Tag: raspberry chia jam

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Honey-Glazed Peaches (Only 4 Ingredients!)

By Rachel Druckenmiller

On August 24, 2014

In Clean Eating, Dairy-Free, Paleo, Recipes

I love simple recipes.

And peaches.

Satisfyingly sweet and dripping with juicy goodness, peaches are nature’s candy.

They’re delicious on their own but even better in recipes.

Today’s recipe for roasted, honey-glazed peaches is so easy, you’re going to want to try it this week!

Roasting food in the oven creates depth of flavor and helps all of the ingredients meld together to create mouthwatering dishes.

This is especially true of vegetables…and even fruit! Ever had baked apples or pears or a fruit crisp or crumble? If you answered, “yes,” then you know what I mean!

I recently baked an ooey gooey triple berry peach crumble and was inspired to try something super simple by just using peaches as the main ingredient.

I didn’t know what to expect but was very pleased by the result! When my parents were over for dinner the other night, I served this for dessert, and they raved about it!

I made a raspberry chia jam (also simple & only 4 ingredients) earlier this week, and you could put a nice dollop of that on top, but I opted for coconut milk whipped cream (3 ingredients!) 🙂

Honey-Glazed Baked Peaches

Ingredients for 4 servings

2 ripe peaches, cut in half, pit removed
2 teaspoons coconut oil, melted OR 2 teaspoons grass-fed butter, melted (Kerry Gold brand is sold in almost every major grocery store and is grass-fed)
1.5 tablespoons honey (or other sweetener, such as coconut sugar, 100% pure maple syrup, or raw honey)
Sprinkle of ground cinnamon, to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Stir the coconut oil and honey together in a small bowl.
Place the peaches cut-side up in a baking dish lined with parchment paper (to prevent sticking!). Fill each peach cavity with the mixture and sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the flesh has softened and the tops are browned. Check halfway through cooking and baste the top of the peach halves with the melted mixture in the middle, so it seeps in.
Serve warm, with the toppings of your choice. I used coconut milk whipped cream (click for the recipe). SO good!

Click the link above for how to make coconut milk whipped cream!

Easy Raspberry Chia Jam (+ Our Trip to an Organic Berry Farm!)

By Rachel Druckenmiller

On August 18, 2014

In Clean Eating, Dairy-Free, Paleo, Recipes

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately and unseasonably mild for a Maryland August.

Bill and I were home for the first weekend in over a month, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and took a scenic drive out to Hybridoma Organic Fruit Farm in Baldwin, Maryland to pick raspberries and blackberries.

Anna, a friend of mine from church, who is also into food and healthy living and has helped me with some photography, told me about the farm and how much we would love it. She and some other moms had gone to the farm several times with their kids to pick berries.

When we arrived at the farm, we were greeted by Kiki, a young girl who was offering samples of her homemade granola made with products grown on the farm. I love seeing children having an appreciation for food and where it comes from at such a young age!

After sampling the blueberry granola (which was delicious), we were welcomed by Robert Hamilton, one of the farm’s owners who runs the farm as a hobby outside of his full-time job as the Director of Dermatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Johns Hopkins Bayview.

His kind, humble and unpretentious demeanor wouldn’t have led us to realize we were talking to someone as accomplished as he is. I plan to interview him in the coming weeks to learn more about how he ended up owning and running such a remarkable business in the midst of the pressure to leave small organic farming in the dust in favor of more large scale, industrial, conventional farming.

I’ve watched two documentaries recently (King Corn and Fresh) and am in the middle of reading Michael’s Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and both the movies and book have given me a heightened appreciation for what goes into organic farming. More on that later!

Back to the berries 🙂

As I’ve written before, I love raspberries. They’ve been my favorite fruit since I was a kid, and I try to take advantage of them for the short time they’re in season locally. (Check out this recipe for tart & tangy raspberry lime popsicles posted earlier this summer!).

Throwback! Had to recreate one of my favorite pictures from my childhood holding none other than a cup of…raspberries!

Bill and I spent about 2 hours filling our green buckets with almost 5 pounds of organic raspberries and blackberries, dodging buzzing bees and beetles along the way, sure signs that there were no synthetic pesticides/insecticides/herbicides or other harmful chemicals coating the plants.

It was such a peaceful calming morning, where the only thing you’re thinking about is which leaf to lift to find the biggest, ripest, juiciest berries.

There’s something special about seeing where your food comes from, knowing that it was grown safely, picking it yourself, and then (of course!) eating it.

When I returned home with over 3 pounds of raspberries and nearly 2 pounds of blackberries, I had to start thinking about what to make.

My loot! 5 pounds of berries!

I was busy in the kitchen as a result of all of the berry picking! Coming later this week are recipes for a blackberry blast smoothie and a better-than-store-bought raspberry vinaigrette.

For starters, I opted to try a variation of a jam I made earlier this year that used rhubarb and used raspberries instead (and tweaked it a bit!).

You can use this raspberry jam however you would use regular bottled jam. Stir it into oatmeal, add it to a smoothie, drizzle on top of 2-minute banana ice cream, or smear it on top of a muffin! 🙂

The possibilities are endless!

It is ridiculously simple to make and is sweet, tart and tangy…just like a raspberry jam should be!

Homemade Raspberry Chia Jam

Ingredients

1 cup fresh (or frozen) raspberries
1 tablespoon raw honey (more if you prefer a sweeter jam)
Juice from 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons chia seeds (I buy mine at Trader Joe’s or Home Goods for the lowest price, or you can get them online. By the way, the original recipe calls for white chia seeds, but black chia seeds are fine!)

Click here for the full recipe from A House in the Hills.