Child-Friendly Dessert: Jelly Smoothy

As you can probably guess from the types of recipes I post, I'm not a huge fan of all things processed.  

However, my husband loves Brazilian jello.  Not the regular Jell-O brand stuff.  But the Brazilian equivalent.  Because it comes in all sorts of tropical flavours like passion fruit, mango, pineapple and coconut.  A good friend of ours, who happens to be Brazilian, always brings some back from Brazil for him every time she goes home to visit.  So we always have a stash of it in our basement pantry for Jérôme's Brazilian jello cravings.

But then we found out that he is diabetic.  So this stuff isn't the best for him.  So it just so happens that it's been sitting in our pantry ever since.

I came across this recipe here and thought that it might be a way to get Logan to eat away this jello stash of ours, while at the same time getting some protein.  I used Greek yogurt so that it would have that much more protein.  Plus, it's what I happened to have in the fridge when I first made this and it worked well ;)

1 package jello (which, you could fly to Brazil to pick up, if you're needing an excuse to travel)
1 C boiling water
2 C plain yogurt
 
1.  Mix together the jello and boiling water and stir until dissolved.

pineapple???

2.  Once cooled a bit, stir in the plain yogurt.  Place in the fridge until set and enjoy. 

I'm sure you could stir some chopped fruit into this before letting it set.  But given Logan's texture issues with foods, I didn't dare!

Difficulty level: easy
 

Natural Homemade Strawberry Freezer Jam

Remember this post back here when I talked about how much fruit I had jammed into my new fridge?  Well, as it turns out, we didn't really ever get around to finishing off the strawberries.  So Camille whipped them into this super quick and easy freezer jam while she was here.

Her batch was so quickly eaten that I ran to the farmer's market to get a big basket of strawberries to make more, before they are out of season.  

 
At the same time, I also whipped up a batch of blueberry vanilla chia seed jam from Oh She Glows.  And then made some blueberry oatmeal squares with that, for my parents' visit this weekend.

I used to make various freezer and regular jams, but find that this one, which has no pectin or other preservatives, has a much stronger fruit flavour than any others I've made.  

You basically just pick whatever fruit you want to make jam with, weigh it and then add half of the fruit's weight in sugar.  Pour the sugar over the fruit and let sit overnight in the fridge, so that the fruit will release its juices.

now that's a mountain of sugar!!

Next day, put the fruit/sugar mixture into a big pot and cook over low-medium heat until cooked.  You can check the consistency of the jam by dipping a wooden spoon into it.  When the jam sticks to the spoon at the consistency you want, it is ready.  It will continue to thicken a bit as it cools.

Then you can either fork mash the berries, or use an immersion blender if you prefer a smoother jam, like I do.

See??  Super easy.  I think the whole thing took me maybe 20 minutes for 5 jars of jam (plus the 5 blueberry I also made).

I chose to not process this for canning, as I just don't have the time for that these days.  So I just jarred it and stuffed it in the freezer to have delicious homemade jam throughout the winter.  

Hmmm.... not getting so far on that freezer challenge, huh???

Breakfast Faves

So here goes my first 'faves' post.  And I'm starting with breakfast faves because this is undoubtedly by 'fave' meal of the day.  I am drooling over this post, having, yet again, eaten a bowl of Vector for breakfast this morning.

Excepting a couple of these recipes, most are weekend faves, as they're more time intensive than any normal human would have time to make during the week.  

I haven't included any muffins here, even though many of them are healthy enough to be eaten for breakfast.  There are just so many of them that I'll do a favourite muffins post one day. So here goes...


baked brie, potatoes, ham and eggs: this was my very first post and I didn't even take any pictures... darn... though I have the goal of progressively adding missing pictures and updating some of the uglier pictures.  But that's slow-going, as many of my recipes (even the ones I love) barely get made once a year.  Pitfall of having so many of them. I still highly recommend making this, despite not being able to see a picture of it, as it is delicious.  Perfect for big group brunch gatherings. 

finnish apple pancake: 

steel cut oatmeal: 

fiber-full bran pancakes:

ricotta strawberry breakfast cakes:

banana cinnamon waffles: 

toast with apple cider cinnamon jelly:

green monster smoothie:

healthy(er) homemade breakfast sandwiches:

Apple Cider Cinnamon Jelly

So here we are at my 100th post... wow... 100 recipes in a year. And that doesn't count the recipes I've made and never got around to blogging. Thanks to Steph for the idea. I hope that everyone's enjoying the recipes. I've certainly gotten lots of feedback from people that they're being used and it's nice to be able to just say 'go to my blog' when people ask for recipes instead of having to dig them out and send them each time.

So on to today's recipe...

I decided that while I had the canning materials out from making salsa, that I would also go ahead and make some apple jelly, since I was running out. The worst part of canning (to me, at least), is having to drag everything out. So I set out to can some apple jelly.

This recipe comes from the cookbook The Complete Book of Year-Round Small-Batch Preserving, which I believe is a book that Karen had recommended to me many years back. I've always been tempted to double or triple the recipe, but have been afraid that it wouldn't set properly, so if I've done double batches, I've always prepared them in separate pots. But this year, I figured that, with baby, I no longer have the luxury of taking all that time to make separate batches. So I threw three batches into one pot and set out. Much to my dismay, when I opened a jar a few days after making this, I realized that the jelly hadn't set (sniff, sniff... 3 batches and 6 x 500 mL jars later...). So I'm still without apple jelly, as I didn't have the energy to start all over again at that point (having then, already put all the canning crap away!). Heather and I have decided to use it instead of maple syrup on pancakes and the like (great idea Heather!) so we'll see how that works out. At least I won't have to throw it all away...

In any case, this is a great recipe and is very simple to make (as long as you don't double it!!).

2 1/2 C fresh-pressed apple cider (I use fresh apple juice)
1 stick cinnamon, 4 inches, broken into 4 pieces
3 1/2 C granulated sugar
1 pouch liquid fruit pectin



1. Combine cider and cinnamon pieces in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes. Strain cider through several layers of cheesecloth, reserving cinnamon pieces to add to jars. Rinse saucepan.

2. Measure 2 cups cider and return to saucepan; add sugar. Bring to a full boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in pectin, return to a full boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

3. Ladle into sterilized jars, add one piece of cinnamon to each jar and leave 1/2 inch headspace. Process for 5 minutes.

Note: I never bother straining the cider through the cheesecloth and just use the full amount of the remaining cider instead of the 2 cups measured out in step 2. Probably because I don't strain it, I get a froth at the top of my jelly, which I just skim off prior to closing the jars, making sure that I respect the headspace indicated.

For instructions on how to can, go to my post of Aug. 3/10 on salsa.