Fruit Inspired International Fare

Colorful Plates for Every Meal of the Day

We are deep in the mid-winter doldrums and it’s the perfect time to check in on your nutrition.

Are you meeting your serving requirements for fruits and vegetables?

Have you been relying on a fruit cup as an afterthought to accompany a meal in an effort to meet your servings?

Worse yet, have you been thinking of blueberries and other fruits as simply a garnish rather than a valuable featured ingredient in your meals?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, it’s time to jolt your thinking from same-old to colorful-new.

We’ve highlighted the unusual and the exotic in recipes that take their inspiration from all over the globe to create nutritious and indulgent meals with an international twist. These recipes, some of which are new arrivals to WildBlueberries.com (recipe-central for unique, nutritious mealtime ideas), will jump start your mid-winter cooking ennui. They feature the powerfully antioxidant-rich wild blueberries (in addition to some other fruits and vegetables) in a way that showcases their versatility, color and palatability.

Starting with an all-American breakfast and ending with a captivating dessert from a country known for its extraordinary cuisine, we’ve constructed the ideal day of international wonders on a plate. All dishes are easy to make and feature real food, along with some underappreciated tastes. Of course, this is just and example of how you can infuse your meals with a little dynamism – search through other wild blueberry recipes by meal and occasion and fill your days with intercontinental delish.

Have a delicious trip!


Breakfast:  Sweet Wild Blueberry Omelet Rolls

Start the day in the States! This is not your grandmother’s egg dish, but they are still quintessentially American. Farm-fresh eggs and wild blueberries from a Maine or Canadian barren come together to appeal to your early AM sweet tooth. It’s a unique take on a breakfast roll-up that gets your day going with a serving of fruit right from the starting line.

Lunch: Mini-Naans with Wild Blueberry Pear Marmalade

We love this Indian-inspired dish: Low-fat yogurt and a colorful pear and wild blueberry marmalade makes a wonderful light lunch or snack (perfect to follow a breakfast of satisfying omelet rolls) in conjunction with homemade min-naans (made ahead – there will be rising). It’s a perfectly on-trend dish, as naan is a popular side or pizza foundation for those who love it and want to save calories (they can run under 100, depending on the size).

Snack: Kumara Crisps with Wild Blueberry Vanilla Chili Marmalade

Discover New Zealand’s sweet potato – a bright yellow gem from down under, it is known to be rich in antioxidants and high in vitamins, and it provides a nutritionally-rich snack in salads and as a side. This unique recipe, which requires peeling, slicing and frying (or baking), satisfies a need for chips in a delicious new way, especially when paired with a yogurt-based dip.

Salad: Quinoa Salad with Wild Blueberries

Quinoa, with its South American origins, is the food of the moment, lauded for its nutritive value. It enlivens this salad recipe which ends in an geographically eclectic mash-up thanks to the inclusion of zucchini and complement of Havarti and baguette. Say si, oui or you betcha to this healthy, hearty, veggie-rich salad with a zing of blue.

Dinner: Tandoori Chicken Sticks with Wild Blueberry Fig Sauce

Figs get there due in this light-fare recipe and make an ideal fruit combo in a dish that takes us East. This is an easy, low-fat entrée that wakes up dull chicken by skewering and bathing it in healthy, vibrant fruit.


Beverage: Wild Blueberry Caipirinha

Looking for a Brazilian kick? Look no further than a Wild Blueberry Caipirinh. Leveraging the health benefits of wild blueberry juice (not to mention the taste) with the exotic cachaça, a Brazilian liquor popular in tropical drinks, this cocktail is a fun, colorful way to start a special meal. At 180 calories, it’s a special addition to a diet built on moderation, not deprivation. 

Dessert: Wild Blueberry Mascarpone Semifreddo

For dessert, head to Italy with a gorgeous, indulgent semifreddo awash in bright color. With a hint of chocolate, a generous helping of marscapone, and garnished with pistachios, wild blueberries and mint, this dessert takes fruit to a whole new level of amazing.  What a way to kick off a color-inspired, transnational meal!

