Fast & Fresh: Strawberry Banana Parfait

Summer heat calls for Fast & Fresh desserts!

When the temperature rises we turn to lighter desserts.  MGG and I love something a little sweet after our dinner on the weekends.  What can I say, it's hard to give up!  Often we have a scoop of ice cream, but during the summer we love to incorporate fresh fruits with our dessert.  Sometimes is just some light angel food cake with a fruit coulis on top.  Fruit gives dessert a fresh sweet taste and a lightness to the dish.


Tonight I made a parfait.  Easy, fast, and fresh!  This is the newest entry in my Fast & Fresh series.  Recipes that are easy to make, keep you out of the heat of the kitchen, and incorporate fresh ingredients.


This parfait is just perfect.  Creamy vanilla pudding nestles among fresh strawberries and bananas.  What a great flavor combination.  The vanilla wafer crumb topping add just that little extra flavor enhancer and a bit of crunch!


For the pudding you could make homemade (but that would involve heat in the kitchen!), or use instant.  Even a pre-made pudding cup would work for this dish and be delishhh!  Feel free to change the pudding flavor as well for a nice variation.  Lemon would work wonderfully.

I hope you enjoy this light dessert, and try it soon.


What is your favorite, easy to make dessert?


Strawberry Banana Parfait


makes 1 parfait


4-5 strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/4 c vanilla pudding
1/2 small banana, sliced
2 T whipped topping
1 vanilla wafer, crumbled
Garnish: banana slices or strawberry slices


In a small glass or dessert dish place sliced strawberries in the bottom.  Top with the vanilla pudding.  Add banana sliced by placing them vertically along the sides of the glass and on top of the pudding.  Top with whipped topping and vanilla wafer crumbs.  Garnish with banana slices or strawberry slices.

Tuscan Pasta With Tomato Basil Cream

Need to get dinner on the table super quick?

How about in under 20 minutes?  Sounds great huh?

Well I have the dish for you. Everyone loves pasta.  This dish is simple, yet elegant, and good enough for company.  The best part is that you can have this dish on that table in under 20 minutes.  The secret is taking some help from refrigerated pasta, and jarred sauce, and zipping it up a bit with some wine and fresh ingredients.  

I discovered this recipe from Southern Living one day and turned to it (gladly) one night when my work was trying to kill me and I pulled a really late night.  Who wants to cook when you're tired?  So this recipe fit the bill.  To round it out serve it with a wonderful mixed green salad and some crusty bread.  Or, if you are like me, just eat it alone while standing in the kitchen!  

So make sure to give this a try...it's a dish that tastes fabulous, and the kids and hubbies will love it.  All in under 20 minutes!

Can't get much easier than this!

Kitchen Tip:  Ravioli is a perfect item to keep on hand in the freezer.  Freeze raw pasta in the package it came in or transfer it to a freezer bag.  No need to thaw, just pop in boiling water and you are ready for dinner!

Tuscan Pasta With Tomato Basil Cream

adapted from Southern Living

serves 4

1 (20-oz.) package refrigerated spinach and cheese ravioli

1 (16-oz.) jar sun-dried tomato Alfredo sauce

2 tablespoons white wine

2 medium fresh tomatoes, seeded and chopped

2 T chopped fresh basil

2 T grated Parmesan cheese

Garnish: fresh basil strips

Prepare pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, pour Alfredo sauce into a medium saucepan. Pour wine into sauce jar; cover tightly, and shake well. Stir wine mixture into saucepan. Stir in chopped tomatoes and basil, and cook over medium-low heat 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Toss with pasta, and top evenly with  grated Parmesan cheese. Garnish with basil if desired.

Southern Sundays

Happy Southern Sundays!

Welcome to my party! I hope eveyone had a wonderful week.  MGG and I had a "date" night last night.  We dressed up, and went out to Hollywood.  Dinner and a movie was on the agenda, and lot of walking around and people watching!  I love to people watch, don't you?  Especially in Hollywood.  It's full of some really bizarre things.  People of all kinds, locals and tourists.  So much fun!

At dinner I noticed that our restaurant had a extremely large section of dinner salads.  As I was reading all the different types and their ingredients, I thought "wow, I really need to make more fresh main course salad to eat.  Why not?  It's summer time, eating light is great, and the varieties are endless.  Plus it gives me an opportunity to try out some new homemade salad dressings. Sounds great, huh?  Look for some great salads to come in the next week or so!

What's your favorite salad?

On to the party.  Last week we had a great turn out.  There was such a great variety of goodies, I was drooling over each and everyone of them!

Two entries that you all viewed stood out from the crowd.  The exciting part is that both entries are from the same creative soul!  So I'll be featuring both those entires below along with my personal pick for good measure.

Congratulations on your featured entry!

Delishhh!

Chex Lemon Buddies

By The Daily Smash

Oh my!

Popeyes Style Fried Chicken

By The Daily Smash

Yum! My favorite!

Peaches and Cream Ice Cream with Raspberry Coulis

by Roz of La Bella Vita

and

WOW!

Watermelon Shrimp Salad

by Laura at Now Things are Cooking

Congratulations again to you all!  Stop by the creative artist's blog and say "Hi!".  I'm sure they love to hear from you.

So let's party!  I can't wait to see what you all bring this week.

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Enjoy, have fun, cook lots of food, and relish your Southern Sunday!