A New Twist on Dessert

After hearing how many of you really liked the idea of Homemade PopTarts, I was super excited when my sister Leah emailed me another idea. This was using those poptarts!!

Pie. It's delicious, pretty easy to make, smells amazing...but sometimes you want pie without wanting to MAKE pie! The 9pm sweet tooth has gone from a pester in the back of your mind, to the only thing you can think about. You want something sweet and warm, maybe with a scoop of Ice Cream. Oooh, pie! But it's 9 o'clock in the evening. There's no way you're rolling up your sleeves, turning on the oven and starting to peel apples. Who wants to wait hours for it to bake and then cool enough to eat? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE pie! But when my sweet tooth won't back down, I am not staying up until midnight to satisfy it.

Here's the solution to that!! Take one of those magnificent little Homemade PopTarts from the freezer, or make a batch in the afternoon to have ready to heat in the evening. Cook it in the oven according to the directions in the link.
Slice it in half once it has cooled enough to handle, set in a bowl and top with your favorite flavor of Ice cream! Tada!

Since the poptarts are made with pie crust, if you use a jam like Blueberry or Peach, you'll have that rich, thick flavor that you find in pie filling.

When Connor and I set out to make these, we did make them smaller than the standard poptarts. Since I was thinking how sweet these would be as a party treat, I made them smaller so that they could serve a crowd and would fit nicely into a bowl. Of course, you can make them any size you want!

 I also experimented with making Tarts with the filling and the pie crust and they turned out beautifully.

Can't you just picture a nice Ice Cream party or Shower with a selection of two or three different tarts and a few complimenting flavors of ice cream? Everyone gets to create their own dessert.


For the mini Tarts:

1 store bought ready to use Pie Crust
1 mini muffin tin
a rolling pin
spoon
knife or Pizza Cutter
Nonstick spray or butter
Your Favorite Flavor of Fruitful Delights Jam



Roll the dough out until it's about half the thickness it started out as. I ended up with 12 after I combined the scraps and rolled them out.

Either spray with non-stick spray or butter the muffin tin to help keep the jam from sticking.

Cut the dough into 3 inch squares and carefully place into the mini muffin cups. Make sure to press the folds that you create to help keep the jam from oozing out.

Once all of your pieces are done, carefully spoon about a teaspoonful of Jam (I used Strawberry-Banana) into each.
(Note: if you have any muffin tin slots that haven't been used, fill them about halfway with water before baking.)

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the crusts are golden brown and the Jam is bubbling.

Remove while still warm, but cool enough to touch an edge of the crusts to help keep any oozage from sticking which will make removing these tasty bites quite challenging.

Now is the hard part!! Waiting until it's cool enough to eat!!

I served them warm with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream and they were so tasty!!

Sneak Peek: Strawberry-Banana Jam

So many people like Strawberry Jam. It's a classic for sure! How could it not, sweet, red, chunky and it goes so well with Peanut Butter.

Last year my husband asked if I'd make some different varieties. He'd blurt out a flavor combination and we'd think about it a while. Then one day he says Strawberry-lemonade. I liked the idea of this! It was a mix of sweet strawberries and tart lemons. The combination works beautifully as a drink, why not as a jam!

Believe it or not, it was my most popular of the Strawberry Jam flavors I'd sold last year. So once again the think tank went back to work to come up with another winning Strawberry blend and I think we've come across it!

Strawberry-Banana!!

The bananas are added at the end of the cooking process so they keep some of their shape, but spread well. As you take a bite there's a subtlety to the banana throughout with the bonus bite of a piece of ripened banana.

This is a beautiful blend especially when served as a Classic PB&J. Who out there doesn't love a little sliced banana on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Well, now it's already blended in with that sweet Strawberry Jam!!

If all goes as planned, Strawberry-Banana will be available for purchase by Memorial Day weekend. A great kick-off to a wonderful summer filled with fresh fruit and Jam.

A Healthy, Delicious smoothie! Yes, you can have both!

