Ricotta Stuffed Apricots

The other day at the super market I saw these beautiful orange apricots and felt like I really needed to find a way to use them. I decided to experiment with making stuffed apricots with sour cream or ricotta and rosemary.

I ended up trying out both and found that I really preferred the ricotta because there is already a lot of tartness from the apricots so the sour of the sour cream did not counter that flavor enough for me. I added a little bit of finely chopped rosemary and maple syrup to the cheese, scooped the mix into the apricot and broiled it until the cheese was just lightly browned.

The combination was amazing. I tart flavor of the apricots combined with the slightly sweet cheese and woodsy rosemary was amazing. I was mostly amazed at how filling this was considering the small size of an apricot and the small dollop of ricotta it takes to fill the space where the pit was.

This recipe became my breakfast for the next few days and I am sure to revisit it throughout the apricot season.

Enjoy!

2 firm but ripe apricots cut in half with the pit removed
2 tablespoons ricotta
1/8 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary (sprinkle it in starting with half the amount and then taste to see if you want to add the full amount)
2 teaspoons maple syrup plus a slight drizzle for the top

Mix the cheese, rosemary and 2 teaspoons of maple syrup together. Scoop into the place where the pit was in the apricot filling generously. Drizzle very slightly with maple syrup. Broil until lightly browned.

YUM!

My kids preferred to eat the ricotta mix on slices of apple. Another version of this uses cinnamon and vanilla in the ricotta with some maple syrup. This makes a great dip for apples. 

UPDATE: A Vegan Version I just made recently that is amazing:

 You make these the same way as the non-vegan version but I made cashew cheese to go in them instead of ricotta or mascarpone. Here is the deal with cashew cheese:

Fill a large container (that can hold at least 4-6 cups of stuff with 1 cup of raw cashews and the rest with boiled water that has cooled just for a minute or two. Allow it to sit at least 1 hour but it is even better (smoother end result) if you can let it sit all day or over night and most of the day. 

Next drain the water into a measuring cup and add to the cashews about 2 tablespoons maple syrup and 1/4 cup of the reserved water. Using a very good blender (Vitamix or that sort) or an immersion blender on high speed mix these together until smooth. If it does not seem to be blending you may need to add a bit more water but be cautious about this and take it slow doing it just a tablespoon at a time. You want this to be very smooth and thick about the texture of mascarpone cheese. 

Follow the rest of the recipe as above in the non-vegan version.  

Rainbow Fruit Salad

So I have been trying to come up with fun ways to add lots of colorful fruits and vegtables to our diet after starting the Eat a Rainbow Challenge. Here is the first one that came to mind and worked wonderfully.

Both of my kids ate this through out the day and got lots of variety and color. It would be great with yogurt. We also put it on top of Coconut Bliss Ice Cream. Yum. Let me know if you come up with any creative ways to use it. :)

RAINBOW FRUIT SALAD:

1/4 small watermelon in bite size chunks
1 peach
1 red skin plum (yellow inside)
3 kiwi
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup marionberries (or purple grapes cut in half)

Mix together or serve in clear bowl in layers so you can see the fun colors (inspiration for layering from myblessedlife).

Watermelon Cooler: Perfect Summer Drink

This SUPER simple and refreshing drink is cool and perfect for the hot summer days coming up.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup 100% coconut water (rather than coconut milk)
1/2 cup watermelon
4-5 frozen strawberries


Mix all the ingredients with an immersion blender (or any other kind of blender).


This could easily be doubled/tripled etc for more people. Adding in ice would add to the icee like feel of this drink and make it even colder.


For more calories (if you have a little on who needs extra calories like mine were) you could use some coconut milk. Maybe 1/4 cup. Let me know what variations you come up with.

This is so simple that children can very easily help to add ingredients in. Help with measuring and pushing buttons on a blender. Little cooks in training and learning math through cooking! Woo-who!

