Berry Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing.
Want to really make a statement and add a kick to your next fruit salad?
Mix strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and red raspberries in a bowl.
Add the zest and juice of one ripe lime and drizzle with 2-3 Tbsp of honey.
Stir berry gently, and enjoy!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Are you looking for a really yummy treat to give to your sweet for Valentine’s Day that is not only super delish, but also healthy?
These amazing blackberry banana oat bars have NO sugar and NO flour! How about that?
They are packed full of wholesome, nutrient rich fruits and superfood ingredients, while tricking your brain and tummy into thinking you are eating something decadent.
Give them a try! Heart healthy, hearty, and from the heart for your sweetheart!
(adapted from recipe found here)
Ingredients:
Blackberry Chia Jam Filling:
2 cups fresh (or frozen) blackberries
2 1/2 Tbsp. honey (local if possible)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
Banana Oat Crust:
2 ripe bananas
2 cups oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
To make the jam fruit filling, add blackberries and honey to a saucepan and boil over medium heat for about 10 minutes until fruit is mostly broken down and has released a lot of juice. Add the other ingredients and boil for another 5 minutes until it thickens. Allow to cool.
Next, make the crust. Blend up 1 cup of the oats into a fine powder (I used the Ninja). Stir all ingredients together.
Spray an 8×8 baking stone or dish with Pam and then line with parchment paper. Spread 2/3 of the oat crust mixture on the bottom of the pan. Spread jam fruit filling mixture evenly over crust. Use the rest of the oats to sprinkle over the top.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes until the oats are golden brown.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
I made another dessert this week…
I feel like I am at a meeting admitting my addiction.
But when I found this recipe for Blackberry Pie Squares via Pinterest from Kathleen at Gonna Want Seconds, I just couldn’t resist!
And besides, I was on vacation last week and baked NOTHING (as my son – with like 6% body fat – has reminded me at least twice).
And besides, my recipe for Sugar Free (Almost) Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies earlier this week WAS almost sugar free.
As summer is drawing to a close, recipes with blackberries and raspberries and peaches will make way for pumpkin and apples and cinnamon.
I sorta can’t wait!
But in the meantime, this recipe turned out BERRY good and got thumbs up from the guys as well as my son’s friend who was over last evening who claims he does not like dessert…. except he always loves mine!
And he even asked for a second!
Oh – he knows the way to my heart… ❤
Hope you'll give this yummy recipe a try before we call it quits for summer. You won't regret it!
Here is the recipe from Gonna Want Seconds, and I’m guessing you are gonna want seconds.
Filling:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line an 8″x 8″ baking stone or pan with parchment paper, allowing to extend a couple of inches up on all four sides. Spray with nonstick cooking spray. (This makes it easy to remove from pan once cooled)
For the crust, mix flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Add the cubed cold butter and blend with pastry blender until the butter pieces are about the size of peas. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture to use as a topping. Press the rest of the crumb mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 12 minutes.
Remove from oven and lay the berries in a single layer on top of the crust.
Combine the eggs, sugar, sour cream, flour and salt in a medium bowl, and pour over the berries.
Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture on top of the filling.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the filling is just beginning to turn golden and is set.
Cool bars completely on a baking rack, and then refrigerate to completely set.
Enjoy these yummy treats!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Simple,
Beautiful,
Bursting with flavor,
Rich in antioxidants, omega-3, protein, fiber, vitamins C and K
The Blackberry.
Does anything pack more punch…
more value…
more beauty…
more taste per ounce than you?
Oh how I love thee…
Oh how I wish I could be…
More like the value of a simple Blackberry!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
This photo is my submission for the WordPress Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Close-Up
And for my favorite fresh, old-fashioned homemade blackberry pie recipe, click here.
What’s a girl to do…
on a hot summer weekend afternoon…
with a handful of blackberries…
and a hot hubby?
(Hot after mowing the lawn, but perhaps hot in THAT way too!)
Not enough berries for a pie and no promise of enough more to forage at the end of the season…
Why make mojitos of course!
This was my first try at making this yummy cocktail, but it turned out so delish! Hubby and I prefer vodka to rum, but you could make yours with rum if you prefer. I also didn’t have club soda, so used Pellegrino Sparkling Water, which made a wonderful sub.
Here’s how I made it. (Inspired by a recipe I saw made by Alison at A Girl Defloured)
Ingredients:
Instructions:
ENJOY!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Last night, I made my favorite old-fashioned homemade pie.
Fresh Blackberry Pie.
Baking this pie brings me joy for so many reasons…
It reminds me of hot summer days spent at Grandma’s house where she did her best to tame the wild blackberry bushes that framed the edge of the woods that surrounded her house.
I remember picking them with her (begrudgingly at the time) and eating more than I put in the bucket or bowl I was assigned to filling.
