Fruit Parfait and More Delicious Peanut Butter!

Happy Thursday!  TG(almost)IF.  It’s been a busy couple of days, but I always managed to fit in some good feed.

My aunt was recently telling me about a fruit salad she made for her son’s birthday: Layered peaches, strawberries, watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, blueberries, and kiwi in a big glass bowl. I passed around low fat vanilla yogurt and a bowl of chopped walnuts for people to use as toppings. We loved it, it was a terrific side dish for brunch!

This salad sounded SO good, I knew I needed to have it for breakfast. Introducing the oft-made but never stale fruit parfait!

In the glass: frozen blueberries, frozen goji berries, sliced banana, layered with siggi’s yogurt and topped with Galaxy Granola. Very patriotic, isn’t it?

This combination of fruit and yogurt was delicious! I can imagine that this frozen fruit parfait would make a wonderfully light treat on a hot day. The weather isn’t warm enough yet for frozen parfaits every day, but I sure enjoyed it this morning. Thanks, Aunt J!

I went for a short run before breakfast on the bike path near our apartment. Why a short run, you ask?

Photo taken on a walk with the dogs this afternoon.

Those of you who live in the CT, MA, RI area know exactly how this flood came about – days of torrential rain. Encountering this lake in the middle of the bike path sure cut my run short. I think I was relieved anyway, because I wanted to get back to my frozen fruit parfait

After my parfait, I was off to a long day at clinical. Normally, I like digging into the medical charts and discussing the patients, but today I felt really off all day. This week has been long and sleep has been short. I’m chalking this day’s struggles up to stress and exhaustion. I’m hoping for a better clinical day next week

Here’s a fun food:

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Have you ever seen fresh water chestnuts (not from a can)? Peter picked up a few water chestnuts last weekend and chopped them up with the last of our kumatoes for a sweet and crunchy salad. He drizzled the salad with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled a little Maldon on top to finish.

Fresh water chestnut is nothing like the canned stuff: fresh has FLAVOR! While the canned chestnuts taste like nothing, the fresh chestnuts taste a lot like jicama. Both jicama and fresh water chestnuts have that clean, fresh taste and satisfying crunch. I would bet that fresh water chestnuts would be great on regular salads!

Moving on to the highlight of the show: my new shipment of Saratoga Peanut Butter Company nut butter!

Along with a few regular peanut butters, I also have a couple of new flavors.

How are they? Well!

Chillin’ Chocolate is perfect for me: dark, but not too dark. Rich with peanut. Grainier than their regular peanut butters, so it would add a nice texture in oatmeal or smoothies. I knew I was going to like this one.

Adirondack Jack: A beautiful Combination of our delicious Almond Butter, blended with our famous Plain Jane Peanut Butter, deep and luscious red cranberries, some omega rich flax seeds, a few heart healthy sunflower seeds for crunch, a drizzle of pure clover honey and finished off with a hint of cinnamon. I admit I was a little skeptical at first, but one taste … why didn’t I ever think of combining peanut butter and almond butter before?? This nut butter is definitely finding its way into my morning oatmeal. Sigh … one of my life’s greatest sorrows is moving away from upstate NY around the time Saratoga PB Company started. (Well, not my greatest sorrow. But, it’s up there on the list.)

I think Maddie wants some Adirondack Jack.

I’m off to tackle some more of my to-do list before bed – ‘night, everyone!

Q: Thinking of the summer approaching: What’s your favorite treat on a hot day?