About this Recipe

Food, taste and the pleasure of eating has EVERYTHING to do with not only the tastebuds on our tongues (which change every 2 weeks!), but also the smells that enter our noses and hit our brains. Smells not only our brains- they touch and mingle with the area of our brain associated with memories and also our nervous system response. Some smells can induce relaxation, and other can bring on clarity. In ancient times the word 'ambrosia' was known as the food of the Gods and Goddesses in Greek mythology, a word they used to describe anything that was pleasing to the senses primarily taste and scent. The lessons of savoring and enjoying the delicious foods that delight our senses is not only for Gods and Goddesses in ancient times. It simply takes learning to slow down and feel. Slow down and enjoy. Slow down and taste what we or someone else has so lovingly put their time into preparing. Eating is a wonderful place to learn the art of appreciation and mindfulness. Mindfulness is the simplicity of being HERE, NOW. In the moment. The art of being present in the moments of our lives. In Grandmother's Kitchen, we each have taken the time to learn to meditate. Some of us, though 10 day sits in silence practicing watching the movement of breath and the sensations of the body, or like my Mother, she learned a WAY simpler way with this incredible meditation instruction tool called Muse Meditation Headband which truly takes the mystery away and is a practical easy way to develop a meditation practice. This Ambrosia Salad recipe is the perfect dessert to practice mindfulness and appreciation. If the creamy texture of the whipped cream and yogurt don't transport you into the now, try tuning into the sweet scent of strawberries or the energizing smells or oranges as they fill your brain circuits.

Grandmother's Tips:

1. If you would like to serve this dessert cold which is incredibly delicious and tastes like a decadent homemade ice cream, we recommend Grandmother's Kitchen delicious Icebox Ambrosia Salad Recipe.

2. This is an easy dessert you can whip up the night before you go to a gathering to let it sit in the fridge all night, so the flavors mix and mingle. While mixing the ingredients together, it's incredible to think about how lucky we are to have all of these fantastic foods available to us now when only 100 years ago it was challenging to get oranges and pineapples at all.

Keeping your kitchen cleaner and tidier is a good way to avoid contamination of any kind, whether it be from mold, bacteria, rodent or bug infestations. The best cleaning products for kitchen cleaning include natural kitchen cleaners like vinegar and baking soda along with lemon juice or essential oils. The best cleaning products for kitchen cleaning will be natural ones since you don’t want to be using any type of chemical cleaner around food that you’ll be consuming.

You can even wash your vegetables and fruit in the same cleaning products like vinegar since they’re all natural. Just add some vinegar to the sink full of cool or lukewarm water and allow the vegetables or fruit to soak and wash all of the germs off.

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Ingredients

(Print)

Makes: 16 - 1/2 cup size servings

2 cups whipped cream ( you will need 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract)

1 small red apple washed, sliced think and cut into smaller pieces, we used Gala

1 (398ml) can crushed or diced pineapple, we used Dole crushed pineapple packed in its own juices, strained

1 (298ml) can Mandarin orange slices, we used Native Forest organic packed in its own juices strained

Tip: Save the juice from the canned from for smoothies or a yummy drink.

1 cup fresh seedless green grapes, washed and sliced in half

1 cup fresh seedless red grapes, washed and sliced in half

1 cup mini marshmallows, we used Dandies brand , non GMO natural ingredients

1 cup shredded coconut, we used organic non sweetened long shred coconut

1/4 cup natural plain yogurt, we used Tree Island, natural non-sweetened organic

1/2 cup cherries, we used frozen fresh organic cherries

Directions

Part 1: Make the whipping cream: (Homemade Whipped Cream Recipe)

1. Gather the whipping cream, confectioners' sugar and vanilla.

2. Sift the confectioners' sugar to remove any lumps.

3. Pour whipping cream into chilled glass bowl.

4. Whip cream for about a minute.

5. Add vanilla extract and confectioners' sugar.

6. Whip for 2-3 minutes until it has thickened.

Part 2: Mix together the salad:

1. Place all the cut and prepared fruit ingredients into a bowl and stir together.

2. Add the yogurt, marshmallows and coconut and stir to combine.

3. Transfer to a larger mixing bowl if needed.

4. Add the whipping cream and fold together until all the ingredients are evenly coated and combined.

5. You can serve up the salad in a variety of colorful and fun ways.

6. Place into the refrigerator and cool for at least 2 hours before serving.

Recipe Idea & Tip: This ambrosia salad recipe is delicious frozen and served in this Icebox Ambrosia Salad Recipe.

ENJOY!

Return to this Best Ambrosia Salad recipe or check out more recipes at Grandmother's Kitchen

If you’ve ever come across some mold on your food, you probably want to make sure that never happens again. Or at least reduce the risks of that happening to you again. The dangers of mold in food aren’t as high as the dangers of mold growing in your home, but they still pose somewhat of a health threat. The good thing about mold growing on food is that you can just throw out the food with the mold on it to get rid of the mold. Whereas learning how to remove mold growing in your home can be an entirely different process altogether.

Ambrosia salad is a classic recipe that has taken on many different ingredients and identities. Is it a salad or a dessert recipe? Some say it's a salad because it has all of the fixings of a fruit salad in it. Others call it a dessert because it has a sweeter flavour profile with marshmallows in it which are usually considered a treat. A dessert can be called a salad if you want though, there are no strict rules here.

The recipe has different ingredients in it too depending on who's making it and where they got their recipe. Sometimes there's coconut, but sometimes not. The types of fruit in the recipe also changes from recipe to recipe as well. In ancient times ambrosia was known as the food of the gods in Greek mythology, a word they used to describe anything that was pleasing to the senses primarily taste and scent.

So the name of the dessert recipe doesn't describe anything that's in the salad, but the delicious flavour of the salad overall. The earliest mention of the dessert recipe was in the 1867 cookbook called Dixie Cookery by Maria Massey Barringer from Concord, North Carolina. Her recipe was very basic with layers of whipped cream, coconut and oranges served in ice cream bowls.

What was once a three-ingredient dessert recipe slowly took on new ingredients like cherries and apples. Our recipe includes a lot of great healthy fruits including apples, oranges, and cherries, as well as pineapple, grapes, and yogurt. Of course, there is the whipped cream, but we also have some plain yogurt in this recipe too which makes it extra thick and creamy. If you like creamy fluff desserts you can also try out the Orange Fluff Dessert Recipe or the Cherry Fluff Recipe