Yogurt topped with pulpa de fruta and REnola makes it hard to wait for morning! |
In the past year, I have become a missionary for homemade
yogurt. I eat it nearly every morning—and I think everyone else should, too. In
fact, I am so blinded by my enthusiasm for the stuff that I can’t see anyone
else’s point of view. Maybe you’ve read my previous blogs touting its
virtues .
. .
When I was in Costa Rica during January, I accidently
discovered a product which raised my daily yogurt experience to a spiritual
event. The product, which I stumbled
upon in the fruit section of the grocery store I frequented, is called pulpa de fruta, which is pretty much
just what it sounds like: fruit pulp. Costa Ricans use it to create fruit
drinks, but I immediately recognized it as the perfect topping for my yogurt. The
store carried a variety of flavors, but my pulpa
of choice was raspberry. I was so devoted to it that throughout the afternoons
and evenings, I daydreamed about pouring it over my yogurt the next morning.
As my time in CR drew to an end, imagine my dismay to learn
that there is no place in the US to purchase this nectar of the gods! I thought
Amazon had everything, but a search for pulpa
de fruta on that site brought up a bag of Chilean Assorted Fruit Candies
for $39.99 a bag, a few books, a hand juicer, and other unrelated items. A
general search of the Internet didn’t succeed much better, either. I returned
home in abject despair, an outcast of heaven on earth. Until yesterday!
REnola is gluten-free, grain-free, and paleo-friendly. |
Yesterday I decided it was time to clean out my freezer, to
use up the abandoned bags of fruits and vegetables and packages of meats
purchased for recipes that had never made an appearance on my table. The first
bag I grabbed was a bag of frozen raspberries, which I set on my counter to
thaw for raspberry muffins or raspberry crisp or whatever.
When I dumped the contents of the thawed bag into a bowl, I
had an epiphany—well, actually it was more like a “DUH” moment--I could make my
own Pulpa de Fruta! I mashed up the raspberries, added honey, and there it was!
This morning I had it atop my homade yogurt along with
another of my recent discoveries: Larabar’s REnola—a grain free, gluten free
delicious granola. (It’s even paleo friendly, if you’re into that!) My
breakfast has been redeemed!