Tag: Strawberries

Easy And Refreshing Fruit Salad Recipes

Fruit salad is probably one of the easiest and tastiest things in the world to make. Any seven-year old can whip up their salad in no time at all. In fact, for a real bonding time with your kids, you can involve them in the kitchen and have fun whipping up this fabulous desert.

This is particularly popular during the summer when fresh fruits abound, however, summer or winter, it doesn’t really matter as fruits grow all year round. There’s really nothing to putting together fruit salad rcipes. The secret is really just in picking out the best fruits. Below are fantastic fruit salad recipes you can do in your very own kitchen:

FRUIT SALAD WITH CITRUS-CILANTRO DRESSING

1 (20-ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained (or better yet, 2 1/2 to 3 cups fresh pineapple chunks)
3 grapefruits, peeled and sectioned
2 cups sliced strawberries
1 mango pitted, peeled and sliced
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup lime juice
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons honey

1.Combine pineapple, grapefruit, strawberries and mango in a large serving bowl; set aside.

2.In a small saucepan, combine orange juice, lime juice and cilantro. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain and discard cilantro. Stir in honey. Pour over fruit mixture and toss until evenly coated.

FLUFFY PISTACHIO FRUIT SALAD

1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, not drained
1 (4-serving size) package instant pistachio pudding mix
1 (12-ounce) container non dairy whipped topping, thawed
2 large bananas, sliced
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 (17-ounce) can fruit cocktail, drained
1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained

Pour instant pudding mix into a large mixing bowl. Add pineapple, and mix well. Mix in nondairy whipped topping. Stir in bananas, marshmallows, fruit cocktail, and mandarin oranges.

Cover, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Organic Gardening Containers

Organic gardening isnt just for people who have backyards. This is because you can also do it when you live either in an apartment or a condo with the help of organic gardening containers.

Organic gardening containers have advantages despite their limitations. They may serve as dcor when this is placed in the balcony or patio, it can easily be brought indoors during the winter and you will not encounter that many problems normally found in the garden like weeds, insects or soil borne diseases.

When you decide to buy organic gardening containers, you should also use premium potting mix instead of soil since it is much lighter and provides excellent draining for whatever you are growing. Chances are you will also be using nutrients so make sure you follow the directions since too much organic fertilizer will burn the roots.

Organic gardening container plants require more water than those you plant. This should be given in small amounts half an hour after initial watering so you avoid drowning your crops. It is best to hang them instead of putting them on the ground and if there are no holes, go ahead and make a few. Since it gets pretty hot during the summer, you can add mulch which really helps prevent it from drying out.

What plants or herbs work well with organic gardening containers? Some examples of these are capsicum, carrots, bush beans, eggplant, lettuce, onions, peas, radishes, spinach and tomatoes. Strawberries will also grow well here so if you want to know more ask someone at the local gardening shop or do your own research online.

Plants inside organic gardening containers need sunlight. Ideally, this should be about six hours everyday preferably in the morning rather than the later afternoon. If the area where you plan to put them is quite windy, it is best to group these together with the tallest along the walls to give cover for the others.

What is the ideal organic gardening container? Fortunately, it can be made of clay, plastic or wood. The important thing is that it can drain the water because your plants will die if it is unable to. Since they come in different sizes, you have to know the right one to get from the store.

Your basis should be the average root depth as well as the diameter of the plant. If your plant has 6 inch deep roots and grows about 10 inches wide, the ideal organic gardening container should be 8 inches deep and 10 to 12 inches wide. There must always be a small room for allowance because it is possible that whatever you are growing will grow to be bigger than you anticipated so better to be safe than sorry.

Should there bugs like hookworms around your plant, bring them to the sink and wash the leaves. If there are slugs, sprinkle diatomaceous earth on the soil so you can get rid of them.

If there aphids on your plant, get some other insects to kill them by buying a pack of ladybugs so they will eat it without causing any collateral damage to your produce.