Find more recipes for breakfast, snacks, entrées, drinks and desserts that include wild blues and array of colorful fruits and ingredients.

Recipe Round Up Part II

Last Minute Favorites for a Healthy, Delicious Thanksgiving 

There’s simply no excuse for not incorporating sweet, delicious, healthy foods into your holiday meal this year. Sure, plenty of Thanksgiving recipes pack in the calories, but forking up some lesser-known ingredients and unsung vegetables could be worth it if it helps you expand your food relationships all year. Besides, there IS a way to enjoy this food-infused celebration and maintain your health goals.

We don’t expect you to strip all the skin off your turkey, or forgo your favorite pie. But while you’re gearing up for the onslaught of food, you can keep your head.  Here’s our favorite nuggets of (realistic) advice to keep your health on the front burner during for the big day, and some great recipe ideas to have steaming on the side.

Mind your substitutes. Use canola or olive oil instead of butter, herbs and spices instead of salt, and reduced vegetable stock instead of gravy while you’re cooking in an effort to make fatty foods a little healthier and save yourself some of the calories and the guilt. It’s your year-round cooking rule anyway, so why stop know? (Health Castle can help with some common substitutions.) 

Get active. You know you’ll be invigorated with a pre-meal or post-meal walk – don’t let the exhaustion of cooking and company get you down. It’s the perfect way to burn a few calories, take a breather, and keep your exercise regime intact even on your day off. 

Drink water. This is the best, simplest tip you’ll come across. They’ll be plenty of coffee during the early morning food prep, and plenty of holiday cocktail opportunities. Water is your best defense to keep empty calories down, and keep alcohol intake on the down-low. 

Don’t starve. It’s tempting: save up your calories so you can enjoy the holiday party or have the extras. Unfortunately, it’s almost always bad advice: skipping meals to save calories backfires by causing you to overeat and head toward the carbs. Being consistent with your meals will help you moderate during party time and make good decisions when you’re smack dab in front of the spread.  

Consider your plate. Keeping food groups in mind is some of our favorite advice: Think of your plate as one third protein, one-third vegetable and one third “other”, and that includes stuffing or pie. You’ll be more likely to eat across the rainbow and get all your food groups, not just one.

Remember you’ll survive. One gooey dessert does not mean you’ll gain five pounds. If you are blaming Aunt Hazel’s insistence on having that second serving of sweet potato pie, remember that you’ll need to eat an extra piece of pie every day for the next two months to gain those 5 pounds. So, don’t throw in the towel so fast. Indulge, be conscious, give thanks and enjoy.

Let the Cooking Begin!


Thanks again to Amanda & Merrill at food52.com for giving us the gift of wonderful holiday food in all its incarnations. They offer vouched-for favorites such as Parsnip Potato Mash, exquisite starters like Butternut Cider Soup, and lots of fantastic sides like Ciabatta Stuffing, and Gingered Cranberry & Fig Chutney. Need dessert? Here’s 12 options whether your penchant is for crust or no crust. A delight!

Eat Well With Janel generously offers up a vegan twist to a not-exactly traditional dish. Her Vegan Pumpkin Alfredo is a unique take on some leftover pie ingredients and a way to incorporate tofu with creativity. Thanks, Janel!

Fruits and Veggies More Matters is a key resource for understanding the importance of fruit and veggie servings when it comes to your health. They’ve weighed in for Thanksgiving with these perfectly practical matters that put the health back into your holiday. Perfect timing! Try 5 Ways to Take Fat & Calories Out of Your Thanksgiving Dinner and Healthy Alternatives for the Not-So-Traditional Holiday Meal just for starters.

Serious Eats can help with the perennial Thanksgiving conundrum: how do you get a little color into the drab tans and whites on your plate? With green bean casserole, of course. It’s a classic, and with this Ultimate Homemade Green Bean Casserole they’ve upgraded mom’s version to incorporate some homemade ingredients that separate your greens from the pack.

