Thyme and Lime Flavored Blueberries with Tofu Avocado Cream

Blueberries are BEAUTIFUL…DELICIOUS…and HEALTHY! No wonder they are one of my favorite foods!

For a comprehensive and authoritative summary of the many health benefits of blueberries, see the excellent Huffington Post article (published online in 2011) by Leo Galland MD.

This post is about an awesome blueberry dessert — one that reminds me of a mixture of blueberry pie and key lime pie – but guilt-free! And, yes, this recipe involves parchment paper, which might make it seem difficult and complicated, but trust me, working with parchment paper is easier than wrapping a present! And the results are dramatic and delicious! This dessert will delight you and wow your guests! I guarantee it!

And…if you have kids at home…you might want to ask them to help you — or let them make it all by themselves. This recipe is really EASY and FUN to make!

So let’s get cooking!

Thyme and Lime Flavored Blueberries with Tofu Avocado Cream

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 cups fresh (or frozen) blueberries
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cold tap water
3 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped

1, 10-ounce block of firm tofu
1/2 medium-size, ripe Hass avocado
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

For garnish: fresh blueberries and fresh thyme leaves

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut 4 pieces of parchment paper, each 12 x 12 inches. Place each square of parchment paper over a small bowl (for example, a cereal bowl). Carefully place 1 cup of the blueberries into the center of each piece of parchment paper. (Note: This takes two hands, because with one hand you need to make a well in the center of the paper for the blueberries.) Set bowls with blueberries aside.

In a cup (or small bowl), mix lime juice, honey and water until fully mixed. Spoon 2 tablespoons of this mixture over each serving of blueberries. Then sprinkle the fresh thyme leaves evenly over the blueberries.

Using 4, 18-inch pieces of raffia or kitchen twine, tie each bundle of blueberries tightly and finish it off with a little bow.

Place the 4 packets of blueberries onto a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. (Note: I tested the time with frozen blueberries, and it was the same!)

While the blueberries cook, place tofu, avocado, honey, vanilla extract, salt, and thyme leaves (2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves) into the work bowl of the food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process for 30 seconds; scrape down the sides with a spatula; process again for 30 seconds to 1 minute; scrape again, and process again if needed, until fully blended and smooth. Using a spatula, remove the tofu avocado cream from the food processor and place the cream in a small bowl. Garnish with fresh blueberries and a sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves.

When the blueberry packets have finished baking, remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the packets of blueberries cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes.

To serve, place each packet of blueberries in a small shallow bowl and then place each bowl on a plate. As you can see, the packets are very dramatic and beautiful! So this is how I like to serve them at the table. But to make it easier to eat, it’s good to trim the packets to within about an inch of the tie. So I pass a pair of scissors around the table and let everyone do their own trimming.

After a little trimming — and a lot of laughing about how this reminds everyone of kindergarten — it’s time to open the packets. (Be prepared for “oohs” and “ahs”!) Then pass the bowl of Tofu Avocado Cream so everyone can top their blueberries with a dollop or two.

Ingredient notes

• Blueberries –  This recipe should be made with highbush (cultivated) blueberries (not the small wild blueberries).
• Lime juice – If you don’t have fresh limes, use store-bought organic lime juice which comes packed in glass jars. A really nice product to have on hand!
• Thyme leaves – You can store fresh thyme leaves (on stems) in your freezer so it’s ready when you need it.
• Tofu – For this recipe, use the tofu that comes packed in water and found in the refrigerated section.

Equipment notes

• Parchment paper – The unbleached parchment paper (kraft or light brown color) can be found at health food stores and it is a much better choice than the bleached (white) parchment paper. Who wants bleach leaching into their food?!
• Raffia – I like the look of raffia (what you see in the photos) but plain kitchen twine will do. If you choose raffia, make sure it’s the natural raffia – not plastic. Plastic will melt in the oven.

Recipe note

• I have entered this recipe into the “Make It – Blog It – Win It! Blueberry Recipe Contest for Bloggers.” Results will be announced on or before 20 September! (I will let you know how it turns out…) Meanwhile, if you would like to leave a message about this recipe, please do. I’m sure the contest judges would like to know what you think!

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

BREAKFAST and EXERCISE — good food and bone-building exercise

Applesauce Made in the Crock Pot!

Apples, pears and apricots waiting to be made into applesauce

This is a very easy recipe, and the applesauce is absolutely delicious — a lot tastier than store-bought applesauce. It’s also much less expensive than most organic, store-bought applesauce, especially if you buy apples at a good price. (I find that Trader Joe’s 2-pound bags of organic apples are usually available at a reasonable price. These apples are the smaller size ones, but that’s just fine!)

