Oh how I love berries! There are so many varieties of this sweet little juicy fruit–strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, cranberries to name a few–and they are so popular! That’s a good thing, because they are so good for you! Fruit in general is an important staple of a healthy diet and nutrient-rich berries in particular just make it so easy to include every day!
Berries are not only wonderfully delicious, they are surprisingly low in calories and even sugar, they are remarkably concentrated in a wide variety of nutrients including fiber and diverse vitamins and minerals, and truly exceptionally concentrated in antioxidants.
They truly represent the ultimate marriage of “nutritious” and “delicious” and they make my job of blending those two particularly easy! In fact, I had the honor of giving a talk, along side my husband, about this very topic at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition live conference in New York last Sunday, and I had so much fun doing it I thought you might enjoy this little video clip from it!
Video Clip excerpt from the IIN Live Conference 2015.
To be honest–and it’s funny that I should say this on a recipe website!–berries are so inherently delicious, you really don’t need a bunch of fancy recipes to eat lots of them!
The best way to eat berries is just fresh, raw, plain and simple! So, by all means, please do! David’s favorite breakfast, every single day, is filled with fresh berries!
You can also use frozen (unsweteened) berries (wild blueberries are exceptionally rich in phytonutrients) to add to your smoothies, cereal, yogurt, salads etc, so there is no excuse not to include them in your diet!
Berries also lend themselves beautifully to luscious and nutritious desserts. So, this week, I am honoring these sweet little gems and offering some of my very berry recipes!
Power Strawberry Banana Milkshake: It’s is one of my go-to breakfast, filled with protein, fiber, calcium and vitamins and it fuels me up after a great Zumba workout! Strawberry Banana Panini is just made with fresh sliced strawberries and banana, Greek yogurt, a little honey and a dash of cinnamon on wholegrain bread-YUM! My Rustic Strawberry Galette is filled with fresh strawberries, on top of a “buttery”, no-butter, free-form crust–absolutely divine!
Blueberry Corn Muffins: These little corn muffins are filled with fresh blueberries and a touch of fresh orange juice and are just perfect on a leisurely Sunday morning with a hot cup of coffee! Fresh Fruit Clafoutis: This is a hearty French peasant custard filled with fresh mango, blueberries and strawberries. My Fresh Fruit Trifle is filled with a variety of berries and it’s not only luscious it is absolutely beautiful!
Raspberry crumb cakes: These delicious little squares are filled with raspberries, walnuts and rolled oats and they are perfect for a brunch buffet! Berry Nutty Smoothie: The combination of fresh figs with raspberries is perfect in this refreshing smoothie filled with nutrients! I also love to use fresh raspberries to decorate my chocolatey desserts. It’s worth just looking at the photos of these beautiful desserts, If I say so myself: chocolate Brownies; Mousse au Chocolat; Almond Orange Chocolate Torte. You can also decorate cupcakes with great big strawberries–so much better than colored sprinkles, right?–and kids LOVE the little hats! Take a look!
Aren’t those so cute?!
Loving food that loves us back has been berry, berry good to me, my family, and many of our friends (see pictures from the healthcorps fund raising gala that David and I attended this week)!
Make berries a routine part of your diet- and it can be berry, berry good to you, too!”
Enjoy and Bon appétit!
I had the great honor of meeting Candice Kumai at a fund raising gala for the HealthCorps. She is one of the country’s most recognized clean-food chefs, and judge on TV show Iron chef. She has a new book coming out –“Clean Green Eats” that I Cannot wait to get my hands on! What a special lady!
David and I also met singer & actress Jordin Sparks who was honored at the gala for her “I’m M.A.D., are you” initiative, making a difference in teens lives. A beautiful person, inside and out!
Chef Rocco DiSpirito was also there, but I didn’t introduce myself!
and of course, every and any reason to use berries to decorate your masterpiece adds so much to any dessert!
I love everything about this!!! 🙂
Catherine what a fun blog! I love this time of year and the wild strawberries that come with it. A question for you: my dad loves milkshakes and I’d love to make him the power strawberry banana milkshake. Do you know of a way to “de-seed” berries? He has a problem with them sticking in his teeth. lol a little descriptive – sorry! – but a real problem I’d love to solve so that I can feed him more berries which he loves. PS my partner Sue Surdam said she wants to see you get your own show on the Food Channel one day :). Wouldn’t that be great?!
So great to see your star rising. So well deserved! And love this week’s berry recipes – perfect for spring and summer!!!