Pear, Apple, Peach Salad

This past summer I wanted something different for our annual family Father's Day BBQ. Something refreshing as a side dish, but not typical boring green salad. So, I came up with a yummy combination of the two....a fruit salad that is more of a side dish than a dessert.

Ingredients:

2 Pears Sliced
2 Apples Sliced
2 Peaches Sliced
2 Stalks of Celery cut into small pieces
1 C. Diced Jicama
1/4 C. Fresh Mint leaves roughly chopped
Juice of 2 limes
1 T Olive Oil
1/4 C. Honey
Pinch of salt and pepper

Add the apples, pears, peaches, celery and Jicama to a large bowl. Mix lime juice, olive oil, honey, mint, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Pour dressing mixture over fruit and celery. Toss it all together to coat. Serve immediately or chill until ready.

Light Whipped Fruit Mousse Parfait

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

This recipe is an oldie but a goodie.  We used to always make this as a pie with a low fat graham cracker crust.  Now with so many of us not eating carbs we have adapted this family favorite to a yummy, refreshing mousse parfait.  This is great for a BBQ dessert or to serve at a Brunch in the summertime.  I've also served the mousse in a large bowl with graham crackers for dipping for those who want to have some carbs ;)

Ingredients:

1 box sugar free strawberry Jello (or any other flavor you like)

2 containers of light strawberry yogurt (or any flavor to match your Jello choice)

1 tub of light cool whip, defrosted in the refrigerator

1/4 cup water, boiling

Preparation:

Dissolve Jello with 1/4 cup of boiling water.  In a large bowl add the yogurt and the dissolved Jello and mix to combine.  Once combined, add the entire tub of cool whip and fold in until thoroughly incorporated.   Assemble into a parfait by alternating whipped cream with each layer of fruit mouse. Top with fresh fruit and then refrigerate for at least 4-6 hours but I prefer overnight.  Serve cold. 

Make other flavors if you want to have a colorful, multi layered parfait.  For this parfait we used strawberry and orange/peach - Great combination!

Orange/Peach: Orange Jello and Peach yogurt

Lime: Lime Jello and Key Lime yogurt

Lemon: Lemon Jello and Lemon yogurt

Raspberry: Raspberry Jello and Raspberry yogurt

Really the flavor combinations are endless!