I'm mellllllting! Greek yoghurt plus fresh fruit makes home made ice cream.

Hello, all! The Fresh Pioneer is back again from the Best Coast - oops! Sorry, the WEST Coast. :)


 I don't know how the weather is where you are but we're melting. It's over 100F and it was over 100F every day last week. All the kids want to eat is ice cream and popsicles. What's a mom to do? (Besides tell them to get out of her stash of Dove ice cream bars...)

 

 For us, there's that whole problem of SUGAR and calories and the cost of eating Dove bars at every meal.  So, we go to Plan B, which is to look around at what we have and make something fresh. 

 Let's try it and see how it turns out, shall we?? (I love blogs. You have no choice. Unless you want to just close the page now... But you don't. You want to see what happens, right?)

   Once upon a time a bird flew over our lawn. This bird had just had a nice, juicy breakfast of mulberries from someone's tree. The bird did his business and nature took care of the rest. (This is  scientific, please take notes.) So, since my smarty-pants husband recognized the tree and didn't mow it down, we've had this growing ever since...

 Besides making a huge mess on any car parked underneath, mulberries are tasty. Not too sweet, not too tart, mild blackberry flavor. Let's pick some, shall we?

Honestly, I don't have unlimited time, so I'll pass this chore off onto whichever child is nearest. (Thanks, Ana!)

Soon, we have this, just like magic!  Kids are great...

 All right, now for the fun. We're going to squish them in a colander, over some coffee filters, to extract the juice. You think you want to just mash them up and then start, but you don't. These little things have a lot of seeds. And we don't really want seeds where we're going with this project.

                                    

(This photo is just to remind you to have ALL your hand modeling jobs done BEFORE you start.)

So, we have some wonderful mulberry juice (okay, and a few seeds, so shoot me). That's a reflection on that yummy purple water, so don't think I dropped in a coffee filter for flavor. We're going to add some lime, because it brings out the flavor really nicely. And then we're going to sweeten it. Here you can go with honey or raw sugar or some of that fake stuff that we won't mention by name or even plain, old cane sugar. And the best part: you get to taste, and taste, and taste. But not too much or you'll have to send out another kid and start over.

Remember this stuff? (They're NOT PAYING ME. I promise. But it's so good for you and it comes in nonfat varieties. You can't go wrong.) So, one big container of Greek yoghurt.

Hide this part from view. Nobody wants to see this. (Except for the ones who like to cook. We'll let you in, but don't tell anyone it looks like this for a little while.)

Now, we get to taste some more. Sweeten some more. When you have it where you like it, add a tsp of vanilla. Really, it makes it wonderful.

Now, into the freezer for a few hours.

 Do nothing. Do not clean, do not iron, do not fold laundry.

 Sit and watch the sky. Look! A pretty sunset!

Ta-DAH! Didn't I tell you that you wanted to hang around? See, fresh mulberry-sorbet-yoghurt-concoction. (Yes, that's the official name.) Fat free, sweetened with local honey, and has protein for happy vibes.

The best part about this recipe is that it works with just about anything. Raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries. (And it's blueberry season here. Get ready, Yankee Belle Cafe fans, because we pick about 100lbs a summer to get us through the winter. Blueberries are a super food.)

Until next week!