Celebrating Spring with Strawberries & Blue Cheese

It really is spring! The calendar says so and nature agrees!

Wanting to celebrate, I made a beautiful “spring” salad of baby arugula, strawberries, crumbled blue cheese, and sliced almonds dressed with white balsamic vinegar and flax seed oil. I used a lovely bit of Boucher Family Farm's Madison Blue in the salad -- it's very creamy with great tang. At the moment, one of my favorite blues.

While I made this salad, I founding myself singing Miriam Makeba's "Love Tastes Like Strawberries." I'd never heard of Makeba until I saw her commemorative Google doodle and now I can't get enough. Good thing my library system has a vast and varied music collection!

Banana-Nutmeg Quesadillas

This recipe was my runner up for last week's Improv Challenge post. I'm pleased with how well it came out -- all crunchy, chocolaty, and banana -- and while it didn't curl my toes the way the broiled bananas did, it's well worth a post of its own.

These quesadillas were inspired by a Weight Watchers recipe for "Chocolate-Cinnamon Quesadillas." The directions are pretty much the same, but I shrank the serving size down to one and changed the ingredients a bit.

Banana-Nutmeg Quesadillas
Serves 1.

Ingredients
1 high fiber whole wheat tortilla [Maria & Ricardo's FiberRich Wheat Tortillas]
1 baby banana, sliced
Chocolate nut spread [Trader Joe's Cocoa Almond Spread]
Nutmeg

Directions
Spread chocolate over half of the tortilla. Arrange banana slices over chocolate and sprinkle with nutmeg.



Fold tortilla over to cover ingredients.

Spritz a skillet with cooking spray and set over medium heat. Cook quesadilla about two minutes on each side or until tortilla is speckled with brown spots and filling melts.

Remove from pan. Cut the quesadilla in half, sprinkle with more nutmeg, and eat.

I ate this for breakfast, but it would work perfectly well as a snack or dessert. If serving for dessert, you might want to dress the cooked quesadilla up with a dusting of chocolate powder and a splodge of fresh whipped cream.

Improv Challenge: Bananas & Nutmeg

January's Improv Challenge ingredients were bananas and nutmeg. I knew I wanted to do something simple and fairly straightforward -- something that would let the banana and nutmeg shine. It also needed to be reasonably healthy, because 2013 is my own personal Year for Better Health. And it needed to be quick, because I'm just getting lazier and lazier as the winter progresses.

I want to eat this every morning!

Ended up making a Bananas Foster-esque broiled banana something with banana, nutmeg, maple syrup, walnuts, and cottage cheese. I used baby bananas instead of "regular" bananas, because I saw them in the shop and they were simply so unbelievably adorabs that I couldn't pass them by. Baby bananas are smaller than the common yellow Cavendish banana you find at every grocery store and actually taste a bit sweeter and more complex. Like the "regular" bananas, baby bananas can be eaten raw or cooked.

Behold, Bananas and Mini Bananas!

Broiled Banana Cottage Cheese Plate
Serves 1.

Ingredients
½ tsp ground nutmeg plus more for garnish
2 tsp maple syrup (or honey!)
1 baby banana
1 serving 2% cottage cheese
1 Tbsp crushed toasted walnuts

Directions
Preheat broiler.

Slice banana in half lengthwise. Place halves, flat side up, on greased baking sheet. Brush halves with maple syrup and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Broil bananas for 3-5 minutes or until beautifully browned. Remove from oven.

Place cottage cheese in center of a dessert plate and flank with broiled bananas. Scatter crushed walnuts over cottage cheese and bananas. Drizzle with remaining syrup and sprinkle with more nutmeg.

I really liked how this recipe turned out -- so many great texture and flavor combinations. The warmth of the bananas and the cool of the cottage cheese. The sweetness of the bananas and the salty creaminess of the cottage cheese. The rich maple syrup and the sprightly nutmeg. The smoothness of the bananas and cottage cheese with the crunch of the walnuts. Yum! Look forward to making it again.

Italian Homework: Walnut, Pear, & Gorgonzola Salad

I was all excited to start "Lesson 9: Healthy Italian-Style Salads" in my online Italian cooking class, but then I had a little dental work done and couldn't eat cold, crunchy things for a few weeks. Sheesh. I have preposterously sensitive teeth.

But, except when the wind's blowing northeasterly, my teeth are feeling pretty fine again and so I decided to tackle my salad homework. (Cooking homework is the best homework ever -- if there had been cooking in math class, I would have been a regular teacher's pet and there is actually a lot of math in cooking, you know).

I made "Walnut, Pear, & Gorgonzola Salad," because pears and gorgonzola are just meant to go together. Like peanut butter and jelly or brown sugar and bacon. And, oh my gods, I loved this salad. Loved it. Could happily eat it every day for a week. All the flavors and textures blended together so well and so cleanly that I swear my tastebuds sang with happiness. Salty gorgonzola, grainy pear, crunchy walnuts ... you form a perfect triangle of deliciousness.

You must try this salad.

(Ingredients shown are for a single-serving salad)

Easy Walnut, Pear, & Gorgonzola Salad

Salad Ingredients
4 cups chopped romaine lettuce
2 firm but ripe pears, peeled, cored, and chopped [red anjou pears]
½ cup chopped, shelled walnuts
1 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese [reduced fat]

Dressing Ingredients
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
4 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
½ tsp brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
To make the dressing, put all ingredients into a container with a tight fitting lid. Shake well.

In a large bowl toss all the salad ingredients, except the cheese, together with the dressing.

Place the gorgonzola in a mound in the center of the salad and serve. Goes well with crusty rolls.

Serves 4

Yes, you could substitute your favorite balsamic vinaigrette for the scratch dressing, but why? It only takes a minute to throw together and tastes pretty darn good.

Italian Homework: Easy Appetizers

I’m taking an introductory Italian cooking class through an online learning service, Universal Class, offered by my public library. It’s all self-paced and I have six months to complete the course. So far, the lessons have all be about the factual rather than practical. I’ve learned a little bit about the different regions of Italy and their culinary specialties, the basic staples of an Italian kitchen, and whatnot. Some of it I already knew -- I was weaned on PBS cooking shows, you know -- but it was a good refresher and filled in some gaps.

Anyway, I’m on “Lesson 4: Easy Italian Appetizers” and finally got to cook! I had to make two appetizers -- one hot, one cold. Being lazy, I chose to go the simple route and make melon wedges wrapped in prosciutto for the cold appetizer:

Slice a melon in half. Remove and discard the seeds and cut the melon into eighths. Carefully cut the rinds away from each slice then wrap each melon slice with one slice of prosciutto. Plate prettily. Nom.

It was good, but a sprinkle of fresh ground pepper and drizzle of balsamic vinegar made it better! The combination of sweet-salt-spicy-sour was delicious and I wish I'd been eating this dish all summer.

For my hot appetizer, I went with roasted garlic on toast rounds, because it’s cheap and easy. Also, I love garlic. And bread. And garlic bread ...

Whack the top off 2 heads of garlic so the tops of the cloves are exposed. Place each head in the center of a square of tinfoil, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with a little sea salt. Wrap foil loosely around heads, put on a cookie sheet, and bake at 450°F for 50 min. Drain the oil into a storage container (fab stuff for dipping bread or using in a salad dressing, by the way). Scoop the garlic cloves out of the head and spread on slices of toasted baguette. Nom!

For this dish, I used a crusty carmelized-garlic loaf I picked up at Hill-Stead's Farmers Market. It was baked by Wave Hill Breads and was studded with cloves of roasted garlic. Combined with the roasted garlic heads, it was totes fab. Really. I served it with a hearty beef stew, but I would have been happy just eating it all on its own.

As I said, I have six months to finish the course, but I’m already itching to get it done -- not because I’m not enjoying it (I am so enjoying it!), but because I really want to sign up for “Spanish Cooking 101,” “Tex-Mex Cooking 101,” and “How to Bake Pies.” I want to make tortilla española and awesome chimichangas, and get over my fear of scratch-made pie crusts. While I am allowed to take five classes at a time, I’m not silly enough to believe I could cope with more than two and I’m currently also taking “Bird Watching 101.” Yes, bird watching. Because birds are also totes fab.

