For safer food: apples

At this point, I would be very careful about eating apples that you don't grow yourself.

1. Once again, apples are the #1 produce item on the 'dirty dozen' list of produce containing pesticide residue. In other words, they have the most pesticide residue of everything tested. Good to at least go organic. The dirty dozen list.

2. Some of them may have antibiotics used on them, including organic varieties:
Antibiotic use on apples and pears.

Considering the state of antibiotic resistance that the World Health Organization has just weighed in on after an international study, this is NOT something we want to encourage.

3. And in the USA, on average, apples are stored for 14 months before you ever get to see them. Which is likely why Europe may not allow them to be imported from the USA - too much residue used to keep them looking okay from such long storage.


I'm looking into getting my own apple tree, and if I DO buy apples, I get ones from local farmers now that I can interview, and only in season. :-/

Cantaloupe smoothie - dairy free

OMG - I loved this so much!

Dairy free Cantaloupe smoothie

Can't even express the love for this

Baked Apple Sorbet

I utterly love this stuff.

Baked Apple Sorbet

We cooked chopped gala apples (seeds removed but with peels still on) in a solar oven all day a few days ago. You could use a crock pot with a little added water, as well. They were nearly mush by the time they were done. We let them cool and then blended them all together until smooth, and then a little more. I blended until they looked almost a little frothy.

Honeydew Melon Sorbet

So, we tried yet another sorbet - they had honedew at the Farmer's market this week, woo hoo!

I looked at a lot of recipes for this on-line, and the most common addition for honeydew seems to be lime or lemon, so we went that route.

Plantains with black beans

These were great, and turned out so wonderfully I hope we can have them again. They'd work great as snacks or as an appetizer. They have a kind of Cuban feel to them, so they'd probably go well with Mojitos, if you can drink those.

Plantains, guacamole, refried beans, and roasted bell peppers

Rice-milk frozen deserts

So after making rice milk for my son, and the one day every couple weeks that my daughter can have it, my children almost immediately decided that they didn't want to drink it ever again. Or at least not until it went bad and I'd have to make it again. So I've been trying to think of ways I can use this, and we came up with two a couple days ago: frozen strawberry rice-milk and Cantaloupe rice-milk smoothies, yeaaaa!

Strawberry pastel prettiness

Watermelon-mint sorbet

Yes, I serve my sorbet on plants. Doesn't everyone?

This turned out just awesome. It was sweet, a teeny bit tart, and with an extra cool punch lingering just after you swallow a bite. I enjoyed the heck out of it. Could have eaten it all myself!

Snack: Apples

Time: 5-30 min, depending on which snack

Main Ingredient:
Apples, any variety


Snack Ideas:
1. Eat the apple. ;-)

2. Slice up apple, arrange on a plate, and serve with various dips like homemade nut butters, honey or other liquid sweetener, cooked and sweetened fruit that's tart, cream. Additions like cinnamon, nutmeg, and fresh, grated ginger work well, if tolerated.