Simple Recipe: Fresh Fruit and Yogurt Salad

In an effort to give myself incentive to get both Luna and I up, dressed, and interacting with people on the weekends, when we actually made it to a church service during Keith’s home time a few weeks ago, I signed up to bring fruit, hot chocolate packets, green tea bags, and honey to the potluck today. Somehow I managed to miss the reason for the potluck being the Annual Business Meeting.

I have been really struggling with insomnia, evening fatigue, stiffness, and pain. So, reasonable and appropriate bedtime routines and sleep times (by society’s expectations and standards) do not happen for Miss Luna and me. Therefore, being up and out the door to attend 9:00 am service across the street is more often a miss than a hit. I figured if I signed up to contribute something, I would make extra effort to ensure we would be there, regardless of whatever else was going on.

One of the ladies from the church and I actually discussed it and she agreed to take me to the store, yesterday, so I would have extra motivation to follow through. She called to confirm a few days ago and we set the time. We were low on food and the kitchen needed to be cleaned in order to actually cook anything, but it was a high fatigue day yesterday and I managed to neglect Luna’s and my nutritional needs because I thought we were going to get to go to the store about two hours earlier than we actually did, because the lovely lady who gave us a ride to the store had to work later than I remember her telling me she did. Consequently, Luna was irritable and crabby, while I was developing a hunger migraine and hypoglycemic shakiness. Note to self: Establish a regular feeding schedule for both our sakes.

We wound up at Fred Meyer. It has recently been remodeled and was very bright and beautiful inside, looking fresh, open, and inviting. I truly enjoy the fact they have Playland, on-site, free, childcare so parents can shop while kids get to play and socialize. Win/Win. Luna loves it too and was excited to be there. Our first stop though, was the deli where I got her some popcorn chicken and myself a piece of Hawaiian chicken with a little bit of rice, so I wasn’t shopping on an empty stomach with a headache and so Luna would be less likely to be anti-social with any other children who may be present.

Then it was time to do the shopping. Fruit for the potluck. I had it in my head that I would maybe spend $10 for a pre-cut fruit tray. Um, yeah, THAT didn’t happen. Apparently, in order to finance the remodel the pre-cut fruit trays and mixed fruit bowls now range from almost $12 – nearly $20 and they aren’t monitored and changed out enough to ensure the cut fruit actually stays fresh. *sigh*

So, produce shopping it was: Bananas, Blueberries, Raspberries, Red Seedless Grapes and Strawberries. I wound up with more fruit than I planned and probably spent close to $20 – $25 on the fruit itself. However, I figured there would be plenty left over for Luna to feast on during this next week. I decided I would combine the fruit into a salad instead of doing a fruit tray. I still had some of the easy peel Clementine Oranges and the Yoplait Simplait Strawberry yogurt at home. I think I spent about 20 minutes this morning slicing strawberries and bananas, rinsing and draining blueberries and grapes, and peeling and separating orange segments. Then I stirred it all together with a 6 oz container of the yogurt.

Ingredients

3/4 c. Fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained

2 c. Fresh strawberries, rinsed, drained, and sliced

1 c. Red seedless grapes, rinsed and drained

2 Medium Bananas, sliced

1/2 c. Fresh raspberries, rinsed and drained

3 Clementine oranges, peeled and segmented

1 6 oz container Strawberry yogurt

Directions: Combine all fruit into large bowl, stir in yogurt until all fruit is evenly coated

Since the meeting happened before the potluck and Luna is as inquisitive, creative, verbal, and social as my other two were when they were little, having her and her other little friends play “quietly” during the meeting was unsuccessful and I wound up bringing her home before we could eat with the rest of the church community. I had plenty of fruit leftover, so I made another salad, minus the strawberries and we ate that. Rather, I ate it. Luna likes yogurt and the fruit, but prefers to eat them separately instead of mixed together. She’s such a picky eater.

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