But so is pie!

Improv Challenge: Almonds & Cherries

For June’s Improv Challenge, I decided to go simple and easy with salad. Oh, I’d had plans to bake something sweet and splendid -- cherry Bakewell tartlets or King Arthur Flours’s cherry frangipane tarts, maybe -- but when it came down to it, I found myself craving something fresh and savory. Something very much like this salad:

Isn't it pretty? And delicious, too. Crunchy almonds, sweet cherries, tart blue cheese ... I could eat it all week.

There are two steps (and two meals) to making this recipe -- first, you make oven-fried chicken tenders in almond meal. Then you make this salad with the leftover chicken. Obviously, you could use any old leftover chicken, but the almond flour crusted chicken tenders give this salad a certain je ne sais quoi. Also, they are pretty yummy.

Almond Flour-Crusted Chicken Tenders

Ingredients

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp Penzeys salt-free Sunny Spain seasoning blend (black pepper, lemon peel, garlic, and onion)
1 cup almond flour
1 cup panko

Instructions

Whisk buttermilk and seasoning blend together. Pour over chicken strips. Toss to coat. Marinade overnight in fridge.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a baking rack on a jelly roll pan and spray rack with nonstick spray.

Whisk together almond flour and panko.

Remove chicken from buttermilk mixture and coat chicken, one piece at a time, in bread crumb mixture.

Place chicken pieces on prepared rack and bake 15-20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Serve your chicken with oven-roasted corn on the cob and potato salad. Or use it to top a caesar salad. Or what have you. Just make sure to set some aside for later ...

Cherry Almond Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Diced leftover chicken tenders
Chopped garden lettuce
Blue cheese crumbles
Fresh cherries, halved and pitted
Flaked almonds
Lucini Italia Cherry Balsamic & Rosemary Vinaigrette
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss gently to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I know, I know. I haven't listed any amounts. How much chicken? How many cherries? As much or as little as you like, my darlings. It's salad. It's forgiving.

I dressed this salad with some of the Lucini Italia Cherry Balsamic & Rosemary Vinaigrette that I was lucky enough to find at Whole Foods. I'd actually gone to Whole Foods for a jar of sour cherry preserves to make my own vinaigrette using Panera's recipe, but this was easier. And probably just as delicious.

I am trying my hand at homemade cherry vinegar using Signature Dish's recipe for "Spicy Cherry Vinegar," because I happen to have all the ingredients on hand and making my own flavored vinegar feels just pioneer girl-ish enough to tempt me.

Simple & Delicious Dessert

Strawberries and kiwi tossed together with a smidge of sugar (or Splenda, if that's how you roll). That's it. Delicious.

Improv Challenge: Strawberries & Cream

After all the grilled cheese sandwiches we ate for May's Crazy Cooking Challenge, I wanted something light for this month's Improv Challenge hosted by Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. Feeling a little guilty over my complete lack of sticktoitiveness vis-à-vis Weight Watchers, I modified their recipe for "Spring Berries with Whipped Ricotta Cream" and found it good.

Spring Berries with Whipped Ricotta Cream
Based on a Weight Watchers' recipe

Ingredients
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
1 cup raspberries
¼ cup Sprite Zero (or a sparkling white wine?!)
1 Tbsp fresh mint leaves, rolled and sliced à la chiffonade
½ cup light ricotta cheese
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest + more for garnish
2 Tbsp light sour cream

(The original Weight Watchers' recipe uses all fat-free dairy, but I'm not a fan and stuck with the light versions).

Instructions
Toss the berries with 2 tablespoons of soda or wine and mint; set aside for 10 minutes.


Combine ricotta, lemon zest and remaining soda or wine; whip until light and fluffy. Gently fold in sour cream. Divide berry mixture evenly between 4 small bowls and top each a dollop of cream. Garnish with mint leaves and extra zest, if desired.

You could, of course, use any combination of berries -- a mixture of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blue berries, and red currants might be nice. Regardless, you want to use good, ripe berries as the whipped ricotta cream is creamy and lemony, but not at all sweet so the sweetness (or tartness) of the berries really shines through.

