If your kitchen is overflowing with a bounty of berries courtesy of your local farmers market — or a particularly lush produce department — then we've got 12 great ideas for you. Summer calls for meals that are light, bright, and refreshing, and strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries are just the thing to highlight. We've rounded up 12 of our favorite Summer berry recipes that the whole family is sure to love — morning, noon, and night!
One of my favorite Summer cocktails is the bramble, a mix of gin, lemon, fresh blackberries, and blackberry liqueur. It's also a recipe that's easy to play around with, which makes for a fun day of improvising. For anyone craving a fruity cocktail minus the calories, this variation of a classic bramble makes a great choice. Instead of gin, I chose tequila as the base spirit; to me, tequila is the perfect complement to warm weather and fresh fruit. The recipe doesn't contain any store-bought mixers or fruit juice but relies on fresh, seasonal blackberries and a hint of agave syrup for its sweetness. In the end, it's a cocktail with fewer than 200 calories.
Berry season is right around the corner, and if a big bowl of strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries didn't excite you before, maybe this news will: eating at least two servings of berries per week can help delay age-related memory loss in women. A recent Harvard study followed 16,010 women over the age of 70, finding those who ate berries slowed memory loss by almost three years. Researchers cite the plethora of antioxidants packed into these small fruits as being the reason. If preventing memory loss weren't enough, here are five more reasons why you should up your berry intake.
Amped up for berry season yet? Mix things up by making one of these healthy berry recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and cocktail hour!
Sadly, Summer is coming to a close and with it the end of berry season. But, there's still a few weeks left to enjoy strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, and blackberries. To ensure that you make the most of the last few batches of berries, I've rounded up some creative and inspiring ideas. From sweet to savory preparations to cocktails, here are 10 delicious berry recipes.
I don't know about you, but I've been crazy for strawberries for the past few months! Although these beloved fruits are available in stores year-round, they're truly ripe for the picking in the Summer, when they're sweetest. Need more motivation to enjoy them while they're in season? Find a farm nearby to harvest your own, get inspired by our favorite berry recipes, and, of course, take our quiz to learn more tasty strawberry tidbits.
I've been up to my knees in blueberries after discovering cartons of them on sale for next to nothing at the market. After a long afternoon of hard work, I found myself in need of an alcoholic refreshment — so very naturally, the berries found their way into my drink. Browsing through cocktail recipes, I was inspired by a libation, Le Midi, which combines the essence of lavender with blueberries. I reinterpreted that with berry sauce I'd just made, lavender-scented limoncello, and Cointreau liqueur.
The end result smelled sweet and tasted fruity-floral, with just a whiff of lavender that wasn't overwhelming. For the recipe, read on.
Considering our obsession with berries, it's hard to believe that there are still quite a few out there that I've never tried. This week, I had my first encounter with a gooseberry: a fruit smaller than a blueberry with a round-meets-oblong shape (similar to that of a green grape) and a fuzzy, veiny, green apple-colored exterior. I couldn't ignore my intrigue and impulsively picked up a carton to experiment with at home. My initial observations of the fruit, when you keep reading.
Start your day off with this smoothie recipe from FitSugar reader AllieNic, who shared it in our Healthy Recipe group.
The sun is out; the breeze is warm — it’s definitely Summer out there! My favorite breakfast on a warm Summer morning is a nice, brain-freeze-inducing smoothie packed with spinach and berries. There’s just something about getting a green veggie in the a.m. that makes my day 100 percent better!
Summer Solstice Smoothie
Ingredients:
Check out the rest of this post on my healthy living blog, Frisky Lemon Nutrition
Have a great recipe to share? Don't forget to post it in our Healthy Recipe group. It might end up on the FitSugar home page.
When I was young, my favorite part of Christmas Eve was leaving Santa a big plate of cookies and a glass of warm milk, a tradition that I think a lot of kids still do. But long after the Santa myth was busted for me, I kept on eating "Santa's snacks." While I'm not suggesting that you have a cookie-less Christmas — everyone needs a little gingerbread and sugar cookie love! — it might be a little better on your waistline to include a little reindeer fare in your holiday diet.
Reindeer, or caribou, are primarily plant eaters that love feeding on leafy greens and mushrooms, and on occasion, bird eggs and arctic char. And though they're not available to them in their natural habitat, they also love carrots and apples as a little sweet treat. This Christmas, when setting out your plate of cookies and milk, be sure to include some healthy treats, too. Everyone needs a little leafy green goodness!
After satisfying my curiosity about the fine distinction between biscuits and scones, I decided I needed to heed my physical craving for them, too. And given my near-obsession with raspberries this month, what better way than to pull together a quick raspberry scone?
The best part of this recipe is the fact that it doesn't require a mixer of any kind; just a food processor — something I couldn't live without, anyway. In half an hour, these babies were in the oven, and 15 minutes later, they were in my mouth.
It's best to eat the batch within a day, so make these for a crowd. Or, you can follow in my gluttonous footsteps: I meant to sample one out of the oven, but wound up eating at least three. The recipe? It's right here.
