Strawberries, Yogurt and Granola

If you read my last post you might have anticipated my next post would be for creamy mushroom soup.  Hope you aren't too disappointed to see berries instead.  The soup recipe came from a highly credible source, Cook's Illustrated.  The soup turned out okay, but I didn't love it.  I haven't given up on it though.  I have some ideas of what may have held this soup back from being great so I'll give another go at some point.

In the meantime, what I know is great, are fresh, ripe, sweet strawberries straight from the fields to the farmer's market.  Living in southern California gives me pretty good access to local berries early in the season.  The funny thing is I didn't have my first berries of the year at home.  Two weeks ago Hubby and I took a trip to the mid-west and I was pleasantly surprised when some phenomenal strawberries appeared on my yogurt and granola breakfast in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan.  I thought perhaps it was a fluke.  Then last week I was in New Jersey for work and I had more amazing strawberries.  Really, really amazing.  I've had strawberries on the brain ever since.  I knew a trip to my local farmer's market was number one top priority business this past weekend. 

I wasn't disappointed.  The market was teeming with berries, some big, some small, some gi-normous.  I sampled the small berries and they had the most unbelievably sweet flavor.  Sold!  I'll take 3 baskets, please!  Hubby doesn't eat strawberries so that's 3 baskets of berry heaven all for me.  I decided the first order of business was a simple, but delicious, application of my new found treasures.  Vanilla yogurt topped with fresh cut berries and crunchy honey kissed granola.  I plan to rinse and repeat at least a few more days this week.  A great way to start the day!

I always struggle with storing strawberries.  I feel like they start growing mold the day after I bring them home.  So I asked the girl behind the table at the farmer's market how she recommends storing them.  She suggested placing a papertowel in the bottom of a tupperware and placing a single layer of berries down.  Cover with another paper towel and a layer of berries, and repeat.  Store the tupperware in the fridge.  I'm only on day two, but I think it's going to work.  I hope to be posting more strawberry focused posts this week so I'll let you know how this method holds up.

Enjoy!

Vanilla Yogurt with Strawberries and Granola

3/4 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup fresh strawberries, washed, stems removed and cut in quarters
1/3 cup granola (my favorite is honey flax granola from Fresh and Easy)

Place 1/2 of the yogurt in a small bowl and top with 1/2 of the granola.  Spoon the remaining yogurt on top and finish with berries and remaining granola.

Very Berry Frozen Yogurt

My kitchen cabinets are at maximum capacity.  Even the cabinets above the stove and fridge are stuffed to the brim with kitchen stuff.  For a long time Hubby has been saying he thinks we should get a bread maker.  My response is, "Sure, as long as we can store it in your office, because the kitchen is full!"  I try to avoid buying any new kitchen appliances as tempting as they may be.  I've had my eye on a nice panini press for a while now.  And heck, I wouldn't mind a bread maker.  But there simply is no room. 

I succumbed to temptation this weekend.  Hubby and I went to Costco on Friday evening to stock up for the long weekend.  Though our kitchen cabinets are overflowed, our fridge and freezer were pretty bare.  We bought shrimp, chicken, baby back ribs, organic ground beef, an assortment of veggies, a bag of pears and fresh blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.  And magically an ice cream maker ended up in our cart.  A 1 1/2 quart Cuisinart ice cream maker (for only $30).  It was our fun item.  Everyone needs a fun item for a holiday weekend.  And just like that I forgot all about the fact this new device would have no home in our kitchen.  I kept thinking about all the fabulous ice cream recipes I've seen on various food blogs.  How these food bloggers just quick whip a batch of home made ice cream and serve it alongside some other tasty baked goodie.  Is it really that easy?

The answer is yes.  It's easy to forget that you have no room in the kitchen and it's even easier to make your own home made frozen treats.  After flipping through the Cuisinart recipe book that came with our new purchase, we decided on Very Berry Frozen Yogurt.  Truth be told, it wasn't my first choice....but Hubby is all pro healthy and thought we should avoid the calorie laden ice cream.  I decided to go along with it...all the while plotting out what decadent ice cream I would make on the second go round with our new toy.  Fittingly, I will be making the "Decadent Chocolate Ice Cream".

The very berry frozen yogurt turned out good.  It's not "soft serve" style frozen  yogurt.  When it came out of the ice cream maker it was the consistency of a thick smoothie.  The recipe recommends freezing the finished product for 2 hours to get a firmer consistency.  When frozen overnight, the yogurt was very firm and had a texture a lot like sorbet.  It would be great to make these into popsicles.  The berry flavor was awesome and the end product wasn't too tart.  It was a nice treat after our dinner of barbecued baby back ribs, cole slaw and cornbread.  Very refreshing, light and delicious.

More frozen treats to appear here soon.  Permanent home for the ice cream maker....TBD.

Very Berry Frozen Yogurt
adapted from cuisinart.com

2 cups low-fat vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
4 ounces blueberries
4 ounces raspberries
4 ounces blackberries

Combine the yogurt, milk and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix with a hand mixer 1-2 minutes and sugar is completely dissolved and set aside.  Puree berries in a blender or food processor and strain through a mesh strainer to remove seeds.  Pour strained berry puree into the yogurt mixture and mix on low speed until fully combined.  Pour into ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturers instructions.  The frozen yogurt is very soft (the consistency of a smoothie) when it comes out of the ice cream maker.  Transfer to a plastic container and freeze for 2 hours for a thicker consistency. 

Yields 1 1/2 quarts