It’s summer and that means lots of peaches and nectarines ready to eat in all kinds of ways. Take a bite, cut them up into fruit salad, regular salad, sangria, pies, tarts and cakes.

I’ve never made a peach cake, but I was inspired by this week’s America’s Test Kitchen which had some tips on how to avoid a soggy peach cake. Apparently peaches have less pectin than other fruits which makes them release liquid that isn’t bound up with the pectin.

The solution: Roasting the peaches for 20 to 25 minutes and tossing them with crushed panko crumbs before you mix them in with the cake batter.

I wish I could say that I’d make the cake from scratch, but unfortunately, time does not allow that in my life, so I am substituting a pound cake mix for the batter and since I love nectarines more than peaches, I’ll be using those in my cake.

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds of peaches (or nectarines) cut into wedges.
4 teaspoons Lemon Juice
4 tablespoons amaretto (you can substitute peach schnapps or rum here also)
4 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup panko crumbs

For topping: 3 tablespoons sugar with 1 teaspoon of almond extract

For the Cake: Cake Mix of your choice, but choose a slightly denser cake mix, like pound cake or a mix for an upside down cake. 1 teaspoon of almost extract.

Directions

Place cut peaches into the lemon juice, rum and sugar. Let it macerate for at least 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove about 2 dozen of the peach wedges and set aside. Cut the remaining peach wedges into thirds and place on a greased foil-covered baking sheet Bake at 425 for about 20 to 25 minutes. Set aside to cool and reduce oven temperature to that recommended for your cake mix.

Grease a 9 inch springform pan. If you wanted to really boost the almond taste, you could finely grind almonds and use them to “flour” the inside of the springform pan.

Make your cake mix, adding 1 teaspoon of almond extract.

Once peach wedges are cooled, toss with crushed panko and gently fold into cake mix.

Pour cake mix into springform pan and place the reserved peach wedges on top as a nice design. Sprinkle the almond-sugar mixture over the top. Bake until center of the cake is set and a toothpick comes out clean. Probably around 40 to 50 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

As you know, being healthier has been on my mind a lot as has losing weight. Because of that, I’ve been eliminated some things in my diet, like certain carbs. I’m missing my rice, though. In my house as a kid, we ate rice every night, so it’s a tough habit to break.

I’ve tried quinoa and it’s okay, but the one thing I’ve discovered that satisfies the rice craving and cooks up suprisingly similar is barley. Plus, while you may pay $5 or $6 for a bag of quinoa, you can head to the dried beans aisle and pick up a bag of barley for under $2.

So what is barley? Barley is a healthy high fiber, high protein whole grain whose soluble fibers can help reduce the risk of heart disease. It can also help lower your cholesterol levels and its insoluble fibers can assist with Type 2 diabetes. Also, high fiber can also help lower the risk of colon cancer. Barley is also low in fat. One cup of barley has about 200 calories, but it’s packed with 6 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein!

Today’s recipe is inspired by a classic tabouleh salad and it’s what I call a refrigerator cleaner. Besides those veggies I’ve included in this recipe, add any others you may have around, like carrots and celery. I added some cooked asparagus to the basic recipe and it was delicious.

Barley Summer Salad

2 cups cooked barley*
2 Roma tomatoes
1 medium red onion
1 medium cucumber (regular or 1/2 English cucumber)
1/4 cup pecans
1/4 Craisins
1 tablespoon capers
1/2 chopped pimentos
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh basil
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

*To cook the barley, use 1 cup of dry barley, rinsed. Boil with 2 cups of water and/or broth. It’ll take about 35 to 40 minutes to cook. If you pre-soak the barley for an hour, it’ll take about 15 minutes to cook.

Put oil and vinegar in a large bowl. Chop all other ingredients into small pieces. Add to bowl and mix. Add barley to bowl and mix.

Done. It’s that simple and it’s a tasty side dish to burgers or any other summer meal!

I’ve got some tomatoes already set on my plants (yeah!) and can’t wait for them to ripen so I can have some tomatoes right off the vine. In the meantime, I’ll use the store bought ones to make something really tasty and healthy!

This recipe was inspired by one from Fitness Magazine for Parmesan Tomatoes. I know my recipe adds some calories due to the reduced fat ricotta (about 30 calories per serving), but this will make a nice side dish.

Ricotta & Parmesan Tomatoes

4 Roma Tomatoes, cut in half and cored
1/2 cup reduced fat ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/8 cup chopped fresh basil (or if using dried, 1 tablespoon)
Olive Oil (a few teaspoons to oil the pan)

Place a paper towel in a strainer and let ricotta sit there for about half an hour. This will help draw out the moisture and keep the insides from being so runny.

Preheat oven to 450. Oil baking sheet with olive oil.

Cut Roma tomatoes in half (either way although if you go the short way you may need to take a bit off the bottom for them to stand upright). Oil the tomato bottoms and place on baking sheet.

Mix basil and ricotta. Spoon 1/8 cup into each tomato half. Pepper to taste. I don’t use salt since the parmesan has a ton of it, but you may wish to also salt at this point.

Sprinkle ricotta with parmesan cheese.

Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes or until tomatoes are soft and parmesan is toasty. You may even wish to give it a little broil for that extra caramelization.

For a variation on this theme, try the recipe with some zucchini halves or eggplant. Just one caution on the eggplant, you may have to cook it a little before so that it’s fully cooked.

You are probably wondering how there could be any “Cons” in healthy eating, but the reality of it is that trying to eat all the right things comes with a number of hidden negatives.

First, there is the cost of all those fresh fruits and vegetables that will improve your diet and provide the nutrients and fiber that you require for staying healthy.

When it comes to the cost, there are some ways to keep the costs down. First, buy seasonal. Second, buy local. Fruits and vegetables that are both seasonal and local will be much cheaper than those which are being shipped in from overseas. In addition, because they’ve had a shorter trip to the shelves, they will be fresher. That will help them stay fresh longer once you buy them. Plus, you’ll be helping the local economy.

Of course, there is my issue: I buy at the big box store and it’s hard to eat that many berries, pears or lettuce in a week. Or at least it is for me and it’s upsetting to see them go bad and have to be thrown out.

Next, there is the risk of contamination in fruits and vegetables. According to the Wall Street Journal eating leafy vegetables accounts for 23% of food borne illnesses and eating fruits and nuts sicken more people than tainted meat products.

Despite that, there are things you can do to protect yourself. First of all, do a thorough cleaning of yourself and your fruits and vegetables. You can click here for some FDA guidelines.

You can also understand which are the best and worst in terms of contamination.

You can click here to see a list of the dirties fruits and vegetables. Sadly, most of my favorites are on this list.

You can click here to check out a list of the least contaminated fruits and veggies.

One thing that may help with both the costs, spoilage and contamination is actually a quite simple practice: Use one part vinegar (either white or apple) to ten parts water mix in your clean sink. Dump in your assorted fruits and veggies. The vinegar will help wash off any coatings and kill mold spores and other bacteria on the surface of the fruits and veggies.

I hope you’ve found these tips helpful today! Of course, what do you do with all those fruits and veggies? You can click here to check out my Pinterest board of recipes or visit the Cook’s Treat section of the website for more!