Let’s not forget to give thanks to Martha for the opportunity to be beneficiaries of her always flawless holiday advice. She’s got you covered from Mushroom Walnut Gravy to Roasted Peaches with Sweet Onions. She has plenty of ideas if you are stumped on desserts as well – Pumpkin Chocolate Tiramisu is definitely a good thing. Find them all at Martha Stewart Thanksgiving Recipes: Turkey, Stuffing, Side Dishes & Desserts.

A healthy and delicious Thanksgiving? Yes, you can have both! Give thanks to your health and longevity this year. Cheers!

Dave Lieberman Does Lemon Blueberry Poundcake

We can talk about healthy food all we want, but it doesn’t do any good unless we’re eating it. Dave Lieberman, known for his Food Network shows Good Deal and Eat This draws from his book 10 Things You Need to Eat for this fast and easy recipe for Lemon Blueberry Poundcake. His book presents 10 important foods that provide powerful health benefits, and it gives readers plenty of ideas for how to incorporate those foods into recipes. This irresistible dessert features the undeniably great-for-you antioxidant-rich blueberries.

This and other fun, healthy-food related video clips can be found at WildBluerries.com. Get quick recipe tips for Wild Blueberry Grahttps://www.wildblueberries.comnola French Toast and Venison Loin with Wild Blueberry sauce with Jonathan Cartwright, and view Mariel Hemingway sharing her approach to healthy eating from her book Mariel’s Kitchen, among others. Eat and be healthy!

One More Reason to Love a Veggie

It’s the season for putting fall veggies like zucchini to use…in any way possible.

According to recent media reports, when a Missouri Montana woman was forced to fend off a 200-pound bear that was attacking her dog, she reached for the closest thing she had – a large zucchini that she grew in her garden. Using the cudgel-shaped edible, she succeeded in saving her dog and herself from this too-close-for comfort encounter.

Healthy weapon or weapon of health? A representative versatile zucchini.

While large veggies can double as defenders against hearth and home, you may prefer to put yours to more traditional use. Try this Zucchini Quiche from Taste of Home to defend your health with veggies in a less violent way. (And keep another one handy, just in case. ) 

We know you got ’em. What do you do with ’em? From chocolate cake to tacos, here’s some easy ways to spend your garden capital: page through endless zucchini recipe ideas from About.com, or peruse the Top Zucchini Recipes from AllRecipes, for a start.


Fall Fix for Fresh

We know frozen fruits and veggies are a godsend. They are just as nutrition as fresh if not more, they do away with waste, and they are easily accessible all year round.

But it’s still hard to say goodbye to the unique thrill of bringing fresh food  into the kitchen that has dirt still stuck to the leaves. Organic Authority always has a unique take on the world of organic food, including healthy recipes, tips for the eating chic table, and kitchen gardening. They urge us to explore the world of lettuce, baby carrots, eggplant — even bananas — in our own homes throughout the winter by focusing on 12 veggies that thrive indoors, don’t require lots of heat, and do fine in shallow pots. Green thumb optional.

Pie. Healthy Panacea to Harsh Diet Rules

Thank goodness for pie.

As this Miami Herald piece reminds us, there are two ways to make pie work within a healthy diet – the first is to have a teeny-weeny slice. They advocate the second: make one you feel good about, and enjoy.

Their Blueberry-Peach Custard Pie makes the cut. It eliminates the need for the top crust, cuts the sugar, and fills up with healthy, antioxidant-loaded fruit like blueberries.  (Try wild for more nutritional bang.)

Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry – Step Aside!

As Baskin said to Robbins, there’s a new flavor in town! We couldn’t let this stunning endorsement (from food52’s blog Cooking From Every Angle) for one of our favorite healthy, colorful foods go by. If you haven’t indulged in this warm weather treat yet, there is still time.

Merrill extols the virtues of low-bush, or wild, blueberries, including their complex flavor concentrated in smaller packages. To think that they have practically unmatched nutritional power, too.

It’s true that no food is inherently evil, and that goes for dessert, too. If you like, you can follow Michael Pollan’s advice: make your treats from the season’s best produce, and set a rule to always make them yourself. It will mean you’ll go to the trouble less often, and you’ll likely be using mostly real, whole food. Here’s to late summer treats with a dollop of health and color!

