Kids and even adults love fruits served with a gooey, sweetened cream. It’s called a Fruit Dip and it can be made very easily.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups sour cream

1 cup whipped topping

3 1/2 (3.5) tablespoon sugar (I prefer brown sugar)

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. You can even use 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract instead of nutmeg

Recipe:

Take a bowl and mix sour cream, sugar cinnamon and nutmeg/vanilla extract. Refrigerate it for 45 minutes. Now add whipped topping to it and refrigerate it for another 15 minutes.

Cut fruit of your choice such as apples, blackberries, strawberries, grapes, oranges, peaches, watermelon into pieces.

Tip: If you are using bananas or apples, dip them into lemon juice. This prevents discoloration.

Place the fruit dip in the center of the plate, with fruits around the dip and serve!

Image courtesy [cracker and cheese]

Fruit Custard is a version of fruit salad. Well you can call this recipe a fruit salad too. I have added fruits to the custard and garnished with dry fruits and cream. It can be served as a dessert as well as a good way to make your kids eat fruits. I would not say a healthy one, because fruits are to be eaten in their whole form to get maximum nutrients. But this way you can at least get your kids to eat some fruits.

Ingredients:

1 litre low/whole fat milk, cold or at room temperature

4 heaped tbsp of vanilla flavored custard powder (you can use any other flavor like mango or strawberry, melon

4-5 tbsp sugar,

2-3 cups of chopped fruits like apples, chikkus (sapota), bananas, strawberries, bananas, grapes, oranges, papaya or any other seasonal fruits,

Some cashew nuts,

Sweetened cream (optional).

Method:

Take a cup of cold milk and add custard powder to it. Mix until a paste in formed. Bring remaining milk to boil. Add sugar while boiling the milk. Once the milk boils, reduce the flame to minimum and add the paste to it. Stir or mix using a whisk instantly and continue to mix the custard else lumps would be formed. Cook the custard for 3-4 minutes and remove from flame. Let the custard come to room temperature.

Then using a hand blender or a mixer grinder, blend the custard into a smooth paste. Then chill it in the refrigerator. Chill the chopped fruits in the refrigerator until ready to serve. While serving, combine fruits with custard, garnish with cashew nuts and cream.

TIPS:

1. Avoid using sour fruits like kiwi, cherries, etc in the custard as they may spoil the taste.

2. Chop apples and bananas only at serving time, so that they do not turn brown in color until you serve.

3. You can add the cream along with custard while blending it.

Christmas is almost here and that is why I baked these delicious little bundles of joy. Banana Strawberry Jam Muffins are flavorful banana muffins filled with liquid strawberry jam. And as you bite into the muffin, luscious melted strawberry jam oozes out…hmm…yum.

Prepare them for Christmas breakfast or give them as Christmas gifts.

Ingredients: (Makes 12)

4 large ripe bananas,

Strawberry Jam as required,

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour,

1/2 cup granulated sugar,

1/2 cup salted butter; melted at room temperature (or place it in the Microwave oven for 20 seconds),

1 egg; lightly beaten,

1 tsp baking powder,

1 tsp baking soda (soda bicarbonate),

1 tsp vanilla extract/essence,

Other -

Muffin baking tray and disposable muffin cups.

Method:

Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar, with a whisk, until smooth and soft. Then add beaten egg, vanilla extract and whisk the mixture for around 5 minutes. Mash the bananas in another bowl and add them to the butter and sugar mixture.

Lightly fold in the mixture until mashed bananas are evenly mixed. Add half of the sifted flour mixture to the bowl. Lightly fold the mixture until well mixed.

Repeat for the remaining flour and mix the batter until even. At this point, you may feel the batter is thicker than usual. But that is the perfect consistency.

Preheat the oven at 180° C (350° F). Line up the muffin cups in the tray. Scoop out a spoonful of mixture and fill the cup to 1/3rd of its capacity.

Spread some strawberry jam over it.

And then spread little more muffin batter over the layer of jam. Do not fill the cups till the rim, as they will expand when they bake.

Place in the preheated oven at 180° C (350° F) on the low rack for 20 minutes. Let them rest on the rack for few minutes before you take them out.

NOTE: I prepared this recipe using my Microwave Oven.

TIPS: Top it with some fine granulated sugar, if you like.

Ingredients:

1 can of sliced peaches,

150gms brown sugar,

50gms flour,

115gms butter; softened,

A pinch of ground cinnamon.

Method:

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees C. In a mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, flour and butter and beat until smooth. Arrange the sliced peaches in a baking dish. Spread the sugar, flour and butter mixture over them. Sprinkle ground cinnamon on top and bake for about 25 minutes.

Have you tried this recipe earlier? Well I had never heard of a strawberry soup, until I just came across one over the internet and I was quite amused. I decided to prepare it myself and I must tell you that it was so irresistible that I forgot to click a photograph to show it to you. I just gulped it, yumm. The best thing is that you can have it anytime and is a quite healthy option to keep you full.

Here is the recipe I borrowed from somewhere, oops I don’t remember where.

Ingredients:

250 gms of fresh strawberries,

1/3 cup (or more as required) granulated white sugar,

1/2 cup cream fraiche or plain yogurt,

1/2 cup cream,

A pinch of ground cardamom,

Some whipped cream to garnish.

Method:

Wash and roughly chop the strawberries and put them into a blender. Blend until pureed. Add rest of the ingredients and blend together until well combined. Adjust the ingredients as per taste. Chill and garnish with some whiped cream before serving.