Prickly Pear Raspberry Smoothie

2 years ago we posted Cameron's Prickly Pear Slush...but I wasn't a huge fan. It just had a funny aftertaste; he loved it though. Today I played around until I had a Prickly Pear Raspberry Smoothie that I LOVE. 

I just can't get over the color of the prickly pear fruit. It really is so vibrant and awesome.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. frozen unsweetened raspberries
• 1/2 c. prickly pear fruit puree 
• 1 c. plain yogurt 
• About 2-3 TBS of water
• About 1-2 tsp. olive oil (I know...seems weird, but your body needs good oils in it and olive oil's not bad...if you have sunflower oil that works great too)
• Sweetener (sugar, truvia, jam, whatever you want to use)
• And then I added a tiny squirt of Berry Pomegranate MiO to help cancel out the prickly pear aftertaste (I love the initial prickly pear taste...it's the aftertaste that's a little odd)
• If you have prickly pear juice and not the puree, then omit the water in this recipe

Combine all ingredients in the blender and blend till smooth. I accidentally added too much water so I had to add a small handful more of frozen raspberries to give it the right consistency. 

Healthy Fruit Dip

So I've been wanting to eat more fruit...but I'm not one to just pick up an apple and munch away. So I read a few recipes online and made a healthy fruit dip to help entice me to eat more fruit. It's working like a charm. I love this stuff.

Ingredients:
8oz. fat free sugar free (or reduced...or regular) plain yogurt
8 oz. fat free cream cheese
Sugar (I used truvia instead). I didn't measure...I just added a little bit at the time until the taste was about right. I probably used about 2-3 teaspoons of truvia (which is sweeter than sugar, so you'd have to add more sugar than that)

Just mix them all together with a hand mixer until it's light and fluffy. Mine's almost looks like marshmallow creme.

Bitter Gourd, a Cautionary Tale....

Our neighbors have turned out to be pretty good at container gardening, which has been fun for us since they are from Sri Lanka and grow some things that we haven't seen before. Among them you will find bitter gourd. About the same size and roughly the same shape as a cucumber, except a little bit different. 

 They were kind enough to give us one or two specimens, so we googled how to cook them and gave it a try, although Gaji did warn us that we probably wouldn't like them as much as he does. We started by giving them a good washing, and then sliced them up. I'd read that you can remove some of the bitterness by heavily coating them in salt and leaving them to sit for a little while. So we did this, rinsing the salt off before we were ready to cook them.

 We didn't do anything else to prep these babies, just dropped them in a pot of hot oil and gave them a good fry until they were golden brown.

I think I salted them after we took them out of the oil, but I'm not sure really.
The texture was about what you'd expect of any fried food. Crispy and crunchy and perfect.
Then the taste hits.
The first thought that pops into your head is "wow, we WAY over-salted these puppies".
Very shortly after that you realize that maybe it's not just the salt you're tasting.
Then you think "ummm, this is kinda gross, but I guess I can finishing chewing and swallow it".
This progresses to "If I can't find somewhere to spit this thing I'm going to DIE!!!!!!!!!".
Next comes "OH MY GOSH! I already spit it out, why is the flavor still intensifying on the back of my mouth?"
All this is ended by spending the next couple of minutes frantically eating and drinking ANYTHING you can get your hands on, because at this point you'd probably eat poop if it would get that ever increasing foul taste out of your mouth.
Moral of the story, don't EVER eat bitter gourd unless you wish to die a slow and incredibly nasty death while the worst taste imaginable builds on your palate until it takes over and squeezes the life out of you.

Gaji was not surprised to find out we didn't much care for his favorite snack, but he's probably glad. There are now two less people in the world he has to compete with for a supply of bitter gourd.

Spicy Zucchini Pickles

We share a garden with our Landlady and we have had a ton of zucchini and squash...more that we could keep up with. Cameron hates to see things go to waste. One year he spent a few days making peach freezer jam from a deserted peach tree at work (he got permission to use the peaches) even though he really doesn't like peaches at all...he just hates to see free food go to waste. So he looked up recipes and found one for Refrigerator Spicy Zucchini Pickles. I'm not going to lie...I was kinda hesitant. It just didn't sound real great.  However...I had the first one today and it was phenomenal. I LOVED it. It was crunchy and tasty and zippy and so good. AND, it was a really easy recipe and process. No canning and they're ready within a few days.

 Thank you Cameron. 

He found the recipe at http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/spicy-zucchini-pickles/.