Cooking The Books: The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook

I brought The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook home from the library over the weekend and I have mixed feelings about it. It's rather contrived, trying way too hard to explain how every single recipe slots into The Hunger Games universe -- the description for "Hazelle's Beaver Stew with Rosemary Potatoes" goes too far by claiming "the beaver represents hard work and family." Dude. Sometimes a beaver is just a piece of meat. And where does a good suburban cook get beaver, anyway?

(She wants to know where to get some beaver) *snickers*

Ahem.

Hokiness aside, I must admit I am seriously enjoying cooking from The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook. So far, I have made two recipes -- "Pimm's Sweet Goat Cheese Salad" and "From Casual to Formal: Fruit Nut Spread At The Capitol Banquet." To me, they are both spring dishes and would work well served at an Easter or Mother's Day brunch. They're also reasonably healthful so you can feel righteous while eating them.

"Prim's Sweet Goat Cheese Salad"

Ingredients: romaine, blueberries, raspberries, dried cranberries, sunflower seed kernels, chopped pecans, goat cheese crumbles, white balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, olive oil.

Combine white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and maple syrup.

Toss the salad ingredients together. Drizzle with vinaigrette. Say "Ohhhh, pretty!" and eat. So good!

"From Casual to Formal: Fruit Nut Spread At The Capitol Banquet"

Ingredients: raspberries and blueberries, almonds, cream cheese, maple-flavored yoghurt.

Run everything through your food processor until creamy and smooth.

Serve smeared on bagels or flat bread.

I made my spread with light cream cheese and low-fat yogurt and it's really quite good -- light, creamy, and full of berry goodness. It makes a nice change from regular cream cheese and is probably a lot healthier than the berry-flavored cream cheese spread you can buy at the market. I've been eating it for breakfast, smeared on toasted VitaBuns, with some extra berries on the side.

Will I be making more recipes from The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook? You betcha. Looking forward to "Fresh From the Careers' Package: Super Healthy Dried Fruit Quinoa Salad" and "Survival of the Fittest: Quinoa and Black Bean Salad For Bonnie and Twill" among others.

An Adoration of Kumquats

sweet pulp and sour skin --
or was it sweet outside, and sour within?
For however many kumquats that I eat
I'm not sure if it's flesh or rind that's sweet,
and being a man of doubt at life's mid-way
I'd offer Keats some kumquats and I'd say:

You'll find that one part's sweet and one part's tart:
say where the sweetness or the sourness start. 

            -- from "A Kumquat for John Keats" by Tony Harrison in the anthology Eat, Drink, and Be Merry:             Poems About Food and Drink (Everyman's Library, 2003)

Last week, I tried kumquats for the first time. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the idea of eating any citrus fruit in its entirety -- just pop it in my mouth and chew it up like a grape -- seemed a little weird. And, texturally, it was a little weird but the flavor was excellent. First a burst of bitter lemon, then a sharp orange burst, then a just generalized sweet-tart deliciousness that filled my mouth with the promise of summer.

Still, I did not think I would be able to eat them all whole or raw and turned to the internetz for recipes. And the internetz were very good to me, for the first recipe I found was Beyond Salmon's "Spinach with Kumquats." Excepting spinach, I had all the ingredients on hand and what's a quick trip to the grocery store when a promising new recipe is in play?

Oh, I am so glad I tried this recipe. Full of fresh, bright flavors, the spinach tasted fabulous. My jaded winter tongue could not get enough of the sweet-tart kumquats, zesty lemon, and sweet raisins. I served the spinach with marinated chicken breasts and Basmati rice, but I think I would have been just as happy skipping the chicken and serving a big scoop of it over rice. Yes, it was that good.

Note to self: acquire more kumquats.

The Savor of Mango

February's selection from Melissa's Exotic Fruit club arrived last week and it was ... Ataulfo mangoes! Delicious Ataulfo mangoes. Exquisite Ataulfo mangoes. Addictive Ataulfo mangoes. Seriously, I love a good mango as much as the next girl, but these mangoes ... I couldn't stop eating them. Eight mangoes in four days, darlings, and when I saw a bin of them at Whole Foods (not as pretty as Melissa's, mind you) my heart leapt to know I could get more of them. Yes, my taste buds are seriously in love with these mangoes.