I have always enjoyed a good fruit smoothie. There's something so wonderful about blended yogurt and mixed fruits. But most smoothies are loaded with hidden sugar and calories unless their homemade, and even then they're not that nutritious.

So when I saw Money Saving Mom had added the Green Monster Smoothie from Iowa Girl Eats, I was quite intrigued. Cheryl has been really consistent in offering recipes from blogs and websites that are healthy and delicious. But when I first clicked the link...I wasn't so sure. This smoothie is pea green!! Spinach green, actually. That's because it has about 4 cups worth of Baby Spinach in it. Now before you go "eeewwww" (if you haven't already), trust me! It DOESN'T TASTE LIKE SPINACH!!

I read tons of reviews on this smoothie on both blogs and after seeing an amazing pattern of folks saying how unbelievably delicious it was, I was starting to come around. When I read a number of people say that they have their young children (between 2 and 5) who are so picky about veggies, gobble one of these up every day...I was ready to try it!

Spinach is an amazing little thing!! Packed full of nutrients that are so wonderful for keeping our bodies energized and healthy. I like spinach, always have but it seems to get lost in the veggie routine of broccoli, green beans, carrots and such. A shame really, but now that we've discovered this smoothie, Spinach is going to take a front row seat in our fridge! My wonderful husband makes routine trips to Produce Junction for fresh fruits and veggies for our family. Connor and Liam can easily go through 5 lbs of bananas, a container of strawberries and two containers of blueberries in a weeks time...having a store where the prices can not be beat on produce, we are grateful! They had baby spinach when he was there last and I actually had all of the other ingredients on hand.

As soon as I powered up the blender, the boys were in the kitchen asking what I was up to. I agreed to let them each have a sip of the drink when it was done. Well, they were chugging it down, so I gave them their own cups and silly straws (sorry it's Halloween cups, I grabbed the first thing I saw) and away they went. Connor went so far as to say "this is the best drink, ever!" I think that says a lot coming from a 4 year old.

I absolutely loved it!! It tasted like Bananas, with a hint of Peanut Butter. So good. I am planning on drinking one every day for a week to see how it helps with my energy levels and overall well-being. I'm confident though that I have found something that will be a regular in my morning routine!!

Here's the Recipe!!! Green Monster Smoothie

Try it! Feel free to add additional fruits to it if you'd like. I added some blueberries and I think I'll throw in another frozen banana to make it a little thicker tomorrow.

liam licking the smoothie off his lips!

Do you have a Healthy Smoothie recipe that you really enjoy? I'd love to hear about it!!

Coming up later : Sneak Peek: Strawberry-Banana Jam, How I juggle Jam and Kids, My 200th Fan Giveaway!

Sneak Peek: Golden Raspberry Jam

I am so excited to be offering three new flavors to the selection of Jams that I will be making for the 2012 Jam season. That will mean there will be 12 Jam flavors for this year!!!

The first one I'm letting you get a sneak peek at is Golden Raspberry.

A little History

The first spring here in our home, Steve went to the local hardware store and picked up three berry plants for a container garden we built on the side of the house. Two raspberry and one Black Raspberry. We planted the Black Raspberry in the middle of the raspberry plants and anxiously waited for the Summer fruit!! To our surprise though, one of the raspberry plants fruit was this pale pink, almost white. The flavor was sweeter than a red raspberry but didn't think anything of it. When we picked the berries, we put all the Black Raspberries together and the Red and "white" together. So when I made red raspberry jam, it didn't taste any different to us but the color was slightly different. We were surprised to see that this plant continued to produce fruit into the fall.

a few berries from our garden

Doing a little research I learned that the "white" raspberry was really Golden and of the Ever-bearing variety. These berries are much sweeter than a Red Raspberry and the plant produces fruit from Summer into Fall making it a great plant for a garden.

