1/2 cup pineapple, cubed
1 banana
1/2 cup spinach
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup water
ice
Place all the ingredients and blend until smooth.
I have a new helper in the kitchen. The little guy is always eager to see what’s cooking and to help out in any way possible. Z is 21 months and lately, when he thinks I’ll be doing something in the stand mixer, he pulls the chair to the counter, ready with measuring cups so that he can pour things in.
This morning we made banana bread, using up ripe bananas that we wanted to put to good use. We loaded up the batter with pecans, chocolate chips and coconut. The resulting bread was moist and full of character. We cut into it while it was still hot, it was too hard to resist!
Chocolate Chip, Coconut, Pecan Banana Bread
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
2 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup flaked coconut
Cream margarine and sugar together. Once combined, add eggs and vanilla. Next, mix in the dry ingredients – flour and baking soda. Add the mashed bananas, sour cream along with the chocolate chips, pecans and coconut.
Add the batter to a loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.
With all the smoothies we have been experimenting with, one thing has been clear – Q’s not a fan of the green ones. They may taste great, but the colour to him is just off putting. Z on the other hand will drink anything, he’s more about the taste than the visual appeal.
This berry banana smoothie is a hit with everyone. The blackberries and strawberries along with the banana make a great combination. The banana along with some yogurt and milk make this drink super creamy and so delicious.
Berry Banana Smoothie
1/2 cup blackberries
1/2 cup strawberries
1 banana
1/2 cup yogurt
1 cup milk
Ice
Blend until smooth.
Our smoothie kick continues! Q loves the combination of strawberries and bananas so that’s the flavours we went with today. I added a clementine for some citrus zing and added milk and yogurt to make this creamy concoction.
For some more smoothie inspiration, check out this board on Pinterest.
Banana, Strawberry and Clementine Smoothie
1 banana
1/2 cup strawberries
1 clementine
1/2 cup yogurt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup ice
Blend and enjoy!
January is here and we are back to school and back to routine. I try and stay away from resolutions, they always seem short-lived. There is something that needed implementing around here though, and the new year seems like the best place to start. Although we eat fruits and vegetables, I really needed us to have more. Keeping plates of cut fruits and veggies out has helped. No one can resist snacking if it’s right there, ready and waiting. Salads are an easy way to add veggies but they can become boring. Smoothies seem like the best way to add a whole whack of nutrients, changing it up everyday so that there is variety.
To help with this goal, the folks at Ninja sent me their Nutri Ninja Auto-IQ Compact System. If I could choose one word to describe this machine, it would be power. I loved watching it break down spinach and grind ice into a smooth refreshing drink. With this Ninja, you have a nutrient and vitamin extractor as well as a high performance blender – it pulverizes any vegetable or seed. On top of all that, it comes with a Blend and Prep bowl, making this powerful blender into a full food processor. Hubby’s quite happy about this fact, hoping to get rid of a few of my appliances.
I loved this recipe for a refreshing green smoothie. With apples, lemon and ginger, along with a big helping of spinach, this drink was pretty delicious. I never thought I’d say that about a spinach smoothie! Watch for more smoothie recipes over the next couple of weeks and check out this board on Pinterest for inspiration.
Disclaimer – I was sent a Nutri Ninja Auto-IQ Compact System to try out and keep. All opinions are my own.
Sweet Spinach Detox
From Ninja
1 green apple, cut in 2-inch chunks
1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
1/4 lemon, peeled, seeds removed
1/2 cup baby spinach
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup ice
Place all ingredients into the 24-ounce Tritan Nutri Ninja in the order listed.
Select Auto-IQ™ BLEND.