Strawberry and Fig Compote

This fruit compote is packed with flavor and texture. After scoring a huge box of fresh figs, I already had a few recipes in my mind of what I was going to do with them. But this wasn’t one of them 🙂 This idea came about when I had a bunch of strawberries that needed to be used up very soon. While I generally choose to eat my fruits raw, every now and then I enjoy cooking them to switch up the flavors a bit and also to bring something interesting to my kids. Cooking these fruits really brings out their sweetness and flavors.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chopped fresh strawberries
• 2 cups fresh chopped figs
• 1 TBS balsamic vinegar
• 1 TBS honey
• dash of cinnamon

Steps:

• Put everything in a saucepan
• bring to a simmer then leave on very low heat with a lid on for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally
• let it cool before putting into a jar and store in the fridge
• use it how ever your imagination wishes!

This compote stays good at least a week in the fridge in an airtight container.

Not only is this compote delicious on it’s own, but it is so versatile also!

Here I pan roasted peaches in light coconut oil and stuffed them with some fruit compote then drizzled it with chocolate sauce.

And this one time my daughter wanted a banana split and we ended up making this with the compote and some almond butter.

Or this yummy basic chia bowl with fruit compote and homemade chocolate chunks. 

We’ve also used this compote on rice cakes, toast and sit reed in oatmeal.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

Whip yourself a batch and get creative with it! Stimulating my tastebuds is always an exciting experience 🙂

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Lemon Chia Pudding

This pudding is light, sweet and simple. Just a few ingredients away from a nice treat. I just scored a huge box a deliciously fresh figs so I topped this pudding off with them and it was a perfect edition, but I think any fruit will do 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups milk (I used almond milk)
• 2 soft medjool dates
• 4 TBS chia seeds
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest
• 4 figs for topping
• drizzle of chocolate sauce for extra decadence

Steps:

• put the milk and dates in a blender and blend on high until well incorporated
• add chia seeds and lemon zest and blend on low just enough to mix the chia seeds but not too much as to break them down, you can also do this by hand
• IMPORTANT: let sit for a few minutes and blend on low for a couple seconds, do this a few times. You’ll start seeing the chia seeds floating around in the milk and staying there, that’s what you want. If you skip this step you will end up with a pile of chia seeds at the bottom of your dish and the milk on top.
• pour in desired cups or bowls and put in fridge to set for at least 2 hours, or overnight is great too
• top it off with fruit and chocolate sauce if desired

Fig Spread

Figs are not in season, but they are sooooo tasty!! That’s why I purchased cases of them and froze a bunch so that I could eat them at any time of the year. When looking for something else I stumbled upon these in my freezer and immediately I thought “Fig Spread”. So here it is. I don’t know who started spreading mashed fruit on things but I find it a very clever idea. A very delicious and clever idea. I don’t generally buy jam or jelly as it is packed with sugar. I will eat homemade jam that someone has gifted me though. Nothing like homemade goodies to make me temporarily forget that refined sugar is evil. At my house though, we stick to fruit sweetened jams if we buy them. Trader Joe’s actually has a brand that I don’t mind my kids eating. Nonetheless, I still generally choose to not eat it regularly. Making my own is a different story. Since I love eating raw breads, I enjoy switching up what I top them with. After letting the figs thaw, this spread was so quick to put together. And so incredibly delicious. I can see this going great with some porridge, or yogurt, or anything you typically enjoy fruit with! Ingredients:

• 1 cup thawed figs (you can use fresh but the texture will be different)
• 2 TBS honey
• 1 TBS almond butter
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Steps:

• Put everything in a food processor and blend until well combined
• store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week