Summer Loves: Muuna Cottage Cheese, Louis Raison, RIND dried Fruit Snacks

Let it be known that I am about the only person in Chicago who does not like summer. Maybe it's because I grew up in Arizona, where desiring to be outside between the months of June and August was akin to having a death wish. Maybe it's because I am...ahem... a tad over weight, and everyone knows fat people don't do well in sweaty situations. Whatever the case may be, I usually spend the majority of the warmer months inside with the AC blasting.

While in my heat induced exile, I usually start experimenting with recipes and products that can give me a little energy boost to get me through the long humid days. One of my new favorite things is from a company called RIND, which have brought out some rather interesting dried fruit snacks. These snacks (which come in California Kiwi, Tropical, and Orchard blends) are large slices of dried fruits that have their rinds intact. Now, admittedly, their appearance can be a little off putting, mostly because they look a bit more like potpourri then something edible. But these snacks have no added sugar, no sulfates, and no dyes and are GMO free, gluten free, and vegan. All of the fruits (except for the pineapple in the Tropical blend) have been prepared with their skins in tact, giving every piece more fiber and nutritional value then traditional dried fruits. I'm not normally a fan of fresh kiwi, so I was skeptical about the dried version, especially because of the intact skin, but the kiwis ended up being my favorite fruit of the bunch. They were perfectly sweet, tart, chewy, and crunchy and I nearly ate the entire bag in one sitting! The Tropical blend combines the kiwi with pineapple and bittersweet orange, while the Orchard blend is a combination of apples, peaches, and persimmons. I am currently keeping bags of these snacks behind my desk for a quick burst of natural fruit energy and vitamins wherever the mid day lull hits. If you want to give RIND a try, you can pick them up on Amazon!

One of my other recently discovered favorites is Louis Raison ciders. These classic French ciders (or cidres if you want to be fancy) have just launched in Illinois with three varieties: Original Crisp, Organic Dry, and Rouge Délice. Two of my good friends are self professed cider experts, so they are constantly introducing me to new varieties and flavors from all over the world. This being my chance to finally introduce them to something new, I invited them over one night to try the Louis Raison ciders and get their expert opinions. While we all enjoyed all three of them, they both lent towards the Original Crisp as their favorite because of it's bright flavor and caramel-like finish. I have a slightly sweeter palate, so I really liked the Rouge Délice, which was a blush cider with a very clean and slightly floral flavor. The Organic Dry was very light and refreshing with a flavor almost like baked apples or apple pie. I decided to use it to cook up some chicken apple sausages I had in the fridge, and it gave them such a delicious depth! Since this was the least sweet cider, it made for a perfect boiling liquid and also made a great glaze once reduced. I had some pickled red cabbage in the fridge, as well as an onion and garlic jam, which I thought would be perfect as toppings. I also mixed up a mustard cream (whole grain mustard, powdered yellow mustard, sour cream, and a little bit of apple butter). I may never go back to beer brats. These were sweet and savory perfection!

The one thing I do like about summer is going to farmer's markets. I always get inspired by all the fresh produce, meats, and eggs. My usual farmer's market takes place on Sunday mornings, which makes it rather convenient for me to go there to find something for breakfast. A week ago, I ended up with some cremini mushrooms, beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes, thick cut bacon, and pork breakfast sausage. It wan't until I got home that I realized I had accidentally bought all the fixings for a traditional English breakfast! But me being me, I couldn't simply just fry everything up and be done with it. Oh no! I had also bought two small wedges of very strong cheddars, which gave me the idea to combine all of these delicious ingredients into a massive pot of breakfast mac and cheese.

Pssst... the green one is the Vanilla flavor with some matcha powder mixed in!

Since I was going to be including the pork sausage and the bacon, I didn't want to make a cheese sauce with a lot of butter or milk, because the meat fats would probably cause them to separate and become too greasy. Instead, I decided to use some Muuna Cottage Cheese to bind everything together without adding too much additional fat or liquid. I've been a big fan of Muuna for a while now, especially their individually sized cups which come in a ton of delicious flavors. I even make little cheesecakes with them sometimes!

