Fruit and Nuts

 

Ever eat a pine cone?

It's been a while since I have heard that catch phrase from the Grape Nuts cereal commercial from the early 70's. But on this rainy morning I found myself googling Euell Gibbons for a pic for a blog entry.

Euell, that is quite a name and if I would have thought of it at the time I would have googled the name it's self to see what in the world it means or stands for or if a couple of parents just had a wicked sense of humor in calling their child Euell. It's not a name you hear any more, and I am guessing it won't make a resurgence in popularity any time soon either.

It was an interesting read on Mr. Gibbons though and I never knew much about the man except from his commercials for Grape Nuts cereal and the spoofs you saw of them on the tv variety shows from my early childhood. It does have me curious to read some of his books now on edible wild plants, but I just can't really see myself scouring the roadside ditches for lunch. A quick snack of wild roots and tree bark just doesn't sound all that appealing. I've been spoiled in this modern day of convenience, and that really came to light this week when I had a potluck dinner to attend and the theme for the evening was .....vegetarian/vegan.

Now I don't have a problem with being vegetarian, in fact I even gave up red meat for about a year and a half while in a health kick a few years ago. I embraced Yoga, wheat germ, and said No to processed junk. I've changed a bit though and now I say yes to everything, well almost everything..

You would think making a vegetarian dish would be simple. But it proved a challenge as I poured over cookbooks and googled on the internet. Vegetarian wasn't too hard, but going totally vegan with no cheese, milk, butter, etc. was proving to be difficult. Cheese and I had bonded, going cheese-less was almost painful. I finally decided on lime honey fruit salad and granola. Easy dishes and something that didn't require anything too out of the ordinary, like tofu. Tofu just makes a person cringe, no matter how you try to say it...

I am happy to report that my dishes were given two thumbs up and everyone else skirted around the tofu as well. I will admit, as I sat there and ate carrot and cabbage wraps with Thai peanut sauce, baked sweet potatoes and onions, cooked cabbage, more cooked cabbage...(there appeared to be a cabbage theme that night) ...that I was missing the beef. If only those veggie wraps were beefy and cheesy burritos I inwardly moaned...with extra dollops of sour cream. It could be low fat or fat free just give me the sour cream my mind screamed.

I am spoiled...Spoiled by all of those things that aren't good for me, but that we crave. I like my veggies but like most of us do, we considered them a side dish and not the main source of our meals. It's like an automatic switch in our heads, that being told we can't have something, we automatically crave it. I don't eat that much meat, but once told I couldn't have it, the moaning started.

I survived though and it wasn't all that painful,.... (well except from the gas and bloating from all of that cabbage)...

Thanks Euell for trying to get us to go back to our roots and eat our veggies. I can't always promise that they won't have cheese sauce on them though...

 

Recipe for Granola:

4 cups old fashioned oats

2 cups shredded coconut

2 cups slivered almonds

1/2 cup canola oil

1/3 cup honey

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 and 1/2 cups (1pkg) dried cranberries

Mix the nuts, oats, and coconut in a large zip-lock bag. Mix the oil, honey, and cinnamon together and pour on the oat mixture, seal bag and shake til the mixture is thoroughly combined. Spread out mixture on a large sheet pan and bake in a 325 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until lightly brown all over. Stir the mixture while cooking several times to even browning and prevent burning. Remove from oven and continue to frequently stir while cooling to prevent it from clumping and sticking to the sheet pan, Add dried cranberries, mix well, and store in a tightly covered container.

 

Honey and Lime Glazed Fruit Salad 

 1 - 20 ounce can pineapple chunks, in juice, drained, (reserve juice)

 2 - 11 ounce cans mandarin oranges, drained

 2 large bananas, sliced

 2 kiwi fruit, peeled, halved and sliced

 2 cups quartered fresh strawberries

 1 and 1/2 cups green seedless grapes

 1 and 1/2 cups red seedless grapes

 1/2 teaspoon grated lime peel

 Juice of one large lime, (approx. 4 tablespoons lime juice)

 2 tablespoons honey

 Drain pineapple; reserve 1/2 cup juice.

Combine fruit in bowl. Stir together reserved pineapple juice, lime peel, lime juice and honey. Pour over salad; toss to coat. Makes a very large salad and can be cut in half.