Cherry Delicious Couscous Salad

The perfect accompaniment for meat or poultry.

• 1 cup water or chicken broth
• 3/4 cup quick-cooking couscous, uncooked
• 1/2 cup dried tart cherries
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped unpeeled cucumber
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts or slivered almonds (optional)
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Bring water or broth to a boil in a medium saucepan; stir in couscous. Remove from heat; let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Uncover; let cool 10 minutes.

Combine cooked couscous, dried cherries, carrots, cucumber, green onions and pine nuts in a large bowl. Combine vinegar, olive oil and mustard; mix well. Pour vinegar mixture over couscous mixture; mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Makes 4 cups; about 6 servings.

Don’t forget to download your free tart cherry recipe book at www.traversebayfarms.com/cherryrecipes.htm

Hot out of the oven, mushroom caps are an elegant appetizer.

• 30 large mushrooms (about 1 pound)
• 1/2 pound bulk pork sausage
• 1 cup chopped dried tart cherries
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

Pull stems from mushrooms and discard (or save for another use). Rinse mushroom caps; drain well. Set aside.

Cook sausage in a large skillet 5 minutes, or until sausage is done. Stir occasionally to break up meat. Remove from heat. Add dried cherries, green onions and cream cheese; mix well. Fill each mushroom cap with a heaping teaspoon of sausage mixture. Place filled mushrooms on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 425-degree oven 6 to 8 minutes. Serve immediately.

Makes 30.

Make sure to download your free super fruit handbook at www.superfruithandbook.com

It’s important that we eat plenty of different fruits and vegetables every day. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of serious ailments. Fruits and vegetables provide essential vitamins and minerals, fiber, and other substances that are important for good health. Most fruits and vegetables are naturally low in fat and calories and are filling.

You’ve probably heard about the 5 A Day for Better Health program.  It provides easy ways to add more fruits and vegetables into your daily eating patterns. It’s vital that we eat a wide variety of colorful orange/yellow, red, green, white, and blue/purple vegetables and fruit every day. By eating vegetables and fruit from each color group, you will benefit from the essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that each color group has to offer alone and in combination.

There’s several different yet simple ways to start incorporating vegetables and fruit into your familiar and favorite meals. You can begin your day with 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice, slice bananas or strawberries on top of your cereal, or have a salad with lunch and an apple for an afternoon snack. Include a vegetable with dinner and you already have about 5 cups of fruits and vegetables. You may even try adding a piece of fruit for a snack or an extra vegetable at dinner.

Don’t be afraid to try something new to increase your vegetable and fruit intake. There are so many choices when selecting fruits and vegetables. Kiwifruit, asparagus, and mango may become your new favorite. Keep things fresh and interesting by combining fruits and vegetables of different flavors and colors, like red grapes with pineapple chunks, or cucumbers and red peppers.

Get in the habit of keeping fruits and vegetables visible and easily accessible – you’ll tend to eat them more. Store cut and cleaned produce at eye-level in the refrigerator, or keep a big colorful bowl of fruit on the table.

Knowing the nutritional information on the food you eat on a daily basis is vital to maintaing a healthy body, managing your weight and more. That is why we provide the nutritional information on all of food products so our customer know exactly what they are eating. Here is the nutritional information on several different types of tart cherry products.

Daily serving (1/4 cup – 45g) of dried tart cherries provides the following:

• 138 Calories
• 4.55 g protein
• 28.9g Carbohydrates
• .23g Fat

Daily serving (1 oz. – 28.3g) of tart cherry juice concentrate

• 74 Calories
• .92 g protein
• 17.5g Carbohydrates
• 0g Fat

Daily serving (1/2 cup – 67g) of frozen tart cherries

• 28 Calories
• .65 g protein
• 6.35g Carbohydrates
• .4g Fat

Daily serving (1/2 oz. – 121g) of canned tart cherries

• 37 Calories
• .90 g protein
• 8.13g Carbohydrates
• .07g Fat

* Nutritional analysis conducted by the American Analytical Chemistry Laboratories Corporation

Apple Carrot Salad

Ingredients:

Directions:

We just returned from the Grands Rapids Wine and Food show and had a great event. We received excellent feedback on our salsa, cherry juice concentrate and our pumpkin butter. I’ll be uploading some testimonials over the next few days.