Spicy Zucchini Pickles

1 pound zucchini (or any summer squash)
2 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
4 garlic cloves, light smashed
2 tablespoons sea salt
1 tablespoon dill seeds
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1. Trim the ends off zucchini and slice lengthwise into quarters.
2. Bring vinegar, water, salt and spices to a boil. Simmer for five minutes, then remove from heat.
3. Thoroughly sanitize and rinse the jar you’ll use and keep it filled with hot water until you’re ready to use it.
4. Pack the zucchini snugly in the jar. Tuck the garlic cloves in. Pour the hot brine over the squash. Let the jar sit, uncovered, until it has cooled, about an hour. Cover and refrigerate. They should keep for a couple of months, if not longer.

He made these on Monday (the 3rd of Sep.), but we didn't know how long we were supposed to let them sit before we tried them. I finally got curious (and hungry) and tried one today (the 8th of Sep.) and they were awesome. 

Turtle Soup

No, that's not a play on words. I'm not kidding. We made turtle soup this week and it was an interesting experience. 

Ethan caught several turtles and decided that he wanted to see what they tasted like. We've both heard of turtle soup, but never actually knew anyone who's eaten it (that we know of anyways), so HE decided to try it. You start by using your wife's meat cleaver to behead your subjects (make sure it's one she doesn't want back, because it just may not stand up to the tough little guys).  Now, you need to watch out, because these things have crazy reflexes and will keep trying to bite you even after their heads are long since severed. Okay, next you have to detach the breast plate from the bottom of the turtle using a sturdy saw (warning, those crazy reflexes will kick in here, and the little guy will try to kick your hands away as you're doing this, watch out for the claws!) Now you can proceed to harvest the neck, leg, and loin meat from your victim. Basically, the easiest way to do this is just to cut the legs and neck off and then say to heck with the loin meat because in order to get it off the underside of the shell, you'd need to pull the spine out with a pry bar.
Now that you've butchered your turtles, here's what you do for your soup.

What you need:
Turtle meat
chicken broth
assorted veggies (carrots, onion, celery, etc...)

What to do:
Boil your turtle's legs and necks in the broth until the meat is tender enough to remove from the bones. Two turtles will produce about this much meat:

Return the meat to the pot, along with the veggies. Cook until everything is done, and then enjoy!
Okay, well unless you like to eat fishy tasting leather, I would recommend skipping that last part. I finally worked up enough courage to taste it, and it wasn't terrible, flavor-wise. I chewed and chewed that little hunk of turtle and after some serious chewing I finally spit it back out and looked at it. It looked just like it had before it went into my mouth. At least I can say I've eaten turtle, but can you?

More Baby Finger Foods

Well, maybe I'm the only one out there who is desperate for baby food ideas, but just in case, here's a few more things Erik likes to eat. 

 ENGLISH MUFFIN PIZZA
What you need:
English muffin (preferably whole wheat), sliced in half
Spaghetti Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Pepperoni (or lunch meat, or whatever you want to top your pizza with)
What you do: Spread the sauce on the english muffin, then sprinkle shredded mozzarella over the top of that. Top your pizza with whatever you've chosen, but make sure it's cut up into small enough pieces for you baby to handle. Place on a baking sheet and put in the broiler until the cheese melts. Cut into bite size pieces for a smaller baby, or leave whole for an older one, and serve.

 BAKED POTATO
What you need:
1 potato (I've been using sweet potatoes for this, but you could use regular ones as well)
What you do: You can just bake your potato like you would do for any old baked potato, but if you're like me you never plan that far in advance. So, I slice my potato into ~1/2 inch slices, spray them with cooking spray or brush them with butter(or oil, or whatever), and then bake them at 350 until they are soft enough for Erik to chew (15-20 mins). Once they've cooled enough to eat, I cube them up and they're ready to go. These store well in the fridge and taste yummy the next day

 ITALIAN TOFU TREATS
What you need:
Firm tofu, cubed
spaghetti sauce
bread crumbs (either pre-seasoned, or you can mix in some garlic and onion powders, basil, oregano, parsley, etc...)
What you do:
Roll the tofu in the spaghetti sauce, then in the bread crumbs. Bake at 350 until they are warm and crunchy.

Pickled Cantaloupe

Abigail canned pickles for our county fair yesterday. She made Spicy Pickled Cantaloupe for the pickled fruit category. If you are interested, go to Miss Abigail's Hope Chest for the recipe. You wouldn't expect canned cantaloupe to taste this good. She pickled some cherries also, just because we had some sweet cherries ready to can.