I shared some of my homemade applesauce with my friends at work today and they loved it!  Unfortunately, I had none left when one of my colleagues came into the kitchen foraging for a snack and left with a plate of potato chips and a bottle of orange soda…his fruits and veggies! : – (

BASIC RECIPE

Ingredients

4 pounds of apples – any you like. Here is what I used:

• 3 pounds of organic honey crisp apples (or another rather sweet apple with thin skins)
• 1 pound of organic Granny Smith apples (or another rather tart apple)

Notes:

• If you can, use only organic apples. That’s because apples are one of the most pesticide-laden fruits according to EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides – a reliable resource.
• You might not want to make applesauce with all Granny Smith apples because it would be too tart. And I found that the skins of the Granny Smiths were quite thick and more noticeable in the applesauce than the skins of the Honey Crisp apples.

1 cup of filtered water

1 tablespoon lemon juice (or less if you prefer a less tart applesauce)

Directions

Cut the apples (skins and all)  into chunks. Put the apple chunks into the crock pot, add the water, and lemon juice; cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove the lid and use a potato masher to lightly mash the apples until they turn into a chunky applesauce. But keep mashing if you want a less chunky sauce.

RECIPE VARIATIONS

Instead of just apples, use apples plus:

• Pears
• Frozen organic berries
• Dried cranberries
• Dried chopped apricots (I like the unsulfured apricots. That’s why you see brown-looking apricot pieces in the photo.)

You may want add:

• Ceylon cinnamon . Sprinkle cinnamon on the individual servings, as desired.
• Mix some ground flax seeds into the applesauce.
• Top with yogurt.
• Top with walnuts.

More information….

• Heirloom apples in the USA – Many hairloom apples are in danger of extinction… See what the Ark of Taste program sponsored by Slow Food USA is doing to keep these apples and other heirloom fruits and vegetables from going extinct.
• Grow your own organic apple trees! Learn how from Michael Phillips of Lost Nation Orchard, author of The Apple Grower.

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

Mulberry Dressing for Salad

It’s mulberry season in my little corner of our world. Mulberries – like grapes and red wine – contain resveratrol, a polyphenol that “…can also slow the three stages of cancer development—initiation, promotion, and progression—by blocking the action of NF-kappa B.” [page 119-120, Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, David, Anticancer, A New Way of Life, 2009 edition]

My mulberries were not very sweet or juicy, so I make them into a salad dressing — which turned out great.

Mulberry Dressing for Salad

Ingredients

1 cup fresh, ripe, black mulberries (thoroughly washed and drained)

juice of ½ orange

1 tablepoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

Place all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until nicely pureed.

Pour over mixed fruit or lettuce greens.

Freeze the dressing for later

 

freezing the salad dressing to use it later

 

With five cups of mulberries, I ended up with far more salad dressing than we could use at one time…so I poured the dressing into the muffin cups of my silicone muffin pan, placed the filled muffin pan in the freezer, and then I popped the frozen salad dressing mini muffins into a plastic bag for the freezer. Now I have mulberry salad dressing to defrost and use anytime!

Freeze the mulberries for later

• Wash the mulberries and let them drain
• Lay the mulberries out in one layer on a cookie sheet (or in pie pans)
• Place the sheet/pans in the freezer
• When the berries are frozen place them into plastic bags for the freezer.

A word of caution

Regarding red wine, a source of resveratrol — just like mulberries, Dr. Servan-Scheiber warns: “Because resveratrol also acts as an antiangiogenic, like thalidomide it can interfere with fetal development. This is one more reason to avoid alcohol (even red wine) during pregnancy.”[Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, David, Anticancer, A New Way of Life, 2009 Edition]

And…in general, always remember to consume a wide variety of healthy foods — not a lot of any one food.

More information

This is the article from the Journal of Nutrition where I learned that mulberries contain resveratrol.

Here’s a video with some good how-to suggestions for harvesting mulberries.

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

Note to Readers: FROZEN BERRIES for green tea

Dear Reader,

I just want to let you know that I have found another great way to cool the temperature of boiling water quickly so as to make the perfect cup of delicious green tea:

Green Tea with Frozen Berries

• Place about 2 tablespoons (more or less, depending on the size of your cup/mug) of  frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, etc.) into your empty cup. Pour boiling water over the berries. Check the temperature. Add your tea bag when the temperature is right, etc.

Using frozen berries to instantly cool the boiling water saves time AND adds flavor to your green tea! And then when your tea is all gone, you have some delicious berries to eat! This is my favorite way to drink green tea these days.

And…if you like citrus flavor in your green tea, as mentioned in the post,  Monamifood Zesty Citrus Flavor Cube, you can cool the boiling water with a Citrus Flavor Cube too. Or just add frozen berries plus some grated organic citrus peel to get a wonderful berry/orange (berry/tangerine or berry/lemon) drink!

The suggestions for cooling the boiling water by adding frozen berries or Zesty Citrus Flavor Cubes, have now been added to the post, Green Tea (Part II), under the heading, “How to cool the boiling water quickly.”

And to learn everything you ever wanted to know about green tea  – why it’s good for you, where to buy it, how to make a great cup of green tea, and more, see Monamifood Green Tea (Part I) and Green Tea (Part II).

I hope you enjoy these time-saving and flavorful ways to make a great cup of green tea!

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni