Strawberry/Rhubarb/Banana smoothie.

What to do with strawberries and rhubarb when you don't want to make more crumble or pie because it isn't exactly part of the 'being good' (most of the time) diet!? Well, you can go ahead and stew them at least. I hulled the strawberries and left them whole, trimmed and cut the rhubarb then put them in a pot with 2 tbsps of brown sugar and the juice of 1/4 lemon. Put it on a low heat, the lid on helped create some steam and then I removed the lid and let them very gently stew. 

I kept a tub of the stewed fruit in the fridge and have eaten it on top of yoghurt and in smoothies. The smoothie took one banana, a few large spoons of strawberry/rhubarb compote, a few large spoons of strawberry yoghurt and some milk, maybe 1 cup depending on how thick you like your smoothie. We shared this between the 2 of us, though you could have it to yourself if you wanted or add another banana and more milk if it wasn't enough for 2. Tasty!

Ontario asparagus, soft boiled egg and light feta.

Another weakness from the Farmers Market was asparagus, lots of it, for such a good price. I came home with 2 large bunches for only $7! I was hungry mid morning yesterday so decided on making a snack before we went out and this little creation sprang to mind.

I put a pan of water on to boil for the egg and a frying pan on with a couple mm of water too. While those worked on boiling I snapped the ends off some asparagus. When the water in the frying pan was boiling I dropped the asparagus in it and let it cook, moving it around a bit, for a couple of minutes then drained it. The egg should be ready around the same time as the asparagus if you time it right. Cook it how you like. I arranged the asparagus on a plate, crumbled some light feta over it then topped it with a soft egg and some cracked pepper. Perfect, light, little meal!

Fresh Ontario Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble (heavy on the fruit, low on the sugar and carbs)

We were at the Farmer's Market in St. Lawrence Market yesterday and couldn't help ourselves when we saw all the wonderful, fresh fruits and vegetables. We are trying to be good since we got back from holiday, detox a bit, get some new habits laid and old ones done away with but we decided that we would really like a fresh fruit crumble. The strawberries were so deeply red and smelled intoxicating, and tasted even better! The rhubarb was a Strawberry Rhubarb variety apparently. 

I used about half of both the fruits, leaving the strawberries whole but hulled and the rhubarb cut into fairly large chunks. I filled a dish almost full with the fruit so that it made up the majority of the crumble and sprinkled a little brown sugar over it. 

If you aren't watching how much sugar you eat then I would say you might need several spoons in here because despite the fact that the strawberries are really sweet, the rhubarb is very tart! I only sprinkled a bit on and it was too tart.

I also went really light on the topping too. There was a packet of Maple Cinnamon Porridge Oats in the cupboard which I used, if you have one of those porridge sachets they are great to use, we normally have the plain ones. Normal oats do well too. I melted a little butter (couple tbsps) which I know you shouldn't do but I didn't want to wait for any to get to room temperature, you should if you can. I also added a tiny bit of flour, which we are really trying to avoid but there was no alternative, I added until it was a crumbly texture. If you had ground almonds of whole wheat flour or other grain flour they could be options. You'll be able to find a regular topping recipe online or in lots of books should you wish, this was mainly about making it better for us.

Because I went so light on the topping, half way through cooking I added a handful of crushed walnuts and a couple of spoons of flax seed to help out. The oven was medium to low and I just kept an eye on it till I could smell it and the top was brown.

I let the crumble sit for a while to cool before we ate it. As much as I would have loved to add vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or anything else, we didn't. I had gone so light on the sugar that we were forced to sprinkle a tiny bit more in our bowls but it tasted great after that.