This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Albertsons. All opinions are 100% mine.

While I’m not the biggest fan of Valentine’s Day (*ahem* Singles Awareness Day), I can always get behind some chocolate covered strawberries, no matter the time of year! Even better — they are about the easiest treat to make and only require three ingredients.

I purchased my ingredients at my local Albertsons. But if you’re short on time, any of the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Safeway, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Randalls, Shaw’s Supermarket, Star Market, Tom Thumb and Vons, offer a wide variety of options for Valentine’s Day, including pre-made chocolate-dipped strawberries, custom floral designs, wine, meat and seafood, custom bakery treats, and more.

And if you want to make things even quicker, Albertsons and Safeway also offer Grocery Delivery and DriveUp & Go for convenient ways to shop! I’ve used this service before and it truly is simple, fast, and efficient.

The strawberries available at Albertsons were bright, plump and shiny — perfect for making these chocolate covered strawberries. Combine semi-sweet chocolate chips and a little coconut oil and you’re ready to rock!

First, wash the berries and make sure they’re dry. You can either let them air dry or dry them with a kitchen towel, but it’s important that they’re no longer wet, otherwise your melted chocolate won’t stick to them.

Next, melt your chocolate along with the coconut oil, taking time to stir between heating time in the microwave. After the chocolate is totally smooth, get your dry berries set to dip, and prepare a small baking tray covered with parchment paper to place your chocolate covered strawberries on.

The key to a good dip is to hold the strawberry by its green top and then dip and swirl the berry around in the melted chocolate. Try to ensure that the chocolate comes as close to the green top as possible. If you have excess chocolate on the berry after its covered, just gently wipe one side on the side of your chocolate bowl and then place that side down onto your parchment paper.

Repeat the process until all the berries are covered and then pop those beautiful little treats into your fridge to set.

Lastly, try not to eat them all before you give them as a surprise. (But I do recommend a quality control sample or two. ) And, it’s totally legit to surprise yourself with these — treating yourself well as a single person is important, too.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

 

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Prep time

3 mins

Cook time

3 mins

Total time

6 mins

 

Chocolate covered strawberries make for an easy, fast, beautiful dessert!

Author: Big Sky, Little Kitchen

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Makes: approximately 22 medium berries

Ingredients

• 16 ounces fresh strawberries
• 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 Tablespoon coconut oil

Instructions

1. Wash the strawberries and let them air dry completely, or dry them off with a clean dish towel or paper towel. (Chocolate won't stick to wet strawberries.)
2. Add chocolate chips and coconut oil to a small microwave safe bowl. Heat the mixture in the microwave in 20 second increments, stirring well after each heating, until the mixture is melted and smooth.
3. Dip strawberries into the melted chocolate, one at a time. Hold strawberry by the leaves, dip into chocolate, swirl, and coat all sides.
4. Lift the berry and allow any excess chocolate to drip off. Place the berry onto a parchment-covered baking sheet.
5. Repeat until all strawberries are chocolate-coated. Transfer the dipped strawberries to refrigerator and let the chocolate set for about 15 minutes.

Notes

Store berries in a single layer in an airtight container in the refrigerator. For best results, enjoy within one day of making.

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Albertsons. All opinions are 100% mine.

If there’s one thing I love about summer, it’s definitely the abundance of fresh summer fruit healthy snacks! Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and those beautiful Flathead cherries are all favorites of mine to satisfy my sweet tooth, but also still toe the healthy line. These fruits are available at most Albertsons and Safeway stores within Missoula, but be sure to ask a store near you!

Speaking of which, did you know that “fruits are an excellent source of essential vitamins and minerals, and they are high in fiber? Fruits also provide a wide range of health-boosting antioxidants, including flavonoids.” Additionally, “eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables can reduce a person’s risk of developing heart disease, cancer, inflammation, and diabetes. Citrus fruits and berries may be especially powerful for preventing disease.” (Source: Medical News Today)

The fruits that I picked up from Albertsons make it so easy to encourage healthy snacking. No chopping required! No baking in the heat of the summer! Just a good rinse under some water and you’re set to pop ’em in your mouth, or top off a healthy smoothie recipe. I shopped at Albertsons in my local Montana area to score these goodies, but you can also find a beautiful assortment of fresh, quality produce at any of the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Safeway, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Randalls, Shaw’s Supermarket, Star Market and Tom Thumb.

I was pretty impressed by the quality of the fruits they offer at Albertsons. (And, when I went they had a 3 for $6 deal that was a pleasant surprise – keep in mind that this kind of deal may vary depending on where you’re located.) They were all beautiful, ripe, and the most important part, tasty! Flathead cherries weren’t yet in season when I made my fruit purchase, but definitely keep your eyes open for them as these gems will sell quickly! For all of you hikers out there, throwing some fresh fruit in my day pack is high on my list of essentials. I can tell you from experience there is absolutely nothing better than reaching the top of a peak after a grueling climb, plopping yourself down on a sun-warmed rock, whipping out a juicy strawberry or cherry and biting into that deliciousness as you survey the world from the tippy top of your new viewpoint.

And, if you’ve just spent a gorgeous day outside and would rather expend your energy anywhere else than on a grocery shopping excursion, don’t forget that Albertsons and Safeway also offer Grocery Delivery and Drive Up & Go for convenient ways to shop! Even better – keep an eye out for regular deals in their Albertsons weekly ad.

What are some of your favorite summer fruits? How do you love to use them and their easy pack-ability? How do you incorporate fruits in your healthy lifestyle? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Ah, summertime. It’s toasty hot, I’m usually pretty exhausted from long hours spent photographing in the relentless sun, and all I crave is, what feels like, bucket-fulls of fresh fruit. Enter this peach blackberry and strawberry fruit salad with basil, lime and pepper. So easy, so fast, and so bright with fresh flavor!

 I also love that this fruit salad takes the interest level up a notch by adding in the black pepper. Quite honestly, it may sound like a pretty odd addition to a fruit salad, but trust me – it’s a perfect pairing and gives it just a little kick to make your tastebuds really darn happy.

 As far as fruit salads go, this one scores top marks for me not only because of its great flavor, but for the fact that it’s not loaded with sugar, and uses mostly natural sugars already found in the fruit.

This comes together lickety-split, so do yourself and your tastebuds a favor and make it for dinner or your next picnic!

Peach Blackberry and Strawberry Fruit Salad with Basil, Lime and Pepper

 

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Prep time

25 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Author: Big Sky, Little Kitchen

Recipe type: Salad

Makes: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

• 4 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 3 peaches (about 6 ounces each), halved, pitted, and cut into ½-inch pieces
• 10 ounces (about 2 cups) blackberries
• 10 ounces strawberries, hulled and quartered lengthwise (about 2 cups)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Instructions

1. Combine sugar, basil and pepper in a large bowl. Using a rubber spatula, press the mixture into the side of the bowl until sugar becomes damp, about 30 seconds.
2. Gently toss fruit with sugar mixture until combined. Let sit at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until fruit releases its juices, about 15 minutes.
3. Stir in lime juice to taste and serve.

Notes

From The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.

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It’s currently a sweltering 99 degrees in Missoula at the moment (with 102 degrees predicted for tomorrow – go home, June – you’re drunk!), and I find myself craving sweet desserts (as per usual), but nothing heavy, over-involved, or anything that requires much in the way heating up the house with too much oven time. Enter this little star of a summertime dessert: the delightfully light summer strawberry almond cream tart.

It’s everything a summertime dessert should be – low on fuss, low on bake time, high on natural summer flavors, and really darn pretty.

The other nice thing about this tart is that while you can bake it in a pretty tart pan, you don’t have to! I am currently tart pan-less, so I always make this in a standard 9″ springform pan. Easy peasy.

This particular recipe calls for a glaze, which you see in these photos, but you can also serve it without if you’d like and it’ll still be just as tasty.

Heck, if you want to Fourth-of-July it up, you could even throw some fresh blueberries in betwixt the strawberries as well. So, make this sweet little dessert for your next get together, stay cool and wow people with your dessert panache. All good in my book!

Summer Strawberry Almond Cream Tart

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: Big Sky, Little Kitchen

Recipe type: Dessert

Makes: 10

Ingredients

Crust

• 9 sheets of honey graham crackers (that's usually one package)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 4 teaspoons water
• Coconut oil (or cooking spray) to grease your pan

Filling

• ⅔ cup light cream cheese, room temperature
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon almond extract

Topping

• 6 cups fresh strawberries, divided
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat your 9-inch removable-bottom tart pan or springform pan with coconut oil or cooking spray.
2. For the crust, place crackers in food processor and process until fine and crumbly. Add sugar, butter and water and pulse until just moist. Place mixture in pan, pressing into the bottom and up the sides of pan approximately ¾ inch. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned. Remove and cool completely on a wire rack.
3. For filling, combine filling ingredients and stir or mix until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over bottom of cooled tart shell.
4. Combine 4 cups strawberries and juice and toss to coat. Arrange berries, bottoms up, in a circular pattern over the filling. Serve as-is after covering and chilling for 3 hours, or follow the next set of instructions to prepare the glaze.
5. For the optional glaze, place 2 cups of strawberries in food processor and process until pureed. Combine the puree, ⅔ cup sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and cook 1 minute. Remove glaze from heat and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Once cooled, spoon half of the glaze evenly over the berries. For more finessed coverage, use a silicone pastry brush to brush the tips of the berries with the glaze. Reserve remaining glaze for another use (or eat it all up!). Cover and chill for 3 hours.

Notes

Slightly adapted from a Cooking Light recipe.

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I have a decidedly wicked sweet tooth, so when I come across recipes that satisfy my craving for sweets in a pretty healthful way like this coconut chia seed pudding with strawberries, then you can bet your boots I’ll be shouting across the mountaintops about it.

To knock it out of the park, this recipe is easy and really quick to put together. You just have to exercise a little patience as you wait for those magical little chia seeds to set overnight.

But oooooh, let me tell you. The wait is definitely worth it.

Because this pudding features coconut milk that’s low in calories (I call for something along the lines of what Silk offers, not the coconut milk from a can, though you could certainly use this – it’d just add some fat) and non-fat greek yogurt, you can even indulge in this for breakfast.

I can tell you, this makes for a great treat to wake up to in the morning – especially if, like me, you’re absolutely NOT a morning person. Those fresh strawberries and the creaminess of this pudding are just the perfect way to get you going for the day.

This recipe serves about four, but I can assure you you’ll probably want to double it, as it tends to disappear quickly it’s just that good.

Coconut Chia Seed Pudding with Strawberries

 

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Prep time

40 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: Big Sky, Little Kitchen
Adapted from this Chia Seed Pudding recipe

Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup unflavored coconut milk
• 1 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ⅛ teaspoon Kosher salt
• ¼ cup chia seeds
• 6 to 8 large strawberries, hulled and chopped or sliced

Instructions

1. In a medium-size bowl combine the coconut milk, yogurt, maple syrup, vanilla and salt. Whisk gently until blended and creamy. Add in the chia seeds and whisk until coated and combined.
2. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. If you feel the seeds have settled into the mixture a bit, stir to redistribute. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
3. The next day, prepare your strawberries. Spoon the pudding mixture into four bowls or glasses and top with even amounts of strawberries and serve.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 Calories: 161 Fat: 4.5g Saturated fat: 1.3g Unsaturated fat: 2.6 g Trans fat: 0g Carbohydrates: 20.1g Sugar: 11.6g Sodium: 155mg Fiber: 6g Protein: 9.4g Cholesterol: 2.5mg

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