Fresh Fruit Salad (Soy, Wheat, Nut, Milk, Egg and Fish-Free)

Fresh Fruit Salad made with Jonathan apples, blueberries, canned pineapple, clementines, bananas, strawberries, and red seedless grapes and tossed with the lemon juice and water mixture

Happy Mother's Day Weekend!  

In honor of mothers, I decided to post a recipe that was both healthy and delicious - a fresh fruit salad!  It is also super easy to make, and impossible to mess up because you can literally put any kind of fruit you want into it.  That's my kind of recipe, and one moms everywhere will love, especially because it is soy (if you use all soy-free ingredients), wheat, nut, milk, egg and fish-free.  Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Fresh Fruit Salad 

Mixture of 2:1 ratio water to lemon juice (optional - see instructions for more details)

Any amount of any fresh fruit you want such as:

grapes, any color 

(seedless recommended, but use your favorite kind, and you can chop these in half if you want, too)

blueberries

strawberries 

(stems and leaves removed and cut into bite-sized pieces)

clementines, peeled and separated into segments

bananas, peeled and sliced into bite-sized pieces

your favorite type or types of apples, sliced into bite-sized 

(peeled if you wish, but it isn't necessary)

pineapple, skin removed and cut into bite sized pieces 

(you can use canned if it is canned in juice only, but it needs to be drained well) 

kiwi, peeled and sliced into bite-sized pieces

your favorite melon (watermelon, cantaloupe, muskmelon, etc.), rind removed and chopped into bite-sized pieces

raspberries, any color

fresh cherries, any type, pitted and stem removed

(you can cut them in half if you wish, too)

any other type of fruit you wish

1. Put your lemon juice and water mixture, mixed according to the recommendations below, if you want to use it, in the bottom of your mixing bowl.
   • If making a large salad to feed a large crowd (think the amount you'd take to a potluck, so about 20+ people crowd-size), use 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and 2 Tablespoons water. 
   • If making a medium salad to feed a medium crowd (think the amount you'd make if you invited another family over for dinner, so about 10 people crowd-size), use 2 teaspoons lemon juice and 4 teaspoons water.  
   • If making a small salad to feed a small crowd (think the amount you'd make for just a few family, so about 5 people crowd-size), use 1 teaspoon lemon juice to 2 teaspoons water.  
   • If making a salad even larger or smaller than the sizes listed, just keep the ratio of lemon juice to water the same (2 parts water to every 1 part lemon juice), and you'll be good to go.  If you need help figuring out a good amount, just leave a comment below or send me an email, and I'll help you figure it out. :)
   (Note: This lemon juice and water mixture will keep the fruits that brown easily from browning like apples and bananas.  If you don't care if they brown, feel free to leave the lemon juice and water mixture out of the recipe.) 
   
   
2.  Add all of the bite-sized pieces of fruit you are using to the bowl, mix well. 

That's all there is to it!  You can serve it immediately or refrigerate for later.  If you want to make it ahead of time, that works, but if you want to add ingredients to it like banana that tend to get mushy, wait to add them until right before serving for best taste and presentation.

Variations (Please keep your individual dietary needs in mind when making variations.):

• Add-in options: If you want and you can have them, you can add shredded coconut, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, any nuts and/or any seeds to the mix, too.  Whatever combination sounds good to you, feel free to do!  The sky's the limit!

 

YUM!  So easy, so colorful, so tasty, and so good for you!

Enjoy!

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What's your favorite fruit?

What's your favorite salad?

What's your favorite way to spend Mother's Day?

  

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(This recipe was originally posted on my original site, Natural and Free.)