pineapple

Clean Slate: Barley with Pineapple, Coconut, & Flaxseed

Leah Short — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 23:36:37 +0000

My mindset about food is very familiar this time of year. I’m always trying to clean up my eating from the holiday splurge and it can go well into spring. When the folks at Martha Stewart approached me about reviewing Clean Slate, I jumped at the chance. It’s not a diet cookbook at all. It focuses on clean eating and resetting your health. I’ve never jumped on the gluten-free, dairy-free bandwagon, so I was a tad bit skeptical going in, but not all recipes are that way and some include meat. I decided to test this cookbook by trying out a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and (yes!) dessert recipe. Every recipe has a beautiful photo with it, so it was hard to narrow it down.

For breakfast, I decided on Barley with Pineapple, Coconut, & Flaxseed. Coconut and pineapple this time of year? Yes, please! I can pretend I’m somewhere tropical as I start my morning. In the cookbook, they use millet, which I couldn’t find at my grocery store, so I substituted barley. Using millet would make this recipe gluten-free. I’m a fan of oatmeal, but wasn’t sure about a big bowl of barley.

So, how’s it taste?

This one really surprised me! It’s sweet, tangy and has such great texture! I made the barley ahead of time and scooped out what I needed for each serving. It was a cinch to put together in the morning before work. I already use almond milk instead of regular milk and I loved the maple syrup flavor in this. Fresh pineapple is one of my favorite fruits and it balances out the sweet. It was almost like eating dessert! I can’t wait to get my hands on millet to try it that way. I think this combo would work great with oatmeal, too.

For the next couple of posts, I’ll be sharing what I made for lunch, dinner, and dessert. I’ve got some photo teasers for you to get excited about! I was not disappointed with any of the recipes and I can’t wait to share the dessert with you. I don’t like to mess with dessert, so this was the biggest shocker of them all!

Lunch

Dinner

Dessert

The dishes you see in the pictures above are part of the Martha Stewart Collection white dishware available exclusively at Macy’s. I used the dinner plates, lunch plates, pasta bowls, and dessert plates. Fantastic dishware for everyday use, plus they’re dishwasher and microwave safe!

* GIVEAWAY CLOSED *

Congrats to Brenda, comment #1!
Winner chosen using random.org.

One winner will receive a copy of Clean Slate along with one bottle of Martha Stewart Essentials Multivitamin and one bottle of the Hair, Skin & Nails vitamin. Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents.

Mandatory: Leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to eat clean! One mandatory entry per person. Multiple entries (except for the optional entry below) will be removed.

Optional entry: For one additional entry, tweet the following: “Win a copy of Clean Slate, a cookbook for clean eating, from @SoHowsItTaste! Enter here: http://bit.ly/1zZu162” and leave a separate comment that you tweeted.

Contest ends Tuesday, February 24, 2015, at 10 a.m. central. Please make sure you enter a valid email address as an alternate winner will be chosen if I don’t hear from you within 48 hours. Good luck!

Yield: 4 servings

Barley with Pineapple, Coconut, & Flaxseed

Ingredients:

2 cups water*
pinch of coarse salt
1 cup barley*
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk
1/2 cup chopped fresh pineapple
1/4 cup large-flaked unsweetened coconut, toasted
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. whole flaxseed (I used ground)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup

*Note: Use millet to make this gluten-free. If you use millet, increase water to 6 cups total.

Directions:

1. Bring water and salt to boil in medium saucepan. Whisk in barley (or millet). Return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer uncovered, until water has been absorbed and barley (or millet) is tender but still chewy, 12 to 15 minutes for barley (30-35 minutes for millet).

2. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes then fluff with fork.

3. Serve topped with milk, pineapple, coconut, flaxseed, and maple syrup.

per serving: 316 calories, 7g fat, 56g carbs, 7g protein, 6g fiber

*Nutrition based on using millet, not barley.

Source: Clean Slate by the editors of Martha Stewart Living

Disclosure: I received a copy of Clean Slate: A Cookbook and Guide: Reset Your Health, Detox Your Body, and Feel Your Best and the Martha Stewart Collection white dishware at no cost. All opinions expressed here are solely my own, as always. This post contains affiliate links.

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Punch Bowl Cake

Leah Short — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Saturday was a rainy, dreary day here in Nashville. Perfect for baking, if you ask me! This cake is long overdue for an appearance on the blog. Punch Bowl Cake has a lot of history in my family. My mom would make this cake for my Papa’s birthday and we’d have it for holidays, too. I’ve made it a few times as an adult and it brings back so many memories. It also helps that it’s quite delicious with not much work to put it together.

