My Beautiful Fruit Bowl

There is no talent in 'making' this dish, but it was too pretty to not photograph and it was too good to not share! I keep stressing the importance of eating fresh fruits and veggies and to completely fill yourself up on them, not leaving room for all the crap that is thrown our way all day, everyday!

I have in there really juicy cherries, tart blueberries and my cheat, prunes (dried plums). MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Pecan Cherry Granola

I love to make granola, especially around the winter time when it is cold. I also love to make my granola soft, almost like I took an oatmeal cookie and crumbled it up. Eating it like cereal with warm milk is the best on a cold morning!


You will need:
3 cups oats
1 1/2 all whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups pecans
1 cup dried cherries
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup softened butter ( I use a vegan substitute )
1/2 cup honey or agave syrup
cinnamon and all spice to taste


Preheat oven for 350d. Spray down a cookie sheet or two and mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. When the ingredients are all mixed, spread out on the cookie sheets and bake. If you want softer granola for cereals, put it all on one cookie sheet with edges, if you want crunchier granola spread it out over two. Bake until you feel the top get crunchy and pull it out to mix it up and bake it some more. Because there is nothing that needs to cook all the way through you may bake it as long or as short as you want, or until it is the consistency you want. Let the granola cool on the cookie sheet completely. The honey or syrup will continue to cook the granola outside the oven and will let the crunchy chunks set, so this is important. Bag up and enjoy!

Let's Change the Idea of A Salad, Shall We?

Who uses a recipe for a salad? I had never heard of such a thing until I was instructed to help my grandmother make the salad for dinner. She had set out already the spinach and asked me to finish cutting up the vegetables and add them in. So I set out for the refrigerator and grabbed the carrots, some onion, celery, purple cabbage and whatever else I could find. I am cutting up the carrots directly into the salad bowl, consisting of just spinach, when my grandmother walks over and hollers, "What are you doing?" Stunned, I asked her,"What?" She preceded to tell me that carrots don't belong in a spinach salad... Huh? I had ruined dinner. The recipe she has always used called for nothing but spinach, celery greens, fresh chives and button mushrooms. Ok, cool. So lets put in some orange, purple, yellow, red, and more green! I have been stung by that my whole life! Who limits their salads to recipes? Remember to never restrict yourself to a recipe. They are guidelines and idea engines. Measurements are sometimes important, but in salads and many other dishes, put everything you can in there. Nuts, veggies, fruit, spices, breads, rubber duckies. It doesn't matter. And, yes, salads can be a main course! You can put them on a sandwich, in a pasta, on the grill, in a soup. You can char the greens, toast the nuts, grill the fruits and veggies. Puree half of it for the dressing! I aim to show so many different types of salads so as to break the mold. Use your imagination and don't follow the rules unless you are driving.

~Enjoy