You can find more recipes for nutritious delicious desserts that offer a daily dose of blue.

Enjoy more amazing eating from Cooking From Every Angle. 

A Passion for the Pancake (And Why Not?)

Why celebrate this fluffy disc of delish? Any food with the versatility of the pancake deserves a fête in its honor! First, pancakes are quintessential breakfast – a comfort food to sink into, which combines home cooking with the feeling of a special day. Pancake breakfasts mean conviviality – it’s the perfect food for fundraisers, fairs and churches. It’s the food you turn to to celebrate Christmas morning or the first day of school. In fact, the pancake breakfast is so iconic, it even serves as a popular gift that comes with an unspoken message of extravagance.

But there’s a lot more to the pancake than AM fare. Pancakes are a dinnertime pleasure as well, thanks to their ability to serve as the perfect foil for veggies as well as fruit, and combinations can be both lip-smacking and healthy. It’s true — “healthy pancake” is no oxymoron. If you are thinking of the ‘cake as a delivery system for butter and maple syrup, get pancake-savvy. It can actually be the foundation for many healthy ingredients!

For example, it’s a shoe-in for incorporating copious amounts of wild blueberries. Blueberry pancakes are a classic, and it’s easy to forget that sumptuous pile of mottled blue heaven is providing big health benefits and powerful antioxidants. By incorporating such tasty possibilities, it’s easy to take a break from syrup-lathering. Instead, use low fat sour cream and walnuts along with your blueberries. Or, go a different way, and improvise with spinach, oatmeal, cinnamon, peanut butter or coconut.

Some people have such a passion for the pancake, it’s no surprise there is a blog devoted solely to the pancake’s virtues, or that they show up on magazine covers in all their photogenic glory.

So join the fun and show the pancake some love. Here are some ways to revisit the delightful, unique, versatile pancake.

Creating the Foundation

Creating a well-cooked pancake is crucial to the experience – dry cakes often lead to compensating with too much butter and syrup. But when they are perfectly rendered, such less-than-healthy dolloping is unnecessary.

  • Easy on the stirring: slightly lumpy batter makes a tender cake.
  • Have patience and get the griddle up to temp first.
  • Cook half way, then flip only once.
  • Add berries to the pancake on the griddle, not the batter.
  • The first pancake never comes out well. Give it to Fido.

Kenny Shopsin on Pancakes

If you don’t know Shopsin‘s in New York, you’re missing out. Kenny Shopsin has a love-hate relationship with the pancake (and with everything, really) but deigns to offer this advice.

  • Heat the griddle until a drop of water bounces off the surface.
  • If the pancake puffs out and doesn’t spread, it’s the right temperature.
  • Think of the pancake as a record album, with an A side and a B side. The A side is the side that cooks first. Serve plain pancakes or pancakes with ingredients in the batter A-side-up. Serve pancakes that you’ve sprinkled ingredients on B-side, or topping side, up.

Mike & Mode offers up Shopsin’s Pumpkin Pancake Recipe.

Pancakes for Dinner

One of the best things about pancakes for dinner is that they are cheap and easy to assemble when there’s nothing else in the house. Got a bowl? A spatula? Eggs, flour & milk? Then you’ve got dinner.

Feeling plucky? Try Chicken-Pot Pancakes tonight.

The Unique Pancake

When it’s the season for zucchini, there are simply not enough ways to slip this veggie into unsuspecting foods. Give Zucchini Feta Pancakes a try while you can.

The Classic Pancake

Classic buttermilk pancakes provide the peak experience of pancake eating. They are light, they have a complex flavor, and because the buttermilk acts as a leavening agent when combined with baking soda, they achieve an elegant fluffiness. Martha ought to know – here’s her best buttermilk pancake.

The Healthy Pancake

Add ½ cup of wild blueberries, and you are getting your daily dose of a powerful antioxidant. Nutrition can be delicious!  In addition to the beloved blueberry pancake, try this brilliant vegetable pancake, or go for a complete fruit explosion.

