Category Archives: Fruit

May 14, 2012 · 3:17 pm

VEGAN ORANGE JULIUS

It’s another week and I have another entry in the So Delicious So Much to Love Contest.

I’d appreciate your help again this week.  Please remember to “Like” So Delicious and then cast your vote (You will be entered to win awesome prizes just for voting).  Once you like the page, click on the contest logo to be taken to the voting page.

My recipe is top row…2nd from the right.

Click HERE to vote.  Thanks for your support!!!

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P.S.  I will post copies of all of my recipes which were entered once the contest is over.

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Filed under Breakfast, Contests, Dessert, Frozen Treats, Fruit, Kid Friendly, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

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March 23, 2012 · 2:30 pm

MINTED CITRUS SALAD

It is the height of citrus season here in California.  A few weeks ago I went to the farmer’s market on Friday and couldn’t help but bring home a huge variety of citrus.  Blood oranges, tangerines, Cara Cara’s (one of my new favorites), and some of the sweetest grapefruit I have ever had followed me home.  It was a gorgeous day and nothing sounded better to me for lunch than a nice plate of citrus.

One of the vendors was selling gorgeous mint, so naturally that needed to come home with me too.

INGREDIENTS – serves one

Grapefruit
Cara Cara orange
Blood orange
5-6 large mint leaves, in a chiffonade (click HERE for a “How To”)
2-3 large Medjool dates, soaked in water just to cover for 15-30 minutes
 

Cover the dates in filtered water.

Cut the rind from the citrus being careful to remove all of the pith while preserving as much citrus meat as possible.  Once the skin and pith is removed, slice the citrus horizontally.  Plate the prepared citrus by alternating varieties.

Pour the dates and soaking water in the high speed blender and blend until smooth.

Lightly drizzle the citrus with some of the date syrup and sprinkle with mint.

For a printable version of this recipe click here.

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Filed under Dessert, Fruit, Gluten Free, Raw, Recipes, Salad, Vegan, Vegetarian

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November 30, 2011 · 2:30 pm

APPLE CARROT SWEET SLAW

I am totally going to toot my own horn when it comes to this one… fast, simple, healthy, and soooo tasty!  I have been in love with this slaw and have been eating A LOT of it.  This makes the perfect snack or after meal dessert.  I really love the flavor combination and the fact that it is all WHOLE food.

I did not include measurements for the ingredients because this is not a recipe that needs exact measurements.  Simply make as much as you would like.  The slaw does keep well in the fridge as long as you do not add the raisins or walnuts until you are ready to serve / eat it (or they will become soggy).

I used equal parts apple and carrot.

INGREDIENTS
 
shredded apple 
shredded carrot
fresh orange juice
cinnamon to taste (I use THIS cinnamon)
raisins
chopped walnuts for garnish (I buy my walnuts HERE)
 

Put the shredded apple and carrot in a bowl and mix well.  Squeeze the orange juice onto the apple and carrot, sprinkle with cinnamon to taste and mix to incorporate.

If you plan on serving the slaw immediately, go ahead and mix in the raisins and chopped walnut.  Otherwise wait until you are ready to serve the slaw and add them at that point or allow people to top their slaw themselves.

For a printable version of this recipe click here.

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Filed under Breakfast, Dessert, Fruit, Gluten Free, Kid Friendly, Quick, Raw, Recipes, Snacks, Vegan, Vegetarian

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November 11, 2011 · 12:30 pm

NATURALLY SWEET CINNAMON DRIED APPLES

Dried apples are so yummy.  With our recent trip to the apple orchard (click here for the post), I had a TON of apples to use and since we all love dried apples, we thought we would try to make some.  One of the great things about dried apples is that you needn’t worry about whether or not the apples you use are pretty (clearly the one below was not)…all that matters is that the apples are tasty.

My parents bought me an apple peeler (NORPRO Apple Master)  while at the orchard and it has quickly become one of my favorite kitchen gadgets…it makes the peeling, coring, and slicing of the apples as easy as pie (sorry, I couldn’t help it).  When prepping the apples all we had to do was push them onto the gadget, spin the handle,  take the cut apple off and slice it down the middle to make little moons.  The slicer also makes the cuts perfectly uniform which means that the dehydrating time is even for all of the slices.

While the apples were nice and sweet on their own, we thought we’d sweeten them-up a little bit more by making a syrup from the fresh cider that we pressed at the orchard.  All we did was pour some cider into a saucepan with some cinnamon and simmer it until it reduced down to a syrup.

We poured the syrup over the apple slices and them tossed it all together.

We then placed the slices on the mesh trays of my Excalibur dehydrator and dehydrated them at 115 degrees until they were as done as we liked.  I wish I took note of the exact timing, but I didn’t.  I believe it took about 4-6 hours.

The dried apples turned out perfectly with a touch of extra sweet and cinnamon.  The kids love it when I put them in their lunches.

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Filed under Fruit, Gluten Free, Kid Friendly, Raw, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

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October 24, 2011 · 11:00 am

SRC – OAT ROASTED PEARS – GFree and Vegan

It is time again for Secret Recipe Club.  Once a month I participate in a fun and inspiring blog swap of sorts.  This month I was assigned Erin’s blog, A Tale of One Foodie’s Culinary Adventures.

