How about something crazy like fruit salad? (Day 85)

No, really.

I've been trying to eat more fruit. What that meant up until recently is making smoothies and figuring out ways to make puddings with bananas, avocados, dates, and frozen fruit, and of course banana nice cream. And while I can get my son to consume smoothies as well, we ran into an issue a few weeks ago when we discovered that he's allergic to berries as well as tree nuts. Therefore I started buying other fruits, like pineapples, apples, and oranges, among others. (Don't even say the word "mango" in front of my son; that was one of the first things we discovered he couldn't eat, and now we're forbidden from bringing it into the house.)

My son basically mirrors my husband, although he can at least eat pistachios and cashews. (Weirdly, this is the opposite of one of my nieces, so nuts are off the menu for any hypothetical meal. Oh right, they already were since my younger daughter is also allergic to every nut but Brazil nuts. Anyway!) So I started buying more of the fruits I know he can eat and likes, including grapes and melons (though he definitely likes the former more than the latter). 

Nice thing about many of those fruits is that they're easy to hold to pack (and so are the berries). So when I knew I had to be out last Tuesday, I packed a jar of fruit (and nuts--it was just for me) and brought along two oranges. And then I was totally satisfied and didn't need to spend unreasonable amounts of money on a snack.

On Thursday I had to go to an unplanned doctor's appointment, and though I had some oranges, I was still hungry. Thus did I break down and spend $4.80 on about 3/4 cup worth of fruit salad...and then realized I had a good number of those ingredients at home. So, obviously, when I got home, I made myself a fruit salad which was better than what I'd bought. (This isn't because I'm so fabulous in the kitchen; this is because most of what you buy outside is just not that good.)

I ate it. I enjoyed it. I shared it. My husband ate it. By last night it was gone, so I had to have another. Which meant that our special trip today was sourcing fruit so I could make another. Grapes, watermelon, pineapple (!), blueberries, and of course, oranges and dates. All "marinated" with lime juice. (And yes, I totally wished for another fruit that could have gotten me a little more of a purple feel, but we'll take this and call it a win.)

 

 

I remembered reading in The American Vegetarian Cookbook decades ago the idea to create a sauce or "dressing" for fruit salads. That was a little more trouble than my younger self could handle, but after years making nut milk and smoothies, no problem. After boiling down the pineapple core and ginger to make an unsweetened syrup, I blended that with cashews, two dates, and some frozen strawberries, and voila! Not that the fruit salad needed it, but I admit it gave me a thrill to dress it up (and tasted good). And since I can't stand wasting anything, I blended the bit of dressing I couldn't get out of the blender with some almond milk and ice to have a "shake" with my salad.

 

And it was delicious.

That, really, is my point. I have this vague feeling that if I haven't been "had", I've been poorly served by the trend to make fruit and nuts into things I might have missed (you know, because up until people wanted to eat a whole foods vegan diet they were all eating ice cream, cake, and cookies at every meal). I mean, yes, it's nice to know that I can still have those things, but I think it would do everything more good to emphasize actually *eating* the fruits (and occasional nuts if you're not allergic), rather than going to a lot of trouble to make them look like something else. I keep hearing myself ask "where is the money in that?", and maybe that's it. But I also wonder to what extent people just don't eat fruit, period, and don't have the experience to draw on for reference--or recommendation.

It's something of a luxury to eat fruit--I get that for multiple reasons, and I think it's tragic, ridiculous, and outrageous. I'm going to try to honor my food--and the people who have more trouble accessing it than I do--and enjoy it more and more as fruit, not something it's not. That feels better to me--and did I mention that it's delicious?

Deb in the City