OMG! Pancakes

Killer pancakes and syrup featuring blueberry cassis relish and blueberry syrup. OMG.

The Once a Year (Uh, max) Pancake

You know they are out there—and they’re good. Just go easy.

Syrup – A Great Way to Go Local

Pure, raw, maple syrup is nature’s gift to local eating, and it’s a healthy alternative as well. In addition to a pancake pour, it can also be substituted for granulated sugar in most recipes. Honey, especially fresh honey from local farms, can be delicious with pancakes used sparingly, and jellies and jams are a perfect way to avoid sugar.

Other options to top your ‘cake include nut butter such as soy nut, cashew or almond (think omega-3s). Or make your own scrumptious topper with these ideas:

These syrup alternatives provide healthy options.

Cooks.com has maple syrup made simple.

Syrup gets daring with mango and ginger mint.

Mulled maple syrup makes a simple, golden cap to any ‘cake.

Nutrition, pleasure, contentment, local eating, and ease. This underrated sphere of delight really does have it all!  Fire up the fry pan, pile on some healthy ingredients, and keep your PJs on a while. See you at breakfast.

It’s Salad Week, and Lettuce is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

National Salad Week may not seem like your standard Hallmark holiday, but when you consider that April 16th is National Eggs Benedict Day, and on August 8th we celebrate Sneak Some Zucchini on Your Neighbor’s Porch Night, Salad Week doesn’t seem all that out of the ordinary.

Besides, health and nutrition enthusiasts are embracing this week as more important than ever when it comes to giving the long-suffering salad its due, considering national obesity rates and nutritional concerns. This time of the season is ideal to reinforce principles of health such as eating from the rainbow and getting the daily requirements of fruits and veggies – all things the salad accomplishes as well as or better than any other dish.

While finding just the right card to commemorate Salad Week might be tricky, there are plenty of other ways to celebrate.

Turn Over a New Leaf

You know it’s true: even the traditional Wedge Salad is better with Romaine. But even if you haven’t eaten iceberg lettuce since the seventies, you might still be experiencing salad torpor. It’s easy to get stuck thinking one-dimensionally about salad, repeating the same lettuce-and-cut-veggies routine.

Here are some ways to get past salad inertia and make greens the colorful star of the meal, not just a forgettable necessity.

1. Easy on the lettuce. Don’t misunderstand – greens, especially dark greens, are great for you. But if you’re stuck in a rut where your salads are lettuce-laden barrels obscuring the occasional cherry tomato, try upending the equation. Designate lettuce as bed-only (or eliminate it completely). Then pile high with basil and sliced tomatoes, a stack of wedged cukes, a cascade of beets…whatever deserves to be center stage.

2. Make salad the substrate. Having sliced chicken or braised salmon? Place it on your salad for a beautiful one dish dinner that’s vibrant, fresh and crunchy. Plus, salads take excellent advantage of leftovers. Had steak last night? Tonight you’re perfectly poised to have Tarragon Steak Salad. Crave carbs? Include some thin-cut sautéed potatoes on your salad for a healthy twist on a (let’s face it) less healthy food.

3. Fruit. If fruit is getting short shrift on your veggie-heavy salads, you’re missing out on a delicious flavor profile. Wild blueberries (see below), cranberries, mandarin oranges, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, watermelon, grapes…they all add color and zing and nip salad apathy in bud.

4. Greens only. If you often skip the salad because all you have is greens, go for it –  tossing mixed greens with vinaigrette is easy and good for you, and mixed greens by themselves are delightful, no chopping and slicing necessary. If your greens are a one-man show, buy fresh mixes or mix in your own frisee, baby spinach, beet greens or arugula. Simply salt and pepper to taste.

5. Don’t hold the nuts. Nuts are made for salads. They add substance, texture, taste, and good fat. Be ready with pecan halves, almonds, and walnuts. The same principle applies to sunflower seeds, cumin and fennel.

