Better Home Cooking Basics: #62 Choose Pineapples that Smell Sweet & Have Firm Green Leaves

I love pineapples. Recently I’ve been juicing them. I love it by itself or mixed with other fruits & veggies. I like it in fruity salsas & on the grill too.  Before I juice or chop the pineapple I have to pick the best one I can find at the super market. My go-to tip is to smell it before I buy it. If the pineapple smells sweet it’s most likely because it is. Pineapples that smell sweet are the ones that I take home with me. I also check for bright green, firm leaves which are a telltale sign that the pineapple is fresh.

Get more of my better home cooking basics here. 

Thirsty Thursday: Sweet Heat Juice

Back to detoxing with Irena from Zen Blendz for this Thirsty Thursday post. Irena says this sweet treat is a good way to ease into juicing, without feeling like you're drinking a salad! (Sign me up!)

The sweet pineapple (please use a ripe one) is cut with tart apple. The lemon (or in my case lime - because I ran out of lemons!) balances these flavors. Romaine lettuce is hardly noticeable in juicing but has lots of benefits & makes your juice last longer with added water! (This is true this recipe makes a bunch of juice).

The cayenne pepper rounds out this juice by giving your tastebuds some heat, a great sweet treat for the summer an equally as warming for winter months when juicing may be difficult.

Give it a try & let us know what you think! I really enjoyed it.

Crab Cake Sandwich Dinner

 

I have a new found love for cooking with lump crab meat. I went off this recipe for crab cake sliders & morphed them into regular (ok pretty large) sandwiches.  I didn't have the crackers that How Sweet It Is used so I used panko bread crumbs.  After I mixed in all of the panko I thought they would add a nice crunch to the outside so I dipped my crab cakes in more panko before pan frying them.

Then what really attracted me to this recipe was the toppings - a pineapple kiwi salsa + a spicy lime yogurt spread! Yes, PLEASE! I also really dig cooking with greek yogurt instead of mayo & well this menu has greek yogurt in two spots, happy win!

Thanks for the inspiration How Sweet It Is! I hope I did your recipe justice!

Happy weekend everyone & thanks for reading!

Click through to see photos of how this dinner came together.