Tag Archives: fruit

“After School Snack” Smoothie

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It may sound weird, but one of the things that I am most about graduating this year is the fact that I will finally be able to eat lunch at my own time.

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Any guesses on my absurd lunch time this year?

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9:45 AM.

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Yep…if it was my choice I would not even be awake at that time! 9:45…who seriously would ever think that is somewhat close to a normal lunch time?! Anyways, I eat my lunch like an obedient little student, and then by my final class of the day it sounds like my stomach is playing it’s theme song. Yes, I could bring snacks and save some of my lunch for later, but something about being the only one in class, making all the eating and chewing noises pushes me away a little. So there is my life problem in a nut shell for you. It’s a torturous life, but someone’s got to live it (sarcasm..)

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So here is a wonderful smoothie I love to make that energizes me and fills me up when I get home. If I woke up early enough, this would be awesome as a breakfast smoothie before I take off to school, but I guess you can’t win em all. One of my favorite things about this smoothie is that it is 100% fruit, and with the frozen banana, a creamy smoothie is made!

“After School Snack” Smoothie

(Serves 1)

1/2 cup sliced, frozen bananas

1/4 cup blackberries

1/3 cup blueberries

1/4 cup juice (I used cranberry-grape juice, but grape or cranberry on their own would work well, this juice is not totally necessary)

  1. In a blender, blend together all the ingredients until smooth and you don’t hear the frozen bananas making a ruckus anymore.

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Random Fact of the Day: On some Caribbean islands, the oysters can climb trees.

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Apple Cake

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My family has been dog-sitting for the past week…

We are taking care of our neighbor’s doggy, Chloe. Chloe has been a long-time pal of our dog Harry. They are little angels separated on their own, but when they get together…something takes them over. They turn into little monsters.

Little monsters that will bark their little heads off at a minuscule imaginary dust particle. They will literally try to out-bark each other. Thankfully Chloe will return to her own home, so things will be back to normal soon.

By the way, I made some food. Apple cake-it’s cake but there is fruit involved, therefore it’s perfect for breakfast! or whenever. Also, this is one of Gram’s recipes, so it’s obviously gotta be a winner.

Apple Cake

1 cup vegetable or canola oil

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups white sugar

pinch of salt

2 cups flour (I used 1 3/4 all-purpose and 1/4 whole wheat flour)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

5 apples, peeled and cut into cubes

1 cup nuts, chopped (I used walnuts)

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 x 9 inch pan.
  2. Blend egg, sugar, oil in a large bowl. In a separate medium bow, sift flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. Stir into bowl with egg mixture. Fold in apples and nuts.
  3. Pour and spread batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out mostly clean from center. Enjoy and lightly cover leftovers.

Random Fact of the Day: There is a one in a trillion chance that a piece of space junk will land on your house today.

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Super Strawberry Cupcakes

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Fruit in dessert. We’ve had this discussion before. It’s not exactly my thing. Especially in cakes. There’s nothing worse than when you cut into a cake to find cherries inside. EW!but then again, I have found love with strawberries in dessert before. Mmm… Well anyways, it is strawberry season! How exciting-they really are ah-mazing right now. So I was just poking around looking for a good recipe and I had just tried a strawberry cupcake a few nights earlier, when my friend’s sister made them for her birthday. HOLY YUM! They are deeeee-lish!Therefore, I set out today with that cupcake in the back of my mind. And friends, I think my mission has been accomplished. Alright, seriously I need to stop this post now. Looking at all these picture just makes me want to make more cupcakes. Must. Restrain. Myself.

Strawberry Cupcakes

9 fresh strawberries

2 eggs

1 c. sugar

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1/2 t. vanilla

1 1/2 c. flour

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

6 strawberries, chopped into small pieces

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line muffin tins.
  2. Place strawberries in food processor and blend till smooth. Put puree through strainer to get seeds out. Should equal 3/4 c. or a little more
  3. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, white sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla, and strawberry puree until well combined. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in the chopped strawberries. Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake cups, filling each about 2/3 full.
  4. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.

