apples

[cjm]

My husband & I are trying to eat healthy. Therefore, I'm trying to serve fruit every meal. At noon today I had a wonderful Jonathan apple dipped in Dannon Light Creme Caramel Yogurt. Just in case anyone is interested.

Are there any suggestions for serving fresh, healthy, fruit with dinners? I usually cup up various fresh fruit and mix it with flavored yogurt (nuts added sometimes).

[mightyh]

Sounds good. I'll have to try it, as I am also trying to have a fruit at every meal http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

Strawberries are good with some OJ and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar drizzled over them.

What about sauteed apples? Just peel and slice some apples and saute in butter with some brown sugar and cinnamon. I made these last night with pork chops and they were very tasty.

Or you could throw some fruit in a lettuce salad. Someone posted about a sunshine salad that uses mandarin oranges and it's really good. Or put some strawberries in your salads and use a fruity/poppy seed dressing.

Good luck and let me know what else you come up with!

[RunnerKim]

I've recently had 2 meals that had apples as an ingredient. Parmesan-Crusted Chicken with Leeks and Apples - very good (April 2000). And in this months issues is the chicken arugula salad with wild rice and sauteed appless (or some such name) which was also very good although the granny smith apples were a bit tart for me and I didn't eat a full serving of them.

There have been a couple of greally good salad dressing that have used fruit juice - don't get that important fiber of course. The Mexican Bulgar Salad with Citrus-Jalapeno Vinaigrette has both orange and lime juice.

Most fruit dishes I think of are either breakfast or dessert...

Kim

[DNCW]

I tried the "Arugula and wild rice salad w/sauteed apple" recipe from the October issue and loved it. If you don't like arugula, spinach works really well too.

[bijoux22]

We went apple picking this weekend and picked about 15lbs of red delicious, golden delicious, Macintosh, Cortland. I had a sliced Macintosh dipped in honey for my TV snack and it was wonderful.

[andreajackson]

I often have yogurt and a banana as part of my lunch and it is delicous!
Also at breakfast I often have banana with peanut butter on it. YUM! I guess you could have this at lunch too.
As for dinner I don't have many suggestions, sorry.

[MrsReber]

My grandmother used to always chop up and apple and throw it in a tossed salad. It was always very good, too. My husband and I stayed at a B&B over the summer and they served us a wonderful fruit salad that had apples in it. It seemed to have a very light cream sauce on it. I wish I had that recipe! Apples are excellent with pork (and they help you digest the pork). I've made my mom's pork chops stuffed with apples and I found a pretty good recipe on Epicurious for pork with apples and apple jack. Or you could just serve up some apple sauce as a side dish with dinner. I have to go pick some more apples, too. They are my husband's favorite. He'll eat one or two each day.

[This message has been edited by MrsReber (edited 10-03-2000).]

[shoyski]

Oranges go well in spinach salads as well. In fact, sprinkle a little balsamic vinegar on that and I'm a happy camper.

[venus]

Fruits in salads are great. I make a salad with watercress, grapefruit and mango that is wonderful. My husband tries to eat the entire bowl whenever I make it. Apples are also great in salads, especially with mesclun greens and walnuts. There's the classic duck breast, baby spinach and orange salad, or an oriental salad with teriyaki chicken and mandarin oranges.

You can serve an antipasto platter at dinner with fresh figs (heavenly!) hard cheese, salami and olives. If you're worried about fat, serve it with a reduced fat goat cheese or parmesan and whole wheat bread. Another good Italian classic is strawberries with balsamic vinegar.

I watched a guy on TV make Szechuan style fried bananas the other night. It looked sooo good, but I have no idea how he did it.

[lorilei]

Tomatoes, of course, are the easiest way to get fruit into dinner http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif Eggplants too! But, I don't think that's quite the suggestion you're looking for.

I like adding oranges or tangerine sections to lettuce salads. And raisins are an excellent way to get a little bit "extra" in a dish... dried apricots and prunes also make an excellent addition to stuffings and salads.
I've also tried to incorporate fresh fruit into dessert ideas -- pudding with fresh berries, frozen yogurt with fresh pineapple, even apple crisp (or baked apples).

[This message has been edited by lorilei (edited 10-03-2000).]

[Ohioan]

I myself always have fruit for dinner, even if I'm out of fresh fruit and have to open a can! (I use the canned fruit packed in juice, not the heavy syrupy kinds.) And a really spectacular dessert is the simplest thing in the world to make: a big fruit bowl made up of whatever fresh and canned fruits you have on hand, with their juices all mixed together and sprinkled with a spoon or two of chopped nuts or flaked coconut. Or throw in a few chopped dates or other sweet dried fruit (figs are good, too).

You'll probably find the combinations and proportions that you like best, but I always try to include at least one "hard" fruit (e.g., apples, pears, etc.) and one citrus fruit. The sweet and tart, firm and juicy combination is irresistible. Then add plums, peaches, banana (go easy here if you're watching calories), kiwi, melon, grapes... whatever is on hand and/or in season. If it's too dry, add some fruit juice; too wet, drain some juice off and drink it for breakfast! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

I've always had guests take seconds of these fruit bowls, and sometimes thirds if I've made enough. Of course, that may be because I don't offer cheesecake as another option, but what the heck - as long as they keep eating! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

Cheers, Phoebe