Fruity Pudding Pie

Over the weekend, I was invited to a friend's house for pie. That may not seem strange to some people, but for me, at 25 years old, visting a friend from my elementary school days, this was a moment. A moment to pause and think "wow, did I ever think I would be having pie at my friends' house that she made herself when not that long ago we ran down the halls pretending to be Robin Hood and Little John?" A moment for pie.

She made a tangy lemon pudding pie with graham cracker crust that she topped with berries. A few days later and I still wanted another slice, so I knew I had to make a pudding pie myself. That and I'm getting my four wisdom teeth out tomorrow so I need a dessert fitting for geriatrics or for those experiencing oral surgery. The best case scenario of getting my wisdom teeth pulled - it's an excuse to eat ice cream and suck down milkshakes. The worse case scenario - I look like a puffer fish or that squirrel from the movie Ice Age and I am in horrendous unrelenting pain. They already told me they put cotton balls in your mouth and since cotton in the mouth is already my idea of water torture, I am preparing to pamper myself with pre and post dessert.

I'm hoping this fruit-crusted strawberry-kiwi banana cream pudding pie that I ripped directly from the weightwatchers website will help me heal faster. If I were to serve this pudding pie for company and I wasn't worried about masticating, I would use the graham cracker crust. I think what is so great about fruit and pudding pies is that you can experiment with many flavors of pudding and practically any fresh fruit that's in season. It's also simple, cheap, and requires no oven in the summer. Be prepared to eat this recipe with a spoon, but it does make an eye-catching presentation.

Here is a copy of the Weight Wathchers recipe called Fruit-Crusted Strawberry Kiwi Banana Cream Pie:
(makes 6 serving and if you do weight watchers, it's 2 points)

Ingredients:
• 1 oz fat-free sugar-free instant banana pudding and pie filling mix
• 2 cup fat-free evaporated milk
• 1 cups strawberries, thinly sliced
• 2 medium kiwifruit, peeled and sliced

Directions:
• Prepare pudding according to package directions but use fat-free evaporated milk instead of regular skim milk. (The evaporated milk allows the pudding to thicken better than fat-free milk)
• Cover bottom of a 9-inch glass pie plate with a layer of sliced strawberries.
• Pour pudding on top of strawberries. Smooth pudding surface with a wooden spoon and garnish with remaining strawberries and with kiwi slices. Refrigerate pie for at least 2 hours. Slice into 6 pieces and serve. Serve immediately after cutting.

TrueBlue: Not Your Average Juice

(This article originally appeared on fitfare.net)

It’s been a slow start to spring and still weeks before much of the nation can hope to pick and enjoy summer ripened berries. If you find yourself craving the refreshingly sweet and tart flavor of fresh blueberries, I suggest that you skip the frozen section and head over to the juice aisle, where you can likely find a bottle of TrueBlueberry cocktail.

A single 16oz bottle of TrueBlue Blueberry juice contains as much juice as ½ cup of blueberries and a 64 oz bottle contains the juice of about 1 lb of blueberries. The juice is bursting with flavor and powerful antioxidants. These antioxidants help neutralize the “free radicals,” otherwise known as the harmful by-products in our food and water supply, that lead to cancer and other age-related diseases. In fact, TrueBlue boasts that the blueberry and its juice have more antioxidants per serving than cranberry juice or any other fruit or fruit juice. Blueberries have also proven to lower cholesterol because they contain pterostilbene, an antioxidant that according to the US Department of Agriculture, reduces “bad” LDL cholesterol better than most prescription drugs. Like other fruits high in antioxidants such as cranberries, blueberries also help to prevent urinary tract infections, improve memory, coordination and balance, improve eyesight, and slow the physical and mental aging process due to its anti-inflammatory properties.

Produced from both wild and cultivated berries, TrueBlue blueberry juice is naturally sweetened with cane sugar, as opposed to many other fruit cocktails drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup or glucose-fructose. In fact, the nutritional information on the bottle lists 8 ingredients in total: water, blueberry juice from concentrate, grape juice from concentrate, cane sugar, citric acid, natural flavor, fruit and vegetable juice (color), and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). As a result of the berry’s natural sweetness, the juice has 25% fewer calories than popular cranberry juice, or 110 calories per 8oz serving.

TrueBlue comes in variety of intriguing powerful antioxidant combinations, proving that it’s not your average juice beverage. It also comes in Blueberry Blackberry, Blueberry Cranberry, Blueberry Iced Green Tea, Blueberry Pomegranate, and Blueberry Raspberry. There is also light version of the beverage, LiteBlue, available in Blueberry and Blueberry Raspberry. It is sweetened with a combination of cane sugar and Splenda, and contains 50% less calories than the original cocktail, at 50 calories for a 250ml serving.

TrueBlue blueberry juice is more than just a great tasting, healthy drink; it is, as I found, also a flavorful cooking beverage and mixer. While I can easily imagine this drink being served unadorned as a non-alcoholic alternative at a party, I have to say it makes an excellent cocktail mixer as I wrote about previously on my new blog, Nimble Nosh (shameless plug #1). I poured some blueberry juice into some raspberry flavored vodka over ice and a squeeze of lime juice. The light and sweet flavor of the blueberries made this drink a far improved version of the standard Cap Codder (cranberry juice and vodka). My boyfriend played bartender as well, mixing the juice with some mango flavored rum for a fruity blend where you could hardly taste the alcohol. Elated with his first success, he tried again with a blueberry margarita - a perfect 10. His recipe calls for a shot of tequila, a shot of triple sec, 8 oz of TrueBlue blueberry juice and a squeeze of fresh lime, blended and served over ice. Perfect for the summertime heat.

I was also intrigued by the recipes posted on the TrueBlue site and decided to make their Savory Blueberry Vinaigrette over a bed of mixed salad greens, poached chicken breast, sliced strawberries, crumbled goat cheese and toasted walnuts. The savory blueberry vinaigrette was just that - savory. Perhaps not as much tangy blueberry flavor as I would have liked, but it was the perfect compliment to the light spring salad, and of course, a slightly sweet and spicy Cabernet to round off our powerful antioxidant meal. I’ve posted the recipe for the TrueBlue dressing below and my salad, also posted on Nimble Nosh (shameless plug #2). It is my recommendation that mixed blueberry cocktails should follow shortly thereafter.

(recipe below in previous post)