Juicy Fruit Salad

I love when my friends have parties / get-togethers - because of the obvious reasons that I enjoy spending time with them as well as doing fun stuff - but also because it gives me an excuse to make a homemade recipe and blog about it! Sweet!

My friend Vanessa was celebrating her 29th+ birthday (wink wink!) at a Maryland winery and invited her friends and family for a day of picnicking, wine tasting, and enjoying the mid-June weather in a beautiful rural setting. Thanks lady!

I love the usual suspects found at winery picnics: cheese & crackers, cookies, grapes - but since those are all things I try to limit in my diet as much as possible, I wanted to bring something healthy that I could eat and share that would also be refreshing on a hot day. The first thing that came to mind was a fruit salad! Yum!

I make this berry medley on a weekly basis for my boyfriend and I to scoop into our breakfasts - him oatmeal, me chia pudding - so I thought I would use that for the basis of my fruit salad, since berries are my favorite no-brainer-low-glycemic-go-to. A few times I've added herbs to the mix, so bf suggested I do that for this salad, and then I wanted to do something extra spesh in addition to the herbs. That's where the juice idea came in.

In years past, I've tossed fruit salad in sup'ed up orange juice for an extra layer of flavor, but since I'm avoiding OJ, I decided to make my own juice concoction out of ingredients that fit my diet and would be tasty for others as well. Last fall I started making green juice for all of the health benefits it offers, so I have a juicer on hand. If you don't have a juicer, I suggest buying some strawberry nectar or juice from your grocery store. (Usually you can find something like that in the ethnic food section.) Then you can muddle the rest of the ingredients & soak them in the juice for a couple hours in the fridge. Strain out the whole pieces and poof - you have a juice very similar to the one included in my recipe below! See, there are ways around everything :-) The bonus here was that I made enough juice to have extra to enjoy as, well... juice. I poured it into a mason jar and threw it in the cooler/picnic basket with sparkling water and drank it at the winery so I didn't feel left out of a fun drink while everyone was drinking wine. How smart is that?! (Look for that quick recipe at the bottom of the page.)

This salad was bright, cool, and refreshing on the 90 degree day we spent picnicking at the winery, and the leftovers have been a tasty addition to my breakfast this week. So whether you're taking this dish to a get-together, eating it for breakfast, or using it as a topping to swirl into yogurt or ice cream, it's worthwhile to make a big enough batch so that you have plenty for leftovers!

OK let's get juicin'!

Juicy Fruit Salad
Servings: 12
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: n/a

Ingredients:

Juice
1 organic apple, peeled
7 large organic strawberries
1 handful mint leaves
6 large basil leaves
1/2 lime, cut into wedges
1/4 lemon
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled

Salad
2 organic apples, cut into small cubes
5 organic strawberries, sliced
3 double handfuls blueberries
2 handfuls blackberries
1 12 ounce package raspberries
2 large basil leaves, juilenned
4 large mint leaves, julienned
5 ounces juice (recipe above)

Start by adding all of the fruit for the salad to a large bowl.

 Then, make the juice.

Turn on the juicer and add one ingredient at a time.

Once you have the the juice made (this recipe will make about 20 ounces of juice), use a long spoon to stir it so that all layers are combined evenly.

Pour 8 ounces of the juice into a mason jar filling it all of the way to the tippy top. Screw on the lid and immediately store in the fridge.

Pour about five ounces of juice over the fruit salad.

Use a large spoon to toss the fruit in the juice.

I actually made enough juice to drink some right away, and should be the case for you as well. If so, pour the remining 7 ounces or so into a glass and drink with a straw while you put together the rest of the salad.

Now, add the fresh herbs. You can use a sharp knife to julienne the herbs, or you can cut them into the salad using kitchen scissors. I did the latter.

Toss the salad one more time.

Serve as you wish.

If you're taking this to a picnic, place the salad into a food storage container with tight fitting lid. Keep refrigerated/cold until you're ready to serve.

Or you can scoop it out into cute little serving bowls.

Like this!

Salute!

Juicy Mocktail

If you're so inclined, this drink would be great with a shot of plain or flavored vodka or some gin. But it was super tasty on its own, alc-y free!

Ingredients:
5 ounces strawberry juice (recipe above)
3 ounces sparkling water

Simply add the juice to a cocktail glass, and pour the sparkling water over it.

Serve with a wedge of lime squeezed over the top and enjoy!

Salute!