Read more on Punch Bowl Cake

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Blueberry Pecan Crisp

Leah Short — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:54:27 +0000

You know how I love desserts. Love, love, love them. I have an incurable sweet tooth. While I’m a huge fan of chocolate, I also have a soft spot for fruity desserts. Mostly the ones you see this time of year like cobblers, pies, crisps, etc. About a month ago, the kind folks at Lucky Leaf contacted me about their premium fruit pie fillings. Um, twist my arm! Of course I’d love to give them a try. I received their peach, cherry, and blueberry varieties. I instantly gravitated to blueberry. Tucked inside my box of goodies was a few recipe cards and I knew I’d have to make the Blueberry Pecan Crisp. Boy I’m glad I did!

So, how’s it taste?

Looking at the recipe, I honestly thought it was a little odd. It starts out with pineapple on the bottom and you don’t drain it. Weird, right? Next, you top the pineapple with brown sugar and cinnamon. Cinnamon and pineapple? Ok, I’m game. On top of that goes that thick, rich blueberry filling. I may have licked my spoon two or eight times during that process. The next layer is an entire box of yellow cake mix. Sprinkle with pecans and drizzle with butter. Lots of butter. I’m no food science wiz, but I was curious how it would all come together, especially with that much dry cake mix on top. But now it started to make sense with the pineapple juice on the bottom and all that butter on the top.

Magic really does happen in the oven. As it baked, it got bubbly and golden. I have never smelled anything so delicious baking in my oven. If you’re a fan of blueberry desserts, you are going to be in heaven with this one. It is incredibly addicting. Confession: I shared this with no one. Not a single person. I am in the process of eating the entire dish. It’s amazing, rich, and incredibly decadent. The pineapple works to balance the sweet from the pie filling. You don’t taste it separately, but it plays nicely with the rest of the flavors. I loved the cake mix on top. It forms sort of a crust and then gets softer the closer it gets to the filling. The pecans are perfect for a bit of crunch (and you know what a fan I am of pecans anyway.) Another plus is this dish is easy to make. It’s super quick, but will definitely be a crowd-pleaser…should you decide to share it, unlike me. I should probably make two next time.

You can stay up-to-date on all things Lucky Leaf by following them on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Disclosure: Lucky Leaf sent me free samples of their premium fruit pie filling, but I was not compensated for this post. All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Blueberry Pecan Crisp

by Lucky Leaf
makes 15 servings

Ingredients:

1 (20 oz.) can unsweetened crushed pineapple, undrained
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 (21 oz.) can Lucky Leaf Premium Blueberry Pie Filling
1 (15.25 oz.) box yellow cake mix
1 cup pecan halves, chopped
1 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Pour pineapple into a greased 9x13-inch baking dish.

3. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Top with pie filling. Sprinkle with cake mix and pecans; drizzle with butter.

4. Bake at 350F for 40-50 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Serve warm.

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Pineapple Sorbet

Leah Short — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:50:22 +0000

I love fresh pineapple. It’s sweet, it’s tart, it’s juicy, and oh so refreshing. I’ll eat so much of it in one sitting that the inside of my mouth hurts from all the acidity. I don’t care, it’s worth the pain. So for my first homemade sorbet ever, I naturally chose Pineapple Sorbet. I had fresh pineapple already and you just need water and sugar for the rest. Pretty simple for a frozen treat!

So, how’s it taste?

It tasted awesome. Just like fresh pineapple with a touch more sweetness. I only used 7 tablespoons of sugar because I felt 8 might be way too much. I’m glad I did. Seven was perfect for my taste. I wanted to be able to still taste the tartness. You can always add more sugar, but can’t take it away! As much as I loved the taste, this sorbet was a pain to scoop (well, a pretty scoop). It felt like the right texture when I was eating it, but it was very crumbly. I could barely get it to form a scoop that’s picture-worthy.

Remember the Toasted Coconut Ice Cream? I swirled this Pineapple Sorbet into it and felt like I was instantly on the beach! It was incredible! To swirl, simply alternate scoops of each flavor into a new container. As if the flavor combo wasn’t enough, stay tuned because I take it one step further and turn it into a sundae!

Pineapple Sorbet

The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
makes about 3 cups

Ingredients:

1/2 fresh pineapple, peeled and cored (2 cups puree)
8 to 10 tbsp. sugar (I used 7 tbsp.)
1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Cut the pineapple into chunks and puree in a blender with 8 tablespoons sugar (I started with 7 tbsp. and that was enough) and the water until smooth. Taste, then add up to 2 tablespoon additional sugar, if desired.

2. Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturerâ€s instructions.

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