Music Friday: Pizza, The Best of Gemini

During the week I like to listen to music on Pandora to discover new music that is similar to other types of music I already know I like. One of the songs that came up a few weeks ago was Pizza by Gemini. 

                                          
 

This is a really silly and fun song about the joy of pizza. It has a really danceable melody and is totally sing along friendly. To go along with this pizza song I thought I would share a pizza book and cooking project to do with kids. 

                                        


I read this book with my son and daughter after having spotted it while browsing the library shelves. I had scanned through it in the library and discovered that there was a recipe at the end for the pizza dough and the kind of pizza in the story. 


My son and daughter enjoy working in the kitchen with me and we have a few kids cookbooks but I love how I was able to read the story and do a project with the kids related to the story. 

We changed the recipe a bit because my son does not like tomatoes and really really wanted to put pepperoni on the pizza (he had just made pizza in preschool a few weeks before and felt that pepperoni was a necessity). I just put all the ingredients out and we each got a section of pizza to create. 

The other change that I made was that I used whole wheat flour and a little extra wet ingredient to make up for that. :)

I served the pizza with a strawberry, pinenut, spinach, and mozzarella salad. 

Verdict: my son declared this was the best pizza he had EVER had. 


My daughter liked it too.
 

Oh and two weeks ago I had a give away for the Music Friday music and Stephanie was the winner. 


Have a good weekend!

Valentine's Muffin

Growing up my Mom and I would always make a special treat on Valentine's Day, French Breakfast Puffs. These muffins are rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar. The original recipe is amazingly delicious but I wanted to try and revamp it into something that I could feel a little better about feeding my little ones who need lots of protein, fiber, and nutrients. 

I went about recreating this recipe to include these things and I have to say I was pretty impressed with the results. Next time I will have to try a few other things that I did not get around to in my spur of the moment experimenting today. 

For now I will give you the recipe and other ideas I have for adding nutrition. I think for fun I am going to start out by giving you the original recipe which is from a cookbook that my Grandma put together years and years ago.


French Breakfast Puffs Original Recipe:      


1/3 c shortening (we always use butter)         
1/2 c sugar                                                      
1 egg                                                               
1 1/2 c flour                                                    
1 1/2 tsp baking powder                                 
1/2 tsp salt                                                       
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c milk


After Baking: 
6 tbsp melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

(see mixing/baking directions below)


In my experimenting I wanted to use what I had on hand since I decided spur of the moment to do this. I decided to add replace some of the flour for flax seed and coconut flour which both have additional fiber, protein, and healthy fats essential for brain health.
French Breakfast Puffs New Recipe:

1/3 c butter 
1/2 c sugar (this could possibly done with agave, honey,  maple syrup, applesauce)
1 egg
a little less than 1/2 c ground flax seed
a little less than 1/2 c coconut flour
a little more than 1/2 c whole wheat flour (you want a total of 
1 1/2 c when you combine the flax, coconut, and whole wheat)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 c milk

After Baking:
6 tbsp melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


Method:


        Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups. Mix the first three ingredients (melted butter works best for mixing). Sift the next five ingredients. Alternate adding the milk and dry ingredients to the egg/sugar/butter mix. Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20-25 minutes. Melt the butter in a bowl that one muffin would easily roll in (from the after baking ingredients). Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl large enough to roll a muffin in. After taking the muffins out of the oven roll take them out of the pan and immediately roll in the butter and then the sugar mixture. Eat them up! 


One hint: Try and always use fresh baking powder it is amazing what a difference this makes in getting them to fluff up!

Things to try: 

-Add in pureed sweet squash, sweet potato, or apple sauce to sweeten instead of sugar. 

-Add in almond flour for part of the flour. 

-Use coconut flour to replace all of the flour, reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup and add in an additional 4 eggs.

-You could dye these red for Valentine's Day but I don't really like using food coloring if I don't have to...maybe beet juice:)


I have to say that I was surprised at how amazing my new version turned out. They were delicious and my kids sure did not know that there was anything different about the ones we made and the original version.