Is there anything that can compare to a fresh peach on a summer afternoon? (Well, besides some delicious blueberries, of course.) The time span of the vernal fruit’s ripeness is quite narrow (compared to more resilient bananas or apples), but right now is peak season for the treat. And it’s more than just a delicious, furry fruit. The peach is a natural, supremely juicy source of fiber, vitamins A and C, potassium, and niacin, a B vitamin that aids digestion, amps HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and helps radiant skin shine through. So that “peachy glow” isn’t just a figure of speech!

How do you pick a perfect peach? Select ones that are extremely firm, dense for their size, and unblemished. And enjoy:

Easy Meals

1. The quintessential: serve room-temperature peach slices with a bowl of fresh cream.
2. Add 1 cup orange juice, peach slices (small), 1/2 cup raspberries, ice cubes, and 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk to a blender and swirl till smooth for a light, refreshing summer drink.
3. Use a slice–instead of a lime or lemon–as garnish for a martini, or drop one in your vodka tonic for a twist. Read More »

If you’ve been a CollegeCandy reader for some time, you know we run our Intro to Cooking series every week, where even the most kitchen-shy co-ed can find easy, yummy recipes to please her suitemates (and sweet tooth!). Well, we’ve changed up the syllabus for Intro to Cooking: you’ll still get the fabulous recipes you love, but we’ll be including background nutritional info on specific ingredients that are must-haves in every college girl’s pantry.

This Week’s Ingredient: Bananas!

Gwen Stefani wasn’t kidding when she said her sh*t was bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S). What better food to give props to than these sweet yellow babies? In all honesty, if I had to pick exactly one food item to live on for the rest of my life, it would definitely be bananas. Why? At just 100 calories (per medium Cavendish banana, the bright yellow kind most commonly sold in American grocery stores), the banana is an excellent source of vitamin B6, potassium, fiber, and manganese. It is sweet, creamy, filling, easy to digest, and soothes stomach upset. Protease inhibitors in the banana reduce bacteria in the stomach while its natural composition activates the production of cells that line the stomach to protect it from painful acids.  Next time you’ve got a hangover, try a banana or two for breakfast and tell me if your stomach doesn’t feel ten times better! Read More »

Do you need a super-quick and easy dessert recipe to take to a last-minute holiday party help ease the pain of a break up? Do you love peanut butter? Do you love desserts that are indulgent and–gasp!–healthy?

Read on, my friend.

This recipe for pumpkin peanut butter mousse (adapted from The Peanut Butter Boy‘s formula) is about as close to Food Pyramid-certified as you’re going to get. The only fat in this dessert is in the peanut butter (which is loaded with “good” monounsaturated fats, as well as protein), and hey, pumpkin is a fruit!  Best of all, this recipe is multi-functional (see below) and takes less than five minutes to make.

If there were ever a sign that god exists, it is here. And it is tasty. Read More »

I like to eat healthy whenever possible, and I’ve been trying to lose these last 5 pounds forever, but I wouldn’t say that I’m the type of girl who’s constantly on a diet. That being said, when my pro-dieter friend (I mean, she’d been on every single diet that was ever invented, and some she invented herself) emailed me this recipe for low carb fudge, I knew I had to try it.

Because fudge, my friends, is absolutely delicious, and reminds me of summers in Cape Cod; flocking around the beach and inside an unbelievable candy shop they’ve got there. When I was little, I could put away fudge like Michael Phelps apparently puts away anything, but along with boobs came a metabolism that’s slower than a turtle stuck in gum. These days, I don’t eat a lot of fudge, even though I’d like to, so when I got that email, I knew I had to try and make it.

The final verdict? Not bad. It certainly doesn’t taste as perfect as Cape Cod Candy Shoppe fudge, but it will certainly do for a small after dinner treat.

Read More »

Have you ever thought to yourself, self, I REALLY want something sweet and impressive tonight…what ever could that be?

Well, even if you don’t think out loud like some of us, no doubt you’ve run into a predicament that includes you needing to make something on the fly to impress someone, or just simply feeling a keen desire to impress your own stomach. But, if you’re anything like me, you’re A) a little lazy and B) too busy to make some kind of complicated recipe that will take hours and then be eaten in minutes.

That’s why this bananas in brown sugar with rum sauce dessert is like the Best. Idea. EVER. It’s fancy, it’s easy, it’s pretty healthy, and who doesn’t like cooking with a healthy dose of rum??

Ingredients: Read More »