Summer 2011, Day 3: Apple Brown Betty

Today we made Apple Brown Betty from Ellie Krieger's SO Easy cookbook.

I had actually never heard of an Apple Brown Betty, but it reminded me of an Apple Crisp, which I love, so I wanted to try it. It's exactly like an apple crisp, but a lot healthier. The ingredients are apples, apple cider (except we used apple juice), cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of butter, bread (GF or regular), vanilla, and brown sugar.

You basically just simmer the apples and the brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and juice in sauce pan. You peel the apples first, then chop them.

Later, when it's simmered (10 minutes), you add a little butter.

Then you get a food processor and blend the bread, add cinnamon and a little brown sugar, then mix in 1 tablespoon of butter.

You put the apples into a pan and put the crumble and bake it.

This tastes exactly like an apple crisp, and I suggest if you like apple crisp, you make this dish.

The good thing is that it's healthy. You cut down on the butter, and you whole grain bread, if you can, you only add a little sugar, you use juice (or cider), and that's where it gets the sweetness. It reminds me of autumn, and me and my mom love that.

So it's really good. 2 Thumbs Up!

Summer 2011, Day 3: Mahi Mahi Tacos with Strawberry Salsa

Today we made Mahi-Mahi fish tacos. Maji-Maji tacos are from the California strawberry cookbook.

My mom really wanted to do this recipe, so I agreed. I thought we should do an Ellie Krieger recipe, so I also made Apple Brown Betty.

But back to the tacos. They are actually really good. There are 3 parts.

• The Fish.
• The Chipotle Avocado Sour Cream.
• The Strawberry Salsa.

First, the fish. What you do is season the fish with cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. And chili, if you want, which I didn't. Then you grill it on a grill pan. That's it.

For the sour cream. Basically, you just get sour cream, chop up some avocado (we used a whole one), and a teaspoon of chipotle chili in adobo sauce (comes in a can). You don't have to add the chipotle, if you don't want to. Mash it all together and there you have it.

The Strawberry salsa you just chop up red onion, strawberries, mango, papaya (we used frozen mango and papaya), and cilantro. It's a sweet salsa.

I give it 1 3/4 Thumbs Up, and my brother's friend also gave it 1 3/4 Thumbs. My mom LOVES it and gives it MORE than 2 Thumbs Up.

She says this is a definite repeat meal. I liked it.

Summer 2011, Day 2: Strawberry Smoothie Love

To Whom May Read This Blog...

As you probably all know, I'm Sophie. The reason why we didn't do our Kid's Cooking Challenge over the school year is because we were really busy. But now it's summer so we're starting it up again.

I started by going to a Califoria Strawberry convention where I learned all about strawberries and how to use them and what's in them. They're pretty amazing because they actually carry a lot of vitamin C, antioxidents, and fiber. I know we're doing Ellie Krieger this summer for our cooking challenge, but I wanted to sort of make my own, using the California Strawberry Cookbook.

The smoothie was really easy and quick. Like usual, we didn't have all the ingredients, so I improvised. We didn't have strawberry juice, plain yogurt, basil leaves (we had them, but I didn't want to add that or the pepper spice). What I did instead was I put in some frozen mangos, strawberries, a cup and a half of ice, some milk, and some strawberry yogurt.

Then I pureed it in the blender. A dietician, who is a guy-etician since he's a guy and most dieticians are women, I guess, said a smoothie is a good lunch or breakfast...or even dinner.

It was a really easy recipe. You just put it all into a blender and puree. It was really tasty and it fills you. And it was very healthy. No ice cream. No presercatives. And I learned that if you freeze fruit, or buy frozen fruit, you don't actually lose much of the good stuff. There's still a lot of good stuf in the fruit, or vegetables, too.

I give this 2 thumbs up, and will make this again.

PS, my oldest brother, who's very particular about his smoothies, said this was a very good smoothie. He thought there were bananas in it, but I said no, they were mangos.

I suggest you feed this to your family.

This is the book by the Guy-etician, David Grotto.