Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

Fresh summer fruit is great but unfortunately it is coming to an end! Now that we have cut out a lot of heavy carbs, gluten and started eating more clean, we fill up on fresh fruit and veggies. Typically we eat them plain but occasionally I like to give fruit a little extra something. This honey lime dressing was so easy to throw together and complimented the fruit wonderfully. It goes really well with the papaya and pineapple. Feel free to enjoy as much of this salad as you want – you shouldn’t have too much guilt about it!

Fruit Salad

1 cup fresh pineapple, diced
1 red plum, sliced
1 cup fresh papaya, diced
1 cup fresh grapes, halved
Honey Lime Dressing
½ cup water
¼ cup honey
1 Tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
1 lime, zest and juice

• Mix together fruit in a serving bowl.
•  In a small bowl or carafe bottle, mix together lime juice, lime zest, water, honey and mint. Stir until well blended.
• Drizzle a little dressing over fruit salad and serve.
• Best if served over fresh fruit immediately, but the dressing will keep for a few days in the refrigerator.

Lemon Mint Jam

Here’s the start of week two of my canning recipes. Again – I have lots of mint. I also have a friend that is pregnant. She is still in her first trimester and is having a lot of morning (all day) sickness. Having two children myself, I know all too well about morning sickness. What my friend has found and what I knew to be helpful was lemon. Not sure exactly why the sour taste of lemon seems to calm the tummy but it does. In hopes to helping her feel better, I decided to try out this lemon jam recipe. It’s really more similar to a marmalade but it is tasty anyway! This is great on crackers or toast. My mother even put it over a cheesecake filling for dessert. You can always add more sugar or sweetener but if you make the recipe as I did, it is still pretty tart and that’s how we like it!

 

1 bag of lemons (about 12 large – you’ll end up with about 4 cups of blended lemon)

1 cup of honey (or other sweetener)
¼ cup of fresh mint, finely chopped

• In a food processor or blender, blend lemons, rind and all with the mint.
• In a large stockpot combine lemon mixture and honey. Bring to boiling and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
• Ladle jam into prepared glass jars and finish preparing jars as desired.  The acidity in the lemons help preserve the jam and the rind helps give the jam some texture but doesn’t add a bitter taste. This recipe makes about 4 half pint jars.

Cool Asian Salad

Happy Labor Day!

This is the easiest salad I’ve ever made-aside from just putting lettuce on a plate. This is a favorite of ours during the summer when we just need a quick, cool bite to eat. The dressing on here is amazing also. Feel free to add in more vegetables but this is a recipe we just like to keep it simple. This is a perfect, quick & easy dish to throw together for a holiday gathering and perfect on a hot day! You can make the dressing the day before to help the flavors come together and make quick work the day of serving!

1 bunch of romaine lettuce, chopped

2 celery stalks, diced
shredded cheese, if desired
Dressing
2 tsp rice vinegar
¼ cup water
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp sesame seeds, toasted
½ tsp garlic salt

• Combine the ingredients for the dressing in a small blender (like a Magic Bullet). Blend until smooth.
• Mix together lettuce and celery. Top with cheese if desired. Then pour dressing over salad and serve. It’s that easy.

Grilled Summer Squash

As I’ve mentioned before, we have a ridiculous amount of summer produce. I’m talking yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, etc. We love it. This is probably my absolute favorite way to cook and eat yellow squash. Since we are grilling all of the time, it is so easy to just throw it in a foil pack and let it cook outside. I won’t lie – my husband cooks it better. He has perfected the temperature and cooking time so it is still a little crispy but cooked just right.

1 small yellow squash, sliced into small slices

1 small zucchini, sliced into small slices
½ onion, sliced into rings or strips
1 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
½ tsp garlic salt
1 Tbsp olive oil

• Get a long strip of foil, enough that will hold all of the squash.
• In a bowl, combine the squash slices, onion, seasonings and oil. Mix together until all vegetables are coated. Pour the mixture on the foil.
• Gather up to foil sides to make a little packet. Throw the packet on the grill at about 400°F and cook for about 10 minutes.
• You may want to check it periodically to make sure it isn’t burning. Leaving a little opening at the top of your packet will allow some steam to help cook the squash also.

