What is a Froodle......?

Apple Fig Fruit Leather Roll Ups

Over the weekend, I had the chance to visit my dear friend, Health Educator/Nutritionist  and author of "The Pantry Principles", Mira Dessy . We had a wonderful time chatting while we toured her beautiful Lakeside home. She has the most amazing orchard guild on her property with several Fig Trees that were loaded with fruit.

We decided to do our own little "Food Swap" ......she shared her delicious figs, fresh basil, blackberry bushes and many seeds from her garden FOR my fermented habanero kraut, kefir, kale chips and my herbed goat cheese.

Fresh Figs and Basil warm from the sun

I had so many ideas of how I wanted to use these beautiful figs. Like the fig and goat cheese tart, that I am making tonight, and a savory jam. But first, in honor of Mira and her "Ingredient Guru" status, I wanted to REcreate something that is a common store bought snack item. One that claims to be a healthy alternative..... Fruit roll ups! (YUCK: loaded with petroleum dyed high fructose corn syrup)

 So, I combined some of the figs with a few organic apples and made a VERY tasty treat. When I was wrapping the roll ups, I decided to play a bit and cut them (with a pizza cutter) into Froodle. This was a snack that I used to make my kids about 5 or 6 years ago. This is a great way to not only preserve seasonal fruit, but to get those picky eaters(Children AND adults)to consume some extra nutrient dense fruits and veggies. Another favorite combination is a banana and spinach leather.....add lemon juice to create a sour patch flavor. Have leftover green smoothies? Mix with an apple or banana,pour and spread onto teflex/nonstick screen, dehydrate at 105 degrees overnight and slice into fruit noodles, using a pizza cutter AKA "Froodle" and enjoy. will keep for a month or more in an air tight container. I have and LOVE my Excalibur 9 Tray Dehydrator- Its 10 years old and still going strong!

This is "Froodle"......!



Hello Monday......!

I hope everyone enjoyed  their long holiday weekend. We stayed so busy working on farm projects for the NEW house, we did not have time to celebrate with the fourth with our friends, family and fireworks. However, we did manage to get away for an evening sunset swim on Saturday. We were invited to enjoy our friends pool while they were away. We enjoyed relaxation and a beautiful bottle of Cab Franc. We went to a movie, on Friday night-- ("Tammy"), it was a total DIVA thumbs up for some silly laughter (best medicine ever for stress). I snuck some garlic pepper cashews and Kombucha soda into the movie, shhhhh......don't tell.  Real foodist deserve to have snacks at the movies too, right?

Hubby made a home made corned beef from a grass fed brisket.....so I did indulge a bit on Sunday with a Gluten Free Rueben, our Three Goats Farm Sauerkraut , raw Swiss cheese, horseradish, olive oil potato chips and a delicious peach vanilla frozen kefir(honey sweetened). And yes, more amazing wine (oops, SUGAR!)

This was a delicious Reuben On GF toasted GF bread (thanks UDI's)

Peach, Vanilla bean and Honey Frozen Kefir (sorry for the poor lighting) trust me that it looked way more beautiful during the few seconds before it was gobbled up.

So, hello Monday and back to my program. I am excited for my workout today-my workout buddy can't make it. So hubby will join me (evil grin). Ya know if you love your Monday, it will love you back!

Breakfast was a very nourishing "balanced breakfast  bowl" ...with high protein Quinoa, egg, spinach, peppers, turmeric,garlic and olive oil! Remember : protein+carb+fat= vitality energy and hormonal harmony!

I will be back later to share some supplement and beauty tips

nourished and ready to rock my week!

In health and happiness,

Melissa The Primitive DIVA

Anti Inflammatory Tea...AKA, Magic!

My workouts this week had left some residual aches and pains....yes, getting old (errrr I mean "older") just takes a bit more magic to recover. I brewed a soothing Ginger, Tumeric, Vanilla Bean and Stevia Leaf Tea. Amazing health benefits of each of these SUPERFOODS! 

In Health and Happiness,

Melissa ~ The Primitive DIVA

Oh, by the way, I found a few benefit summary visuals on Pinterest. I love Pinterest, don't you?  Each has it's source credits listed for you to research further. Thanks for sharing.......LifeHack and Think Healthy Diet!