Strawberries - Summer's First Fruits

Summer has hit Texas with a vengeance. Temps are in the 90s, but the "feels-like" temperatures have soared into the hundreds. But there is good news. Strawberries are in season.

We've had strawberry shortcake two weekends in a row. And there's never a bad time for chocolate dipped strawberries. But what about a savory strawberry salad?

This is one of my favorite salads.

Here's what you'll need to make it:

• One 10-12 oz package baby spinach
• Half a small red onion, thin sliced
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
• Blue cheese crumbles
• Sliced fresh strawberries
• Your favorite red wine vinaigrette

Toss together the spinach, onion, almonds, strawberries, and blue cheese. Now add 1/4 cup of dressing and toss again. And you can always add more dressing, if you like. 

How's that for a simple dish? It's great by itself or on the side with a slice of quiche or, maybe, a grilled chicken breast. The flavor of the blue cheese melds so well with the strawberries and vinaigrette. It's light, it's refreshing... Perfect for summer.

So this happened this weekend.

Nothing like a little encouragement when you're struggling with the beginning of a new story. I'm beyond thrilled.

What are some of your favorite ways with strawberries?

Three time Carol Award finalist Mindy Obenhaus is passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. She lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, one sassy pup, countless cattle, deer and the occasional coyote, mountain lion or snake. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, cooking and watching copious amounts of the Hallmark Channel. Learn more at mindyobenhaus.com

A Taste of Cate: You cream, I scream, we all scream for...frozen yogurt???

This blog post was first published by Cate Nolan on June 8, 2016. Enjoy today's Taste of Cate!

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It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that NOTHING makes me gain weight faster than ice cream.

Cue the wails and hair-pulling.

Confession time - I have zero will power.

Can we see where this is going?

Weight-producing food + no will power = DISASTER

I keep saying I will buy no more ice cream or gelato. But then Talenti comes out with yet another new flavor that begs to be sampled and then added to the repertoire.

Alas, an intervention is called for.

A few days ago, I saw a Pinterest link with frozen yogurt ice cream sandwiches.
I wanted to post the gorgeous photo, but I wasn'tt exactly sure what the regs are about putting Pinterest pins on Blogger, so I Googled and found out it actually came from this website.

Frozen Strawberry yogurt sandwiches.

She has a recipe on the site if you want to go for a more traditional treat.


I did mine a little differently. I didn't want ice cream sandwiches. I just wanted something like gelato or ice cream that didn't have a week's worth of sugar in one serving or a calorie count to rival the national debt.

I decided on two varieties.

 First the less healthier choice (But OH SO GOOD!)
I bought Chobani Coconut Greek Yogurt.
150 calories
13 grams of sugar
12 grams of protein


I mixed in sliced almonds (1 g of sugar), unsweetened coconut  (< 1g of sugar) and Ghirardelli's chocolate chips (6 g sugar/ 1 g protein).

For the second one, I used Siggi's vanilla yogurt and Chobani Plain Greek.

Chobani Plain Greek Yogurt.

90 calories
4 grams of sugar
15 grams of protein

Siggi's

100 calories
9 grams of sugar
14 grams of protein


So because I combined them, per serving I had
95 calories
6.5 grams of sugar
14.5 grams of protein



 I added fresh strawberries and Girardelli dark chocolate chips.

Compare that to my favorite gelato:
For the same size serving:

360 calories
46 grams of sugar
6 grams of protein


:(


The homemade frozen yogurt concoction had sort of a soft serve consistency that was really delicious. But it was also really delicious before it made it to the freezer! ;)



I know, I know - I should have just had the strawberries or even the strawberries and chocolate chips. But it's summery weather (finally) and it is a truth universally acknowledged that in summer, ice cream is a necessary evil.


Thought? Encouragement? Condemnations for my weak-willed spirit?