Usually I’m very open to trying new foods. At some point or another I’ve tried something from at least the majority of the continents but I’ve had one hold out for a few years now- Nutella. Chocolate and hazlenut for a sandwich? Uhhh no thanks. EBoy’s godfather is from France and made us crepes one day. I adore him and the crepes were awesome but I still scoffed when everyone insisted I try a little Nutella on my crepe- yick.

Well internet I’m here to let you know- I was wrong! During our sample tour of Costco last weekend this lovely server lady first asked us if we’d like another child to go with our 4-pack. She insisted that he was 17 and would fit right in- I had to turn her down because I don’t think I could fit a 17 year old in the 2 carts already holding the 4 year, 3 year, 2 year and 7 month olds. She then gave us some Nutella on plain white bread. I gave some to all the kids and didn’t plan on eating one but said what the heck and gave it a go. Nutella.Is.So.Incredibly.Delicious!!!

I never knew what I’d been missing all these years. I made the mistake of bringing a jar in the house (it was on sale so I couldn’t resist). Now I’m running around trying it on everything. Nutella on a bagel with banana slices? Yummy! Nutella smeared on a granola bar? Yup just as good. I’m developing a Nutella addiction here- help!

I love fruit and most melon (although I can sometimes do without watermelon- I wouldn’t touch it for years and only eat it occassionally now). My absolute favorite melon in the world is the Crenshaw melon and they are currently in season. I’d never heard of them until we were shopping at the Farmer’s Market and a woman was raving at how wonderful they are. There’s no melon sweeter- and for an extra treat I drizzle it with a bit of lime juice with a twinge of honey mixed with it.

EDad has been developing some new healthier desserts for us. He grilled the pineapple and it was incredibly delicious served with a scoop of lowfat frozen vanilla yogurt.

I’m embarking on growing my own pineapple plant. Its supposed to be very easy and I just saved the top of the pineapple to dry out and then plant. YouGrowGirl has instructions. I’ll be posting my progress hopefully I won’t kill it!

Thank goodness for blogs and those who so freely share wonderful recipes because my cooking repertoire had been in serious trouble for quite awhile. Being from a southern family I can definitely cook - but my best dishes were primarily based on high fat frying. We haven’t fried much of anything in a few years now but my experiments in cooking haven’t given us many staples. I became quite a crock pot wizard thanks to Fix it and Forget it cookbook. The soups and hot dishes aren’t always quite as appealing during the summer so I haven’t had very many meal successes. Thank you to some of my all time favorite blogs for providing meals that always work:

Blueberry Pudding by ljc

Rigatoni with Cherry Tomato Sauce by The Amateur Gourmet

Curry Chicken (I prefer it with no dumplings) courtesy of Chookoloonks

*** The picture is from our fieldtrip to the Mayfield Dairy where we had to wear hair nets to walk through the dairy. Very fun and lots of yummy ice cream!

We’ve been consuming quite a bit of yogurt in the ebony household lately. DH came up with a wonderful healthy mousse recipe using his new toy
for a mousse consisting of fresh strawberries and vanilla yogurt. It was actually quite tasty.

DS#1 favorite snack is what I call yogurt cones. Ice cream cones are a great and convenient way to get healthy snacks into your toddler. We freeze layers of yogurt with just about any fruit cut up into bite sized pieces. His current favorte is peach yogurt with fresh blueberries frozen together in layers.

All yogurt is organic of course- we’ve recently discovered greek style yogurt its so creamy and substitues nicely for sour cream in some recipes.

Our breakfast brunch included:

Peaches Supreme
Baked Peach French Toast

I really wanted peach stuffed french toast but you have to soak your bread overnight so I’ll hopefully get to try that next weekend.

For dessert tonite dh is putting together a blueberry tart.

EbonyBoy has a blue tongue from snacking on blueberries- he’s in his own little blue heaven.