I started my mac and cheese by cutting up the bacon and sausage into bite sized pieces and browning them in a dutch oven. I then used the fat from the meats to blister the tomatoes and saute the mushrooms. I cooked up some elbow macaroni, then added them to the pot, added the meats back in, then put in all of the cheddar (which I had grated) and two large containers of plain Muuna, then mixed everything together. I baked it at 400 for about 45 minutes, then I added a can of drained baked beans to the top (it's not an English breakfast without baked beans) and cooked the whole thing for another 15 minutes. I served each portion topped with a perfectly poached egg. And voila! English Breakfast Mac and Cheese!

I received some of the products mentioned free of charge from the mentioned companies. All opinions stated are my own.

Recipe: Mini Cottage Cheese Cheescakes with Muuna Cottage Cheese

When I was a kid, cottage cheese was one of those things I'd forget I liked. There was always some in the fridge, but my go-to snacks usually involved carbs and sugar and cartoon animals. Then, I'd spy my mom having a few spoonfuls on a Sunday morning and I'd insist on being given some as well, and then I would usually eat it non stop for weeks on end until I once again forgot I loved the stuff. Sometimes we mixed jam into the cottage cheese or crushed pineapple. Once, I slept over at a friend's house and found out that they mixed apple butter into theirs. It was a revelation and to this day is still one of my favorite things to add into cottage cheese.

These days, I'm kind the same way. I forget that cottage cheese is delicious for long swaths of time, then I rediscover it, eat tons of it, and then repeat the cycle. It's a strange thing that I don't entirely understand, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I have to buy the stuff in such large containers. Eventually, I'll finish one off and I just get out of the habit of buying it.

Recently, I was sent three of Muuna Cottage Cheese's new flavors, all of which come in individual cups, sort of like yogurt. I really liked that the serving size was built into this particular cottage cheese, as it spared me from having to guess at how much I wanted to spoon out for myself from those larger containers. The three new flavors were Black Cherry, Raspberry, and Vanilla, all of which I highly approved of. Again, much like a yogurt, the fruit comes at the bottom, ready to be mixed through the extra creamy cottage cheese. This was another advantage over the larger tubs because if I wanted to take some into the office with me for a little protein boost, I didn't have to worry about bringing a jam jar along as well. Even though these were packed with flavor, their sugar levels were still pretty low (9 grams per cup),

Speaking of sugar...

I'd heard about making cheesecake with cottage cheese before, but I'd never tried it myself. I figured that since these cups were already flavored, they might be ideal to give this kind of healthy(ier) dessert a try. I knew I wanted to make the cheesecakes individually sized, just like the cups, and I knew I wanted to give them a chocolate crust. Originally, I wanted to try making the crusts with crushed cereal, but when Trader Joe's failed me (WTF, Trader Joe's at Diversey and Clark? No chocolate cereal? Why?!?!), I picked up a package of brownie crisps instead, and that ended up working out rather well. The result? A surprisingly smooth, light, and flavorful dessert that tastes exactly like it was made with full fat cream cheese!

Definitely pick up some of Muuna's new flavors if you're a fan of cottage cheese, and let me know if you give this recipe a try!

Mini Cottage Cheese Cheesecakes

2 individual cups of Muuna Cottage Cheese, any flavor
1/3 cup of low fat sour cream
1 large egg
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
1 package (5 oz) of Brownie Crisps
1/4 a cup of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the crust, crush the brownie crisps as fine as you can get them (you can either smash them in a plastic bag or grind them in a food processor). Add the melted butter to the crumbs and mix well, then distribute them evenly into the bottoms of a non stick muffin tin and press them flat.

Add the cottage cheese and sour cream into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Add in the egg, sugar, and flour, and blend again until the batter is completely mixed.

Pour the cheesecake mixture into the muffin tin cups, filling all the way to the top of each cup. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the filling is no longer jiggly and the cakes are slightly golden around the edges.

Let the cakes cool to room temperature, then refrigerate them over night so that they set completely.

Run a pairing knife dipped in hot water along the sides of the muffin tin to loosen the sides of the cakes, then serve and enjoy.

This recipe should make about a dozen and a half cakes, depending on the size of your muffin pan.


Thank you to Muuna for sending me the cottage cheese free of charge in order to facilitate the writing of this post. All opinions are my own and are not influenced by the brands I partner with.