Blackberry Cobbler

One of our summertime favorites is blackberry cobbler. My in-laws have a little blackberry patch and graciously share some of their fruit with us. I use to make blackberry cobbler and it was fantastic. One of my very first recipes I perfected - Super buttery, flakey pie crusts with a sweet and sour blackberry filling with the perfect amount of juice. It’s so good I may share it one day even though I will probably never make it again. Okay – so this is not that but it is equally good. Instead of pie crusts, I made a soft cake-like topping with the same type of fruit filling. I feel a LOT better about eating it and know that it won’t make me feel bad.

1 cup GF all purpose baking mix

½ cup coconut flour
½ cup almond flour
¼ cup brown sugar
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup applesauce
¼ cup honey, agave, or maple syrup
¾ cup water
½ cup oil or shortening (coconut oil, soy butter, or a mix)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups fresh blackberries
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup stevia or sugar

• Mix together the blackberries, cinnamon and stevia to make the fruit filling.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining dry ingredients and then add in the wet ingredients and blend well.
• Spread the fruit mixture on the bottom of a 9x9 baking dish. Drop the dough mixture on top of the fruit by spoonfuls until the majority of the fruit is covered and the dough is gone.
• Sprinkle a little sugar or brown sugar on top of the wet dough. Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes or until the dough is brown on top.
• Note: If your berries are juicy, you will not need to add any extra water or juice to the fruit mixture. Also, if using frozen berries, make sure you thaw them completely and drain most of the liquid out so your cobbler does not become soggy.

Mango Salsa

Here’s a salsa recipe to fall in love with – that is if you like mangos and salsa! We do at our house. We love to serve this on fish tacos, mix in with rice, or just eat with chips. In a pinch, frozen, thawed mango will work but fresh is MUCH better if you can get it. Enjoy!

1 mango cored, peeled, chopped (or 1 cup thawed, frozen mango chopped)

½ cup pineapple diced (fresh is better, but canned will work – crushed, diced, chunks, whatever)
1 cup cherry tomatoes, diced
½ cup red onion, diced
2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped

• Mix all together and serve with whatever dish you like. It is also better after refrigeration, and even better the next day.

Strawberry Lemonade

What is summer without lemonade?? There’s just something about a cold glass of lemonade that makes a hot day better. We like to switch it up and add something to the lemonade. This time we tried strawberries and it was wonderful! Plus – homemade lemonade is much healthier than the powdered stuff and still easy to make.

4 lemons

½ cup stevia powder (or sugar or other sweetener)
4 strawberries
1.5 quarts of water
ice cubes

• Fill a two quart pitcher half full with ice cubes. Add in the 1.5 quarts of water. Juice the lemons and add the juice into the water. (I cut each lemon in half and juiced by hand but you could also use an electric juicer)
• Cut slices of lemon rind and add to pitcher. Cut the strawberries into quarters and add to pitcher.
• Slowly stir in stevia or other sweetener. Refrigerate for a couple of hours to let the flavors come together. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Cucumber-Onion Salad

This salad is so quick and easy, but also one of my favorites. My mother’s neighbor is getting quite old and his wife just passed away. I have known them since I was a little girl and they have always had a HUGE garden – for just the two of them. Every year they had so much more food than they could possibly eat so they would walk down the road, giving all of the neighbors the fruits of their hard work. This year was no different; he came walking to my mother’s house with bags full of beets and cucumbers. He gave us even more than we could eat so I had to do something with all of them. The acid in this recipe helps the tender cucumbers keep a little longer so they do not go to waste.

1 large cucumber, peeled, cut into thin slices

½ large onion, cut into thin slices
¼ cup white vinegar
¼ cup tarragon vinegar
¼ cup white wine vinegar
1 tsp dill weed
1 tsp parsley
1 Tbsp honey or sugar for sweetness
1/2 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
½ cup water

• Mix together the vinegars, spices, honey and water until combined.
• Add in the cucumber and onion slices. Your liquid should cover the vegetables – if it doesn’t just add some more water.
• Refrigerate for 2 hours and serve.