Strawberry Frosting

4 strawberries

1 stick of butter, firm

pinch of salt

1 3/4 c. powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 t. vanilla

  1. Blend strawberries in food processor until smooth. Set aside.
  2. Beat butter and salt together in medium bowl. Slowly add sifted powdered sugar, beat until combined. Add vanilla and strawberry puree, mix until just blended. Do not over-mix frosting. Pipe onto cupcakes once cupcakes are cooled.of course I would pick to cut open the one cupcake that doesn’t have the strawberry chunks in it… oh well!
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My Favorite Cereal-HOMEMADE!

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About 8 months ago, I was at a soccer tournament. I think it was in St. Louis, but I don’t quite remember. I don’t even remember how we did in the tournament. But what I do remember was the granola at the little, dinky continental breakfast bar. 

I had never tried granola before. Sure, I loved granola bars. But granola..what’s granola? Well, I was intrigued. I tried it the first day, and became absolutely hooked. I brought that stuff with me everywhere. I would even take a coffee cup and fill it with granola in the morning to save for later. 

I became a granola monster. 

So as a result of this new addiction, my mom made up some homemade granola when we got home. It was fantastic. We make this stuff almost weekly, always having a batch made up in the house. 

It truly is addictive. I eat it out of the container all the time…shh! don’t tell ;)  

Anyways, this is an awesome recipe because it is very basic. You can add pretty much anything you want and it will taste amazing. Personally, I don’t like dried up fruit and stuff in there, I’m more of a fresh fruit person myself. But hey, if that is your kind of thing, all power to ya!

Granola

(from Alton Brown)

6 c. rolled oats

4 c. nuts, chopped (any type of nuts works fine)

1 1/2 c. shredded coconut

3/4 c. dark brown sugar

3/4 c. maple syrup or corn syrup or honey

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 1/2 t. salt

  1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar.
  3. Add syrup ( or corn syrup or honey), oil, and salt. Combine all ingredients together. You may need to get in here with your hands to mix it all up to it’s full potential.
  4. Pour granola onto 2 baking pans with rims. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes in preheated oven, stirring every 20 minutes to achieve an even color.
  5. Remove from oven and let cool before serving or storing in Tupperware. 
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Mini Apple Pies

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Remember when I made that mini apple pie before? Yes, it was delicious. And I just had to make it again. I mean baking it once at school for a baking and pastry class is just not gonna cut it.

Also, my dad was slightly upset he did not get a bite of the one from before.

Anyways, I didn’t really have much of a recipe to work from, but apple pie seemed pretty easy enough. I mean how hard can it be? They’re just minis of regular apple pies. The most difficult part was probably figuring out the time to bake them, but it all worked out good! :)  

Mmmm and yes they are GOOD. Apple pie, it’s just one of those things some kids are scared to try but most people by age 30 love it. 

Its so versatile. And how bad can it really be for you? I mean, come on , it’s got fruit in it! So that is why my family considers it appropriate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I really don’t see no problem here, do you?

Mini Apple Pies

2 pie crusts (or 1 double pie crust) recipe here!

1 can apple filling

1 granny smith apple

1 T. white sugar

1/4 t. cinnamon

1 T. white sugar, optional

1/8 c. cinnamon, optional

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Make pie crusts, and roll out dough. Place the mini pie tin top-side down on pie crust and cut a circle around it with about a 1/2 inch extra around. Once all circles are cut for the pie tins place pieces of dough in pie tins.
  3. Make filling. Peel and dice apple. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over diced apples in a bowl and toss to coat. Add jar of apple pie filling and mix together.
  4. Spoon filling into pie crusts. Place top crust on top. Seal edges and top with a 1 tablespoon of sugar mixed with cinnamon, if desired. Bake 25-30 minutes.
What’s your favorite kind of pie?
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