A Wealth of Fresh Produce, and the Easiest Frozen Yogurt Ever

This past weekend we found ourselves driving through DC, on our way to use up a couple of free Six Flags tickets we inherited. We thought that was a perfect opportunity to stop by the Eastern Market, our favorite (and also large and historic) farmer's market in DC. Our grocery budget was within $22 of our limit for the month, which is pretty lean for our usual Trader Joe's run, and so we decided to see how far we could stretch it on produce instead of our normal grocery shop.

What we came up with: sweet corn, beefsteak and grape tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, dark leafy salad greens, and a "grab bag" that included some carrots, celery, iceberg lettuce, a cucumber, and a green pepper. There's a stall at the market that sells these mixed bags for $3 each and we're absolutely wild for them. Sometimes they're homogeneous (several ears of sweet corn), and other times they're an eclectic mix. Since all of the CSA shares near us were sold out by the time we thought to sign up, it's the closest we can get to the fun of figuring out what to do with a surprise box of vegetables.

What we've eaten so far this week, which was a mixture of produce and pantry: a ton of mixed-green salads (with such accompaniments as tomato or 44-clove-garlic soups), a meal of sweet corn with chili-lime butter, and many fruits eaten out of hand. The sweet corn ON the salad was one of my particular favorites. We also had pesto pizza with handfuls of salad greens on top (after cooking and just before serving), a particularly brilliant idea I remember reading somewhere (but I don't remember where) which fills you up a little more quickly and healthfully than just slice after slice of (delicious, cheesy) pizza. I also had the brainstorm that this could be possibly even more delicious (though infinitely less healthy) if you drizzled ranch dressing over the top of it all. Still up this week: baked potatoes and steamed carrots, pasta with onions and green peppers, and probably another pizza of some sort.

Tonight, we made super-easy homemade frozen yogurt! Some time ago, some kind soul gifted us with a subscription to Good Housekeeping magazine (was it you?! If so, thank you, and please leave a comment!). This is a recipe I plucked from there and thought was too perfect not to try. We also happened to have a bag of frozen peaches on hand, which is actually very unusual for us, but I think you could use any frozen fruit and it would be just perfect. Really, it's just a modified smoothie in the correct proportions for icy scoopability, but it's a stroke of genius that wouldn't have otherwise occurred to me. Here goes:

The Easiest Frozen Yogurt Ever (adapted from Good Housekeeping)

Combine roughly equal amounts of frozen fruit and (not frozen) yogurt in a Cuisinart. The recipe calls for 12-16oz of frozen fruit to 12 oz of yogurt, and says to use peach yogurt and a tablespoon or so of sugar. We used about 8 oz of fruit, 8 oz of plain homemade yogurt and a couple of tablespoons of honey. Depending on your fruit and your yogurt, you can adjust the sweetness as necessary.
Then, turn the Cuisinart on and let 'er rip.

THAT'S IT.

We served it next to a raspberry sorbet we bought the other day in a moment of "at least it's cheaper than going out for ice cream" weakness. And now we've got this handy trick up our sleeves!