Strawberries and other fruit for that matter!

When I graduated from 9th grade, my parents gave me a big cook book of international cuisine. The index was illustrated and I remember spending hours looking at all the pictures curious what those recipes would taste like. I would pick some to try and had lots of fun creating foods from all over the world. I remember looking at the dessert section for long periods of time. I tried several of those recipes: cakes, ice creams, pies, pastries, breads, you name it. But I remember having a hard time making desserts that required strawberries.

They were probably the ones what I wanted to try the most, but every time I bought strawberries, I ended up just eating them without using them in the recipe. 

Yesterday I was preparing strawberries for a fruit salad when I remembered my recipe book and me never trying one of those strawberries' recipes. I thought it was interesting that I just ate the strawberries instead of using them in cakes or ice creams. Thinking back, it was probably best that I had done it this way. Eating the strawberries plain, I could enjoy their natural flavor more than if I had hidden that wonderful taste behind all the sugar, butter, and milk that most recipes use.

And you know, natural is always better. And easier! I had to wash them anyway. By just eating them plain, I didn't have to go through the extra work of adding all the other ingredients and could enjoy all the wonderful nutrients without adding any sugar or fat. 

This is making me even more motivated to eat more simple foods in their natural state. Fruit is nature's natural dessert plus it's filled with vitamins and antioxidants that are so important to our health. 

I'd like to encourage you to take advantage of this wonderful resource of health that is so easily available to us. Make a big fruit salad and eat that for your supper, eat a piece or two of fruit with your breakfast or as dessert after lunch, add it to fruit smoothies. Indulge yourself in fruit in its most pure form. If you can get organic great, but if not that's ok too. Just make sure you don't add any extras that will make your beautiful fruit unhealthy. Indulge in its most pure form: natural and fresh. Can't get any simpler than that!