Ataulfo mangoes are also known as champagne or honey mangoes and for good reason -- these mangoes are deep gold when ripe and very sweet, with a rich almost buttery flavor that makes taste buds swoon.

What's up next for Melissas's? Sadly, not more mangoes. Instead, I get to try Cherimoyas!(?).

Behold! The Adorable Baby Pineapples of Antioch!

January's selection from Melissa's Exotic Fruit club arrived last week and it was ... baby pineapples! Adorable baby pineapples. If the crowns weren't so darn prickly, I'd be tempted to cuddle the wee things. Seriously, aren't they cute? (Also, for some unfathomable reason, they make me want to quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail whenever I look at them).

Not the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
While The Husband tried to feed me some nonsense about how they're to be eaten rind and all, he was clearly confused (he also thought they came from trees). Because the baby pineapples are so small, the cores are quite tender and can be eaten, but the crown and rind cannot. The core is firmer than the surrounding flesh and reminded me a bit of eating a crisp apple.

These baby pineapples were delicious and we ate them up, yum! Can't wait for February's selection from Melissa's exotic fruit club -- blood oranges! (Blood oranges and satsuma mandarins are my favorite citrus fruits).

First Cake of '12

Started 2012 on a sweet note with "Raspberry Buttermilk Cake" from the June 2009 Gourmet.  This is  a dynamite emergency cake for those days when you crave a fast, fruity, homemade cake. What? You never have cake emergencies? Well, we have them a lot in our house! Cake goes with everything, you see. So everything needs cake.

Although the recipe calls for vanilla extract, I used Cook's pure red raspberry extract for extra raspberry-ness. You could just as easily use orange or almond or what have you depending on the kind of berry you use in the cake. Yes, it's officially "Raspberry Buttermilk Cake," but there's no reason it couldn't be blackberry or cranberry, instead. The recipe is a forgiving one -- just mess about and make what you like!

While still warm from the oven, we ate this cake plain and then, when properly cooled, with vanilla ice cream and more raspberries. It's good either way. A lot depends on whether you're eating it as breakfast or as dessert.

Feijoas, The End

For my last feijoa dish, I made Frieda's "Feijoa-Chicken Curry" which was a very simple, straightforward recipe that took almost no time to prepare. I used Penzeys "Maharajah Style" curry powder which is a mild, almost sweet, salt-free curry with a scent so intoxicating that I'd happily buy it as perfume! Seriously, it's good stuff. (Sometimes, I just open the jar and take a long sniff. Do the same thing with cinnamon -- chases the blahs right away).

Ingredients: chicken, carrots, red bell pepper, onion, garlic, feijoas, curry powder, salt, black pepper, allspice, cornstarch, low-sodium chicken broth.

I served the curry on a bed of quick-cooking barley and it was pretty darn delicious. I didn't garnish the curry with raisins or shredded coconut as it didn't seem to need it.

The Husband won't eat curry or dishes that combine fruit with meat, so I took the curry to work for lunch all week and didn't mind a bit, because it was that omnomnomdelicious. Indeed, I looked with sadness on the empty bowl Thursday evening and wished I had more feijoas so I could make another batch!

Of the three feijoa dishes I made, this was certainly the best. If you have feijoas, I recommend making Frieda's "Feijoa-Chicken Curry."

And that's it for feijoas. It's been interesting, but I'm ready to move on to January's selection from Melissa's exotic fruit club -- baby pineapples!

Frosty Feijoas

For my second foray into Feijoa Land, I modified a recipe I found on the Sloat Garden Center Blog for "Feijoa Smoothie." I know my photo shows honey, but I omitted it as I decided the ice cream would provide enough sweetness. I also used less milk and more ice cream than the original recipe to give my drink a more shake-like consistency.

Feijoa Shake

2 feijoas
1 cup milk
1 single serve cup Häagen-Dazs vanilla

Cut feijoas in half and scoop out the flesh. Blend all ingredients together using an immersion blender. Drink.