You could say that organic garden containers are an innovation to gardening. This is because you can do it almost anywhere like in a condo or an apartment so that you no longer have to buy organic fruits or vegetables from store when you can just get it from the balcony or the window.

New Recipes For Outdoor Grilling

What We Know

If we are not too into barbecues, the only types of items in the grill we might know could be those lovely racks of ribs our parents used to make with tomato based barbecue sauce. While that recipe is very much lovely no doubt, if that is the only recipe that you know then you are missing out a lot. Nowadays, there are a lot of new recipes for barbecue sauces made out of whatever it is that you can think of. From strawberries, mangoes, apples and even mustard are now used as bases for barbecue sauces.

If you are only using your grill for direct grilling, then you sure dont know a lot yet about how versatile your grill is. An outdoor grill can be used for virtually anything you can do inside your kitchen and more than that. With an outdoor grill, you can grill, smoke, sear and do a lot more stuff on your outdoor barbecue. With all the new things you can do, it is sure that the way you view your outdoor grill will be way different than how you always used to.

New Barbecue Sauce Recipes

Most people who barbecue would result to having sauces that are ready for pick up at their local grocery shelves. While these sauces might taste good too, nothing beats the experience of being able to make your own barbecue sauces or any outdoor grilling recipes. Not only is it more fun to do yourself but you also get to adjust the taste according to how you want it to be. Like if you think a sauce needs more spice or more lemon juice, you can adjust it yourself.

Keep in mind that there are no limits when it comes to making your own outdoor grilling recipes. In fact, all the things most of us might consider weird are used by many on the grill. A barbecue with mustard sauce is in fact getting more popular by the minute because of its nice taste. Whatever pleases the tongue is good to go on the barbecue.

New Ways Of Cooking

Because it is an outdoor grill, we would usually stick to the old outdoor grilling recipes, ways of using it and many other traditions we follow when it comes to it. If that is our mindset, then we are definitely missing out on a lot because there are numerous ways of enjoying when we are grilling outdoors. One way of it is smoking which is best on fish, sausages and meats. This method of cooking gives grilled food a distinct and lovely taste apart from any other methods of cooking.

You can also put an aluminum foil pan on top of the grill and cook meats on top of that to make it soak in its own juice. This method is more famously known as roasting and it is now commonly done on top of an outdoor grill. While all those are new and lovely ways of cooking in the grill, you can still have grilling the classic way ever once in a while after all, it never tasted too bad.

Things To Keep Traditional

While there are many new things we can do on top of our outdoor grills and a whole lot of outdoor grilling recipes you should try the next time you would have to, we have to keep in mind that safety rules are still to be kept as always when it comes to outdoor grilling. Make sure that the grill is away from everything that could catch fire and the kids or the pets dont come playing near it until it has cooled of completely.

Also make sure to have a fire extinguisher always ready. With a lot of new things with traditional safety, experiences on the grill are sure to be much better than before.

Fantastic Stuff To Grill Outdoors

The Classics

Virtually almost every meat, sausage, fish and vegetable would taste good on the grill granting that you know the right way of cooking it and other things concerning it. The most popular items would of course be steaks and other large cuts of meat on the grill, so popular that an outdoor grill session with the family is never complete without some slices of meat or a rack of ribs. These items, because of what they are can be called as the classics.

These are best direct grilled, smoked or seared depending on what you want to produce. For better taste, you can also coat them with barbecue sauce of which would come in so many options. If you are used to the typical tomato based barbecue sauce, you have to unwind and get to know a lot more options that would taste equally as good. For barbecues nowadays, sauces can be made out of apples, strawberries, honey, mustard and virtually anything that goes well with grilled food.

Poultry

Another favorite item to be grilled is poultry, whatever type it is. Chicken is great and is also a classic when barbecued in great sauce. Grilling is in fact one of the best and most popular ways to cook chicken. As for turkey and duck, they can also be grilled directly as chicken is however, smoking them with seasoned wood chips could give you a very unique and pleasant flavor.

