Front Porch Fruit Salads
These little frozen gems come to us courtesy of Granny Jordan’s recipe box. She was known for her frozen salads and her personal favorite were the frozen Cranberry Banana Salads which she always kept on hand. As good as those are, I think these are my favorite though. They just taste so summery! If you’ve had about all you can take of dreary skies and cold days this is the taste that will perk you right up!
The great thing about it is that you can make up a batch and keep them in your freezer to have on hand anytime for last minute company or treats while sitting on the porch. I think you’ll enjoy the convenience of these and I know you’ll enjoy the fresh summer flavor!
To make our Front Porch Salads, you’ll need: Greek Yogurt, Canned Apricots, Canned crushed Pineapple, Orange Juice concentrate, Frozen sweetened strawberries, ripe bananas, and a little bit of sugar.
Now let me tell ya something about this Greek yogurt pictured here. I’m not one for new fangled things. Although Greek yogurt isn’t new per-say, but it is for where I’m from. Anytime something new comes out, I like to wait it out a bit, give it say, fifty years or so and see if it is still around. If it is, then I know there is probably something to it and I might put it on my list of things to try.
However, my whole family somehow ended up being yogurt people. Both my kids, myself, and even my husband all have our favorite brands and flavors of yogurt.
A year or so ago we were on a family vacation and stopped in at a grocery store. I told everyone to pick out something as a treat and by the time we got up to the register I looked and there were four differen kinds of yogurt in our buggie! Up until then I had not realized how much we all loved it.
So after hearing about Greek yogurt over and over, I decided to forego my usual five decade waiting period and give it a go now. Boy howdee, is that stuff ever good. On it’s own, it is like a very thick sour cream. I like to eat it with a little bit of honey stirred in. In this salad, it creates the perfect blend of creaminess to really make it stand out all the more to me.
In it’s place, though, there are lots of things you can use. Regular yogurt, Sour cream, and even Whipped Topping will work just fine. You can also leave it out entirely because Granny Jordan’s original recipe didn’t have anything creamy in it, I just added this on my own. I know she wouldn’t have minded though.
Open up can of apricots and drain the juice into a measuring cup.
Do the same with the can of crushed pineapple.
Don’t worry about squeezing the juice out of the pineapple, whatever comes out on it’s own will be fine.
We need to dice our apricots so I just take a knife and run it through them several times while they are still in the can.
Your pineapple is already crushed so you’re good to go there.
Now take your reserved juice and sugar…
and put them together in a sauce pot.
Place that on medium heat and stir constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Then set aside.
In a large bowl place your peeled bananas. Moosh them up really well with a fork.
Add pineapple, apricots, strawberries (juice and all), and orange juice concentrate.
Stir well.
Add in yogurt. Stir again.
Pour in the juice mixture from the sauce pan and stir again until it’s all mixed up really well.
Line a muffin tin with paper cups and fill each cup with salad mixture.
Freeze several hours, or until firm.
Pop out of the muffin tin, but leave in the papers, and place salads in gallon zipper seal bags and return to the freezer.
Serve frozen.
Makes about three dozen salads.
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:57]
Ingredients
- 1 -12 ounce can frozen orange juice concentrate with pulp
- 24 ounces frozen sweetened sliced strawberries
- 15 ounce can apricots diced (can use peaches)
- 3 ripe bananas
- 20 ounce can crushed pineapple
- 16 ounces Greek Yogurt can use plain, substitute whipped topping, or leave out entirely
- 1/2 Cup sugar
- Muffin papers
Instructions
- Drain juice from both cans of fruit into a measuring cup. Using a knife, carefully dice apricots while still in the can. Place reserved fruit juices and sugar in sauce pot and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In large bowl place peeled bananas and mash well with long tined fork. Add in chopped apricots, pineapple, strawberries (juice and all), orange juice concentrate, and yogurt. Stir well. Pour in cooled juice mixture. Stir until well combined.
- Line a muffin tin with paper cups and fill each cup with salad mixture. Freeze several hours, or until firm.
- Makes about 36 salads. Serve frozen. Can eat with a fork or peel back the paper and eat it like an ice cream bar.
Nutrition
“You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north.”
~Deuteronomy 2:3. Wow Debi, that can be pretty profound at the right time. Thank you for sharing!
My Grandma also had a recipe like this when I was young(er) – now I am a Grandma and have made these for my grandsons. I used to be the kid that got to smoosh the fruit with the potato smoosher.I don’t like bananas and the smell even bothers me so I don’t use them. I use kiwi fruit instead. I will have to make up a batch of these for the boys. We still have 2 feet of snow so it isn’t quite time to make these to sit on the back deck. Hopefully by Easter. I usually make them for a treat for dessert. As we are lactose intolerant I can’t use the yogurt in all of them. To make multi coloured, blackberries can be used in place of the raspberries. Love the front porch. Only been signed up for a week but look forward to the emails that arrive at lunch time.
Love your enthusiasm and willingness to share. Take care. My real name is Linda but there are usually so many of us. Greetings from Saskatchewan.
These look so yummy. My mom makes some similiar to this using cranberries and pecans. I will have to try this fruit salad soon!!
Looks wonderful! I am assuming that you use 3 bananas in the recipe since that was what was shown in the photo. Please let me know. Thank you, Christy!
Off to the grocery I go! Great recipe and thank you for sharing a small part of yourself with us every day. Hugs,
This recipe put a craving on me and the only thing I had was a fruit pop which I ate. Now, to get the ingredients and make the salad. It has everything in it that I love. Can’t wait to try it. And, I so want the apron!
These will be a great make-ahead salad for Easter dinner.!
love the new front porch forum and i will be making this for my son!