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!
Christy,
looks like another hit with this recipe! Can’t wait to get all the ingredients and make some up! wishing you well with the store venture!
These look wonderful! I’m going to have my daughter check them out for a refreshing treat at her wedding this summer!
I am originally a Southern Girl myself so it is with great affection that I laugh at what Southerners call salads! I love these little gems.. yet having perused many a cookbook and attended many family gatherings etc, I get a kick out of what is included in the salad category, and some contain lots of Mayo. Don’t get me wrong, I adore salads and these just broaden my choices! They look refreshing!
Debbie Chioffe
dksugarpaws@yahoo.com
I make a very similar frozen salad! It’s really yummy but I’ll have to try this version.
These sound so good and refreshing. Christy, you have re-awakened my interest in cooking and baking. Love your blog and your cookbook.
I really love this apron and wish you would consider selling them.
You did it again. Another yummy treat that everyone is going to love on those hot summer days. Thanks
My family really likes this kind of “treat”. I fix cold, creamy fruit salads and savory vegetable salads all the time. I guess I’m lucky there are no picky eaters in my house. Got to try this ……soon!