ENJOYING FRESH FRUIT & BERRIES

Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and peaches have found their way to our supermarkets. Even though they don’t come from New Hampshire fields and farms yet, they’re generally available in stores in the US.

Daughter Beth and I enjoy them for meals and snacks. In fact, I seem to get a craving for these foods if I don’t have them. I’d rather give up something else to fit these in the budget if I have to make a choice.

Recent research also emphasizes the value of fruits and berries in our diets because they contain many vitamins, minerals, and often are high on the list of antioxidants. They also are low in calories if you don’t laden them with lots of sugar or syrups or include them in desserts that are high calorie.

Fruit/Berries with Yogurt

I enjoy adding berries and cut up fruit into yogurt for breakfast and snacks. To make it more festive, I often stir in whipped topping. (This also makes a nice dessert.)

For instance, this morning, I had small container blueberry low-fat yogurt, sliced peaches, raspberries, strawberries and 1/3 banana. Then I stirred this together with 2 tablespoons whipped topping. Accompanying this mixture, I had a piece of whole-wheat toast and a cup of tea.

Sometimes my dish of fruit and yogurt becomes so large, I save some for another meal or snack. Using the yogurt base, I add any variety of fruit and berries.

For dessert, I might add a spoonful or two of vanilla ice cream or pudding to the berries, with or without yogurt.

Berry Shortcake

We often purchase the frozen buttermilk biscuits and bake only what we need for the particular meal. While warm, spoon mashed berries and fruit over the biscuit and top with whipped topping or a spoonful of vanilla ice cream.

I’ve found that by using the frozen biscuits, there isn’t any waste. I suppose I could bake my usual recipe of biscuits and freeze the leftover ones for future use.

Berry Tarts

You can make fruit and berry tarts with many different types of crusts. These include traditional pastry crust, as well as those made with wheat pastry flour, cookie crumbs (vanilla or chocolate), or graham cracker crumbs,

(Mary Emma Allen researches and writes from her woodland NH home.)

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