Delicious Reading: Blueberry Ambrosia Salad or Purple People Eat-Yer Fruit Salad

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I think I was in first grade the first time I realized how normal things become more fun if they are given a themed name. Our school’s October lunch menu stated that on the 31st, we would be dining on Cats’ Tails, Witches’ Fingers and Frogs’ Eyes (corn dogs, carrot sticks and grapes).

Now, as an adult, I do the same thing whether it is for my kids’ birthday parties when blue Kool-Aid and 7-Up with scoops of vanilla ice cream becomes Elsa’s Frozen Punch, the premiere of a TV show when I prepared A. Ham and cheese sandwiches while PBS aired “Hamilton’s America” or a holiday like Halloween.

Typically, for our pre-trick-or-treating feast, I make a big pot of chili followed by a chocolate dessert, featuring crushed Oreo “dirt” and gummy worms. It has occurred to me this is overkill on a night they will get loaded up with fun-size candy bars, so I tried to think of a way to make a themed fruit dessert. After all, a 2015 study in the “International Journal of Business and Market Systems” found children would choose fruit with a character sticker on it over a cupcake.

An idea came to me as I was looking through fruit salad, or ambrosia, recipes. If I used frozen blueberries and let them defrost in the salad, they would turn everything purple. And that is how the One-Eyed, One-Horned Flying Purple People Eat-yer Fruit Salad was born. If you are not enjoying this on Halloween, I guess you can just call it blueberry ambrosia.

2 20-ounce cans of drained pineapple chunks

1 12-ounce bag frozen blueberries

1 individual 5.3-ounce serving-size container of lowfat vanilla Greek yogurt

1 8-ounce tub Cool Whip Light

8 ounces miniature marshmallows

Mix the fruit, yogurt and half the cool whip in a large bowl. Chill at least 4 hours and up to overnight. Before serving, stir in the rest of the Cool Whip and the miniature marshmallows.