Grilling poultry on the grill does not only make it taste better but also is a healthier way to cook it as long as you do it right and by that, you should not have poultry overcooked or until the surface starts cracking. To check if it is cooked well, prick one side of it using a fork and see if juices come out. You will be able to see if it is cooked well from there on.

Seafood

Because of the wonderful tastes you can produce with it on the grill, seafood has become a lot more popular on the grill. The most popular of these being fish whether it is fillet, whole, firm or tender fish. You can either cook these up in your grill seasoned or unseasoned since it naturally has a pleasant taste, although you can add some lemon, herbs and other seasoning with it in a fish grill basket to have the flavors seep deep into the fish and making it taste good.

While fish is popular, other seafood such as shells, squid, octopus and other seafood are also great on the grill. These go well especially if you also serve fish along with them. The ideal way of cooking shells is put them on top of the grill until they open up. As for squid and octopus, make sure they are not overcooked as they can get tough or too chewy. Cooking them right on the other side would have a unique texture and a very great juicy taste.

Vegetables

To compliment all the different meats you will be having on the grill, it would be a great idea to have some veggies along with them. Vegetables such as peppers, zucchini, asparagus and large tomatoes would taste excellent on the grill when marinated with oil, vinegar of your choice and some spices. Grilling them is a different approach to them since they would taste much different from other ways of preparing them.

A healthy mix of veggies and meats on your outdoor grill, your days of grilling are sure to be better.

New Trends For Outdoor Grilling

The Magic Of Grilling

When it comes to dining, nothing could ever beat the many wonders we could cook up freshly on the grill. Not only do grilled foods taste good, but the bonding involved with it is also magical. Now that there are more things that we can do when grilling outdoors, every family barbecue is sure to be much more enjoyable.

When it comes to outdoor grilling, most of us would most likely think of the nice meats, veggies and fishes dad would grill on the backyard during special occasions. While those are very lovely indeed, there are a lot of new outdoor grilling recipe everyone with a barbecue should try doing. If the only outdoor grilling recipe you know is dads barbecue, then you are missing out on a lot as these recipes could also provide you with just the same amount of tasting pleasure.

New Grilling Sauces

The typical American barbecue would be meats with tomato bases sauces, veggies marinated in vinegar and oil or fishes grilled in with herbs. If your grilling vocabulary is limited to these then you should definitely try other new recipes. Nowadays, experts on the grill use all types of pleasant ingredients you could think about to make barbecue sauces some of them being strawberries, raspberries, yogurt, honey and even mustard.

While the typical methods of making items in the barbecue are still maintained up to now such as keeping the grill closed at times to seal in the flavor and moisture and moving items from high fire to low fire and pricking meats and chicken with a fork to see how moist it is inside, these methods are still considered by experts as the best ways of cooking in the grill. Everyone would want the items in the grill to be as juicy and flavorful as much as possible.

Keep Safe

Whenever on the grill, you must also be very aware of your safety. While most cases would only be a minor burn on our hand of which most of us who have been grilling for a while already have already experienced, you should be aware that millions are lost due to structure fires and outdoor fires caused by outdoor grills. Grilling involves a lot of fire and with that, you should be very aware of what it can cause you and your surroundings.

Make sure that kids do not go playing anywhere near the grill as well as the pets should also be kept away from the grill until it has fully cooled. Also remember that an outdoor grill should not be placed near objects that could easily catch fire such as the house itself, bushes, shrubs and trees to avoid any accidents regarding it. Also be careful in using starter fluid, make sure only to use this with charcoal grills and never with gas powered grills.

No Rules!

Just keep in mind that when grilling aside from safety measures there are practically no rules. Whatever produces the best tasting barbecue whatever the ingredients or items could be the best outdoor grilling recipes. While these new barbecue sauces can already be picked up from the shelves of your local grocery, it is also a lot of fun to make them yourselves.

Go ahead and experiment with whatever you can to make your outdoor grilling products as good and as enjoyable as possible.