Test Batch

Thanks to the crazy winter of 2010-2011, we only got about 1/4 cups worth of Golden Raspberries. Nowhere near enough to make a
batch for selling, let alone gift giving to family. So I held onto them until things quieted down and I could make a small batch for us to taste. I barely got an 8 ounce jar out of the berries but...

Oh, my!! If you like Raspberry Jam, but not so much the tartness of Red Raspberry you will LOVE this Golden Raspberry Jam. It tastes like honey, with a very slight undertone of raspberry tartness. Truly amazing when it warms on toast.

With the crocus already blooming here (opened up today) I am very nervous to see what the berry season is going to be like and am hopeful that I will have enough of these beautiful little gems to make a batch of Golden Raspberry Jam for you!!

Not your Grandma's Jam

This fall after we'd picked somewhere around 70 pounds of apples, I had my recipes all lined up of what I wanted to make. Of course there was Apple Butter and Applesauce (my kids LOVE my applesauce), even Apple Peach Jam. After all of that, I still had quite a few apples left so I went digging for something different! I came across this recipe in an old cookbook of mine and it sounded intriguing.

The apples were only slightly cooked, still skinned and cut into bite size pieces. Raisins and Walnuts were the other two main stars of this "Jam". I had to try it! The method of preparing this particular product was a bit different for me, but the end result was something extraordinary. I call it Apple Conserve and it is amazing when served with pork or lamb instead of Mint Jelly.

Having nut allergies in the family, I was very concerned about selling it in my Etsy shop, fearing someone may not see that it contains walnuts. The views of it have been wonderful and I've been amazed that I haven't just sold one jar, but someone came back for a second.

The out pour of support from both Etsy and Facebook has just been so wonderful. I really look forward to announcing the new flavors for Fruitful Delights 2012 season this April. I will have all of the flavors that I currently make, as well as a few new ones and I will also be making many of my flavors in Sugar-Free versions!

Check back on Friday for my post about Sandwich pockets...it was an interesting experiment!

What motivates me

As a parent, I want the best for my kids. And for us, that started with a healthy relationship with food. My kids have to fight genetics (diabetes runs in my family) and it was so important for us to lay a solid foundation for them when it came to food.

Meals that I make from scratch is one of the most important ways I can show my family that I love them, but it does not mean I have to slave over the stove for half the day. What it does mean is lots of fruits and veggies! Every day starts with a bowl of fruit, either with or without a whole grain cereal. They're kids, so they snack on things like animal crackers and Goldfish, not cookies and chocolate bars. I'd love to hope that when Connor is 12 and he's hungry between meals, he'd choose an apple or banana over a bag of chips...


We have a vegetable garden. Actually it's a few of them, scattered on our small piece of property, where we grow tomatoes, green beans and bell peppers. We also grow parsley, basil, chives and lettuce. It is so great to be able to make homemade sauce for spaghetti! I fill it with onions, tomatoes, fresh basil and parsley and when we have them in the fridge, carrots. I found making meals from scratch gave me control over how many veggies I could pack into each meal and that was so great!

bread maker ready to go!

So when my husband surprised me with a Bread Maker for our 5th Anniversary (I love practical gifts!) I was SO excited!! Reading article after article on the benefits of homemade bread from Money Saving Mom, I was amazed at how simple it was. One more thing I could do for my kids...what kid doesn't love a sandwich and now I don't have to worry about the bread having too much sugar in it.



Knowing how many preservatives, sugar and salt are in pre-packaged foods is what moved me towards starting Fruitful Delights. This is my chance to offer you all a little taste of the wholesome goodness that I offer my family.

Connor helping make scones

The world moves so quickly and it's so easy to get lost in it. Taking 30 minutes to make Homemade Mac n' Cheese (with steamed cauliflower thrown in) helps me slow it down and enjoy my kids while they're still young. Cooking is a great way to spend time with your kids too! You can teach them math, the importance of patience, hand-eye coordination and the joy on their faces when the meal is complete and they can see that they were a part of it, priceless!!
I hope you have a chance to roll up your sleeves and make something for someone special!