Peaches!

It's peach season and I'm one lucky girl! My husband drives by Porter, Oklahoma almost everyday for work and about once every two weeks or so, he stops in and picks up a big bunch of juicy, ripe peaches.  Nothing in this world is as good as a really ripe fresh from the grower peach.  At least that's what my daughter says.  It's so funny, because every fruit season she declares that this particular fruit is her favorite.  A few weeks ago, it was the blueberry; before that, it was the strawberry and just the other day, she declared she missed apples!  But now, now it's peaches.

She'll eat three or four a day and that doesn't include any that I serve after dinner as a dessert.  At my house, usually we have some sort of dessert with dinner.  In the winter,  it's a pudding, a cookie and applesauce, or a fruit bread but all summer long it's fresh fruit.  It may be a cream pie but usually, it's just fruit, sometimes with yogurt sometimes not.

I had a friend years ago who brought this dessert as a salad to a cookout I hosted.  It was so good and so decadent but I really didn't feel right eating it as a salad so I got the recipe and relabeled it at my house as a dessert.  It's one of my kids favorites, in fact, my son requested it with his birthday dinner instead of a cake.  Don't worrry, he also had a cookie ice cream cake too! He's just not a big cake eater so his birthday party is lazer tag, swimming and banana splits and pizza.  Not necessarily in that order.

Here's my recipe for our favorite peach salad/dessert! I serve it especially when I make dinner for someone who is trying to lose weight.  They can't believe that it can be so good and so little calories.

Peach Berry Salad Dessert

a peach a person, coat the cut peach with lemon juice or fruit fresh
1/2 cup berries per person: blackberries, blueberries, cherries, etc.  Right now, I'm picking blackberries so that's what I'm using.
1 Tablespoon flake coconut per person
1 teaspoon chopped chocolate per person; this can be chocolate chips, a chocolate bar, chocolate kisses, the chocolate you keep above the fridge out of reach from the kids; dark, white or regular chocolate.

Mix all together and chill until serving.  To make this special for company, I chop a little fresh mint over the top when I serve it.  You could serve it with whipped cream but that just adds calories. 

I do not measure when I make this recipe.  I just dump it all in, sometimes, I add more chocolate, sometimes less, sometimes none at all but this does not make the rest of the family happy!

If you are lucky enough to score some really good peaches, try this recipe!

Easy Cream Pie!

This is the hit for summer around my house! As soon as I start getting strawberries in May, this pie gets made about once a week. sometimes I just make the cream filling and put it into little cups and dump berries on top.

Pet peeve of the week:  Alright, I know it's only Monday, I'll probably have five more before the week is out! But my recent pet peeve is people who go and pick or buy fresh berries and then go home and cook them!  Are you crazy! Eat those things just like God created them.  don't coat them in sugar or bake the soup out of them.  Eat them on cereal, in cream pies, by the hand fulls....they won't be around forever and then you can get the frozen ones out to bake with! Ok, I'm better now....back to the cream pie recipe.

Easy Cream Pie

1 graham cracker pie shell - I buy mine but you can make your own if you are so inclined.  I also sometimes make little ones by putting a nilla wafer in the bottom of a small bowl. 
1 large box jello cook pudding - Do not use instant, YUCK! This takes eight minutes to make in the microwave!
3 cups milk
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, I use the low/no fat kinds

Make pudding like the box says.  I use the microwave so I don't have to stand over it.  When the pudding is cooked, cut the cream cheese into 12-16 pieces and place in the hot pudding and stir like crazy until it has melted into the pudding.
Pour the mixture into a pie shell. 
You can let the mixture cool and fold the berries into it before adding it to the pie shell but since we don't eat an entire pie at one sitting, although I'd like to! The berries will get soggy and so will the crust.  I put the mixture in the pie shell and serve the berries on top.  This way, everybody can create their own berry pie by using various berries, mango, peaches, etc.  Top it if you want with whipped cream. 

This is also really good for breakfast if you can eat it before the kids wake up!

Special Weeknight Cake

Since I started January with my rant about fudge, I'm thinking February ought to start on the same sweet note! Not everybody likes chocolate, although I seriously doubt someone's sanity when they say that, so I thought I'd give you a favorite cake recipe we have often at my house.

I know reading this blog, you think all we do is sit around and eat, especially sweets! That's not really true. I just don't keep a lot of sweet store-bought foods around so I have an arsenal of recipes to create treats for my family. Some are healthier than others. I don't want my family to think any food or category is 'off-limits's. After working with kids for most of my adult life, I realize telling someone it is 'off-limits' harkens back to the Eve effect and then guilt and then out-of-control, I-give-up kind of eating! I want my kids to understand control and serving size.

I serve this cake with fresh, frozen fruit that I picked last summer. Usually, it's blackberries. This year, I had a bumper crop so I have bags and bags to use up and my family is more than happy to help!

Jello Cake
1 pkg. lemon cake mix - or from scratch
1 small package jello, can be lemon or something else tart
1/4 Cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup water
4 eggs or egg substitute

Mix all but eggs together. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes until done. While baking, mix 2 cups powdered sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice. When cake is done, punch holes in top using a toothpick or spoon. Pour lemon juice and sugar mixture over while cake is still hot.

Today, I'm making a lemon cake with rasperry jello and serving it with blackberries! This is equally good with strawberry cake and strawberry jello(serve with strawberries) or a lemon cake and orange jello(serve with mandarin oranges). You can also change up the juice that you mix with the powdered sugar. I have used lime, pineapple and blackberry juice. It's all good!

I got this recipe from an old cookbook I bought at a church sale. Some recipes never get old!

Have a blessed day!