I remember the way the house…
and the porch…
and even the yard smelled when the pies were baking as fans were blowing and windows were wide open in Grandma’s non air-conditioned home.
I can picture her wiping her brow with the tea towel that was on her shoulder…
I can hear the joy in Grandpap’s voice when he came home from work and smelled it too.
Any time I bake a pie, it also brings back warm memories of my mother-in-law and time spent with her and my sister-in-law and the entire family as we made dozens of pies in assembly-line fashion.
I recall the guys sitting on the porch pitting cherries or peeling apples or blanching peaches or cleaning berries while us girls were in the basement mixing filling and rolling out crusts.
My mother-in-law is the one that taught me the secret and magic to the perfect pie crust, and it is one of the things that hubby brags on me about. It always makes me smile when I think of this simple pleasure.
And then there is the joy my family expresses when eating a perfect pie that makes my heart soar.
I have to admit, I had two bites before asking who would finish my piece (still trying to lose 20 more pounds!), and it was GLORIOUS! Might have even been worth skipping dinner for!
It took me about a week to pick enough berries to make this pie.
You see, you have to try to beat the birds and the deer and the rabbits and all the other critters that also love these sweet and tart bursts of summer sunshine when they ripen.
And then you have to battle the thorns and the poison ivy that seems to love to grow in the same area as the berry bushes.
I collected them by the handful on walks to the mailbox or around the yard.
I would then lay them on a cookie sheet and flash freeze them, toss in a Ziploc bag after frozen, and wait until I had enough to make this glorious pie.
And it is SO WORTH IT!
Have you ever made a fresh homemade old-fashioned wild blackberry pie? If not, I so urge you to give it a try.
I’m guessing your family will thank you, and I’m also guessing you may just begin creating some pretty amazing memories for them like I have when I recall some very special family times from my past.
Ingredients:
Directions:
Enjoy!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Did you ever notice how fancy and fussy doesn’t always equal most delicious?
Take birthday cake for example, I have spent hours and fortunes on fancy cakes with fondant decorations or “secret” expensive ingredients.
But, as I can attest from this past weekend’s Memorial Day/DIL Birthday cake, my family absolutely and totally went gaga over a simple Betty Crocker Supermoist Party Rainbow Chip Cake Mix baked in a 13×9 pan with white frosting and fresh fruit on top.
For the frosting, I mixed half a tub of Duncan Hines Fluffy White Frosting Mix and half of a large container of Cool Whip. Canned frosting alone is way too sweet. Cool Whip alone just doesn’t hit the mark. Together, though, they are a marriage made in heaven! AMAZING Frosting! Try it – I’ll bet you get raves!
And to really rock it out, a scoop of Birthday Party ice cream doesn’t hurt either! (Hagan Parlor Favorites makes a yummy Birthday Party flavor that has confetti chips and CHUNKS of birthday cake in the ice cream!)
Even those of you who don’t consider yourselves “Kitchenistas” can be Rock Stars with this easy combo!
Sometimes simple is the sweetest.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
My son, Nick declared these Blackberry Blondie Cookie Bars “the best dessert” I’ve made in a long time! (I think he ate four last night – and he usually has extreme self control over sweets) Score! 🙂
Anyway, I have literally been longing to bake something…
I had a big, juicy carton of fresh blackberries in the fridge I bought to eat with my morning cereal, but when I found this recipe for Blackberry Blondies from Nicole Weston at BakingBites.com, I knew this is what I wanted to make. Thanks for sharing Nicole!
Blondies are basically the opposite of brownies in that they are the same idea of a bar-type cookie, but typically vanilla flavored instead of chocolate. Blondies can be plain or they can be the base for many different additions – like these yummy blackberries.
And since this recipe uses fresh, vitamin-packed blackberries (not a sugar-laden preserve or fruit filling) – they are a teensy bit healthy – eh? 🙂
I only had a bite of one, so I could know what they taste like, and it was so worth it! YUM! (And yes – I did go to the gym today)
These remind me of blackberry cobbler in a cookie. How divine is that?!?!
Here is the recipe from Nicole at Baking Bites with just a few small tweaks I made. I was out of vanilla extract (seriously don’t know how that happened!), so I used all almond extract, and you know what? I don’t think I would change it.
Hope you will try, and hope you enjoy. Let me know if you do.
Blackberry Blondies
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
Preheat oven to 350F.
Line a square 8×8-inch baking pan with parchment paper and lightly grease.
Whisk together butter and sugar in a large bowl until well combined.
Beat in salt, egg, and almond extract until well combined.
Stir in flour and mix just until fully incorporated.
Gently fold in blackberries.
Transfer dough to prepared pan and spread carefully into an even layer.
Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until bars are set and golden.
Cool completely in the pan before cutting.
Makes 16.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
the creative life in between 