The shake smelled strongly of feijoa -- a perfumy blend of honeysuckle and pine -- but tasted mostly of vanilla. The flesh of the feijoa gave the shake a slightly gritty texture which was a little weird. Overall, it wasn't a bad shake, but I'm not rushing to make another one from my remaining feijoas.

I must admit I'm having a grand time with my immersion blender. I keep wondering how I got by without it and everything is starting to look blendable. Indeed, this has become my cry:

Fiddling with Feijoas

December's selection from Melissa's Exotic Fruit club arrived last week and it was ... Feijoas! Feijoas??

Feijoas, also known as "pineapple guavas" or "guavasteens," are an egg-shaped citrus fruit with a pear-like texture and a creamy, apple-ish flavor. They smell faintly of pine and honeysuckle. Rather like with a kiwi, the skin is not eaten but the seeds are and I ate my first feijoa the same way I would a kiwi -- sliced it in half and spooned out the insides. It was an interesting taste experience and I wouldn't have minded eating three or for more, but I'd been sent a case of sixteen! What could I do with these feijoas that would help me eat them up before they went bad?

This, for starters:

I made a batch of "Simple Feijoa Sauce" from Sloat Garden Center's Blog. I marinated a pork tenderloin in it for the better part of a day, then roasted the pork in a 425°F oven for about 25 minutes. I served the pork with noodles and buttery carrots.  The feijoas gave the sauce a mild apple-y flavor which I enjoyed, but the seeds made it a little gritty which I wasn't that keen on. The Husband thought the pork tasted like cherries, so ... not something I'd make again.

The sauce was very easy to make:

Halve four feijoas and scoop out their insides.

Blend.

Add brown sugar & mustard. Blend all the things!

Smear all over pork tenderloin and let sit.

11 feijoas to go! What's next? Curry!

Apples in My Slow Cooker

A few weeks ago, I picked up a big bag of Mutsu (aka Crispin) apples at the last Hill-Stead Farmers Market. Mutsu apples are one of my favorite apples as they're good for both eating and cooking. Also, they're simply enormous and one apple goes a long way ... which is probably why I still have so many left! Or, had, as I made apple sauce earlier today using a combination of Mutsu and Gala apples.

I love making applesauce in my slow cooker. There are only four ingredients and the method is entirely foolproof!

Easy Slow Cooker Apple Sauce

Ingredients
9 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
2 tsp grated ginger (or 2 frozen cubes)
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup water

Directions
Dump everything in the slow cooker; cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours. Stir until the biggest chunks break up. Eat.

I rather overfilled my slow cooker, but the lid still fit and I knew the apples would cook down a lot. (The instruction book says not to fill the slow cooker insert more than two-thirds full, but I regularly disregard this when making things like soups and sauces).

While this applesauce is good on its own cold, it's very nice warm with a splodge of whipped cream or poured over plain Greek yoghurt. Probably good over French vanilla ice cream, too ...

Saucy Pears

I bought too many pears at the Hill-Stead Farmers Market last week and haven't been able to eat them all before they started getting brown, squishy spots. I needed a quick way to use them up before they went off that didn't involve muffins or cake. A way that would leave their essential "pearness" intact. In short, I needed to make pear sauce.

To make my sauce, I modified the "Pear Sauce" recipe from the Washington State Department of Health and was very pleased with how well my sauce turned out. It was economical, easy, and delicious.

I peeled, cored, and chopped eight pears. Then combined them in a bowl with ¼ cup water, 1 packet Splenda, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Covered the bowl and microwaved the pears on HIGH for 6 minutes.

Then I stirred the pears, covered them back up, and microwaved them on HIGH for 6 more minutes. When the pears where done, I mashed them a little to break up the bigger chunks.

I found the sauce was still plenty sweet this way and might, next time, completely omit a sweetener. Also, I was a little concerned about how soupy the sauce was when it came out of the microwave the second time, but it thickened up quite nicely when I mashed it.

This recipe filled three 1.25-cup storage containers. I plan on eating it slightly warmed over plain low-fat Greek yoghurt for breakfast or dessert.