6. Use herbs. Bored by salad unless you get a forkful of goat cheese or a giant crouton? This could indicate an herb deficiency in your salad plate.  Fresh herbs such as basil, oregano, thyme, parsley and cilantro can turn on taste buds and spice up greens and veggies. You can also infuse your olive oil and vinegar with fresh herbs, such as tarragon, dill, oregano, thyme and basil to turn up salad flavor. Gourmet Sleuth has a neat herb chart that will tell you what goes well with what, like sliced cucumbers, for instance. (Answer: Dill)

Worth a Toss: Salads to Celebrate

The height of the summer is a perfect time to observe National Salad Week because it means a meal that doesn’t require slaving over a hot stove. When the heat is on, salad-as-the-meal is the solution. If Strawberry, Watercress and Cashew Salad sounds good, or Whiskey & Wheat Berry seems worth trying, you can find these and some other distinctive salads at NowPublic.com. It shares 15 great salads that don’t heat up the kitchen.

The Primal Lifestyle gathered some of their favorite salad-related posts in celebration of the week, which they follow up with recipes for Asian Cucumber Salad and so-called “primal” dish, Curried Salmon Salad.

The New York Times has 10 Simple Salad Ideas that are fresh for the summer season and help you capitalize on its most plentiful bounty. These cool customers include green beans, couscous, honey, strawberries, parmesan and mozzarella.

If you just can’t get enough of salads, Eating Well has  the definitive recipe and salad tips collection, along with ways to dress them.

Welcome Blueberry News…In Time for Salad Week

As we think outside of the lettuce during Salad Week, it’s worth noting that a recent report from the USDA indicates that one cup of blueberries has all the age and disease fighting compounds you need in one day. We’ve known that the health benefits of blueberries, especially wild, are enormous, and blues offer unsurpassed nutritional content when compared to most other fruits and vegetables. They are rich in Vitamins A and C, and provide a superior punch of anti-aging and disease fighting antioxidants.

Why is this especially tasty news during Salad Week? Because wild blueberries are the colorful highlight of many health-conscious creative salads that delight diners, add pizazz to plates, and provide big nutritional benefits. So, befitting the week, here are some salads featuring wild blueberries that are worth celebrating. While these dishes don’t all have a full cup per serving, most offer a respectable start on your daily intake.

With all of these vibrant recipes, why not make Salad Week every week?

Tuna Carpaccio with Wild Blueberry Wasabi Sauce

Wild Blueberries with Roquefort, Celery and Cumberland Sauce

Savory Salad with Goat Cheese and Wild Blueberry Sauce

Rainbow Superfood Salad with Wild Blueberry and Balsamic

Wild Blueberry Vinaigrette

BOOM! BANG! July 4th Recipes Put Colorful Foods on Display!

From Jell-O flags to 3-layer pies, this weekend is perfect for foods of color, and that means America’s birthday is the best time to celebrate both fun and nutrition. There’s no time like the present to get out your wild blueberries, combine them with raspberries, watermelon, or cherries, and throw in a little something white (hey, it’s a holiday). Here are some patriotic selections that will inspire you to color up the Fourth of July holiday and add some oohs and aahs to those bang-booms!

Pillsbury offers many berry-laden ideas.

Recipezaar makes the perfect flavorful flag.

Better Homes & Gardens offers a killer three color fruit pie.

Taking Pride in Your Colorful Creation? Snap your tri-color treat, send it to [email protected],  and we’ll post the spoils here! Happy 4th!

Hey, It’s Hot! Time For Cool Summer Recipes

Memorial Day has come and gone, prompting many to exclaim, “So soon?” While some people are quick to flip-flop, others have a hard time giving up their fleece. It’s time to face the fact that soon you’ll look out the window and see the neighborhood kids running through the sprinkler. You’ll whip off your wool turtleneck and say, “Hey, it’s HOT!”

On those days when you get caught short in the heat and start craving the cool, you can pop this great recipe in your fridge, and then in your mouth. It provides all the taste with all the nutritional benefits, since it features wild blueberries, a top antioxidant superfruit.

Find this and more great wild blueberry recipes for summer.