Strawberry Sherbet

The Dad at our house got an ice cream/sherbet/sorbet/yogurt maker for fathers day! 

We finally tried it and made this Strawberry Sherbet.  It was yummy, cool, refreshing on these hot summer days and it had 4 ingredients!

I love this ice-cream maker and I am starting to feel guilty like I gave him a present I wanted!  But I keep telling myself it is benefiting him too!

Strawberry Sherbet

(http://www.tastykitchen.com/)

• 2 cups hulled strawberries (I think we could have added more strawberries too!  Love the strawberry flavor!)
• 2 cups low fat milk
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar

Place strawberries in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.  If you don't want the seeds you can pour this mixture through a strainer and get some out!

Stir in the milk, lemon juice, and sugar.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.  Make sure your mixture is thoroughly chilled.

Pour the chilled mixture into your ice-cream maker bowl and follow your recommended instructions for freezing and enjoy an awesome summer treat!

Cool and Creamy Fruit Salad

This recipe comes from Sisters Stuff.  They talk about Cool and Creamy in there weekly recipes a lot.  I finally had to see what all the talk was about.  This was a simple jello fruit salad that I really liked.  My kids were a little funny about it, which I don 't understand why???  I liked the flavor and it was simple and a great cold salad for a hot summer day.  It would work great for a potluck salad to bring to a church function or even an outdoor barbecue!

Cool and Creamy Fruit Salad

(Sisters Stuff)

• 1 small package of jello (orange, strawberry, peach or raspberry)
• 1 small package of cook and serve vanilla pudding
• 2 cups water
• Mandarin oranges(orange jello) or Strawberries (strawberry jello) or Peaches (peach jello) or Raspberries (raspberry jello)
• 1 small cool whip

Mix together jello, pudding and water in a saucepan.  Cook until it thickens.  Boil 1 minute.

Set in refrigerator overnight or until it sets and cools. 

Mix the set jello mixture and thawed cool whip in your mixer.  Whip until creamy.  Now add your chopped up fruit.  If you used orange jello, add mandarin oranges.  Strawberry jello add your chopped strawberries etc.  Add as much fruit as you like.  We wanted more fruit with some topping, but experiment the way you like it!

Stir your fruit in and enjoy!

Strawberry Sauce

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything!  We have been busy with baseball and end of the school year stuff and I haven't been very experimental or cooking a ton!

Well, I am back at it again and hoping to be cooking more now that I am not trying to rush kids to bed and going to activities etc.!

This sauce turned out really good (just need to adjust the sugar depending on the sweetness of your strawberries) and we ate it on crepes! 

Strawberry Sauce

(Our Best Bites cookbook)

• 1 pint strawberries, washed, hulled, and roughly chopped ~ I googled what a pint of strawberries was since I bought mine at Costco and it is 2 1/4 cups sliced or 7 cups whole berries
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar ~ adjust to sweetness, mine needed more sugar
• 1 tsp almond or vanilla extract ~ used vanilla

Combine berries, sugar, and vanilla(or almond) extract in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly and breaking up the strawberries with a wooden spoon.

After 5 minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool before putting in your blender.  When cool enough, transfer to your blender and blend until desired consistency is reached.  Refrigerate unused sauce for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months!

Use on top of waffles, crepes, ice cream, milkshakes or even the cookbook suggests adding a few spoonfuls to lemonade to make Strawberry lemonade!  A yummy summer treat!!

Orange Julius

I found this recipe shared on a craft blog (the idea room) that I like to look at for fun ideas! She shared this recipe that her son put together from a foods class at his school!

I made this after church and it was super yummy! The kids thought it tasted like those orange dreamsicles!

It was a great treat and reminded me of the days of finding these at the mall in California!

Orange Julius

(the Idea Room)

• 6 oz frozen orange juice concentrate (I thawed mine)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients (except the ice) in your blender. Blend for about 1-2 minutes. (I had a 12 oz can of orange juice and just used the rest to make orange juice).

Now add the ice cubes 1 at a time. When ice is blended, pour and enjoy!!

Keeping apples from browning

Once you cut an apple, they tend to turn brown and start looking not so pleasant anymore!

I have heard of water and sprinkling salt (which works great too) and I have also heard of using lemons too!

Zach came home from a 4H meeting with this little bit of info, which I tried and it actually worked great and who doesn't love a little soda taste!

Next time you need cut up apples, but don't want the brown or salt try soaking them in some

7-UP!

I cut up my apples and then covered them with 7-UP and it worked! No brown apples and a little hint of lemon lime!

Fruit Salad with Citrus Glaze

I bought a bag of frozen mixed fruit a while ago and decided to finally try it out! The fruit was actually really good. I get nervous about frozen fruit being mushy or not having great flavor, but this was yummy! I made the glaze from the back of the bag and it was really good with it and not too over powering with the fruit!

Fruit Salad with Citrus Glaze

(from Dole Frozen Mixed Fruit Bag)

• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 pkg (16 oz) Dole fresh frozen mixed fruit, thawed ~ about 4 cups

Combine pineapple juice, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and cornstarch in medium saucepan.

Cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cook 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Cool slightly. Sauce can be served warm or chilled.

Spoon glaze over fruit. Refrigerate any leftovers in airtight container!