Erin’s favorite part of cooking and baking is doing it for other people…a girl after my own heart!  She started the blog as a pseudo journal so she could keep track of all the cooking, baking and wine tasting she does.  While cruising through her blog I saw many mouthwatering dishes that I was interested in making …many of which were vegan and the others which me great recipe ideas that I could take back to the kitchen and veganize.  Ultimately I decided to make her Oat Roasted Pears which she adapted from a recipe by Anna Olson.  My family is slightly obsessed with pears right now since they are at the peak of amazing this time of year.

Since coming back from the Healthy Lifestyle Expo a few weekends ago I am primed to make as many healthy changes as I can in my cooking and baking, so I eliminated all of the butter and refined sugar from this dish and substituted date sugar and honey (I also used pecans vs. almonds since that is what I had on hand).  In addition, I halved the recipe since there are only four of us.

The end result was delicious and we all loved it!

For Erin’s original recipe, click here.

Honey Oat Roasted Pears
Recipe from Anna Olson’s cookbook Fresh, p 120
Ingredients:

Method:

Preheat the oven to 375F. Toss the oats, date sugar, honey, pecans and cinnamon to combine.

Cut the pears in half (don’t peel them) and scoop out their cores (I used a melon baller).

Lay the pear halves in a baking dish.

Press 1/4 of the oat filling into the center of each pear.

Bake, uncovered for 25 minutes, until pears are tender and the oat filling is lightly browned.  NOTE – Watch closely.  If the oat mixture begins to cook too rapidly, cover with foil.

Serve warm, drizzled with maple syrup or honey and vanilla yogurt.

For a printable version of this recipe click here. 

 

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Filed under Cooked Fruit, Dessert, Fruit, Gluten Free, Pie / Crumble / Cobbler, Recipes, Secret Recipe Club, Vegan, Vegetarian

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October 14, 2011 · 1:30 pm

HOMEMADE RAISINS

This summer my sister and her family moved away.  9 years ago she and her husband (Who happens to be my husband’s college roommate)  moved to the town where I live with their 6 month old daughter.  The night she moved was her 30th B-Day (December 22nd) and it was pouring rain…not much of a birthday, but I was super excited that they moved down here.

Our children were able to spend their early childhoods with their cousins and my oldest niece was like a sibling to my son before he finally got his true sibling when we adopted our daughter.  My sister’s oldest is now 9 years old and this summer they decided as a family to embark on a great adventure…They are now living in the mountains near every type of activity they love (hiking, mountain biking, fishing, skiing, camping, etc.).  I get amazing photos texted to me, but I still miss them tremendously.

I eat granola almost every day.  The latest batch of granola (click here for the recipe I use) was made with raisins I made from the overflowing grape vines in the backyard of my sister’s old house.  After my sister moved and before her new tenants moved in, I went over the her house and harvested buckets and buckets of grapes to bring home and make raisins with.  Now whenever I eat the granola I made with “their” raisins I think of my sister, brother-in-law, 3 awesome nieces, and hilarious nephew.

Making raisins is so easy!  Simply wash the grapes, remove them from the vine, place them on your dehydrator tray, turn it on, and wait until they are as dry as you’d like them to be.  My raisins took about 24 hours to dehydrate.

I had so much fun making the raisins.  My kids and I made raisins from many different kinds of grapes and all of them were good for different reasons…some were super sweet, some were sweet and sour, some were big, some were small.  I am looking forward to trying to make my own dried cranberries as they come into season.

And remember, you don’t have to have a dehydrator to make raisins…all you need is good old sunshine or your oven turned as low as possible.

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Filed under Fruit, Gluten Free, Raw, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

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August 1, 2011 · 1:30 pm

BLUEBERRY PUDDING

I am a member of Dr. Fuhrman’s Member Center and as a member I receive daily recipes in the mail.  Dr. Fuhrman practices Nutritional Medicine and is a great resource for any of you wishing to learn more about the connection between nutrition and health.  I refer to his books as resources often.

A few weeks back I received a recipe for Berry “Yogurt” that looked so simple and refreshing (and mostly raw).  Somehow it has taken me weeks to get around to making this treat…a treat that literally took two minutes to make from start to finish.

Blueberries have been outrageously good lately (I can’t seem to get enough!) which motivated me to make this berry pudding with blueberries exclusively.  I decided that I wanted to go for more of a pudding than a yogurt and thus increased the flax meal to 4 Tbs. rather than 2Tbs.  The results were great!  Since my blueberries were sweet on their own, I did not add anything other than the dates.  If you tend to have a big sweet tooth, you may want to keep some stevia on hand in case you want the pudding to be sweeter.  I recommend blending it as written below and tasting it prior to adding any additional sweetener.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups blueberries, washed

¾ cups So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk

4 Tbs. ground flax meal (I used Bob’s Red Mill)

4 Medjool dates, pitted

Place all ingredients in your Vitamix (or blender) and blend for approximately 1 minute.

Chill before serving.

For a printable version of this recipe click here.

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Filed under Dessert, Fruit, Gluten Free, Kid Friendly, Pudding / Mousse, Quick, Raw, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

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