Fruit Salad

Fruit salad is a favorite dish in the house. Simple, healthy and delicious.  We use fresh fruits in our fruit salad plus evaporated milk and sugar.  There is no exact recipe. We just use fruits available in the market. Our fruit salad is usually a combination of any of these fruits- papaya, mango, apple, banana and avocado.

Yes, avocado is a fruit in my country. It is an ingredient in dessert recipes. We have avocado ice cream and avocado shake.

On avocado: My father used to tell me that the nutritional content of the avocado is equivalent to 8 eggs. He told me that my mother who is hypertensive should avoid eating avocado. We used to believe that until we heard that the avocado helps increase the good cholesterol which will fight the bad cholesterol.

If we want a fancier fruit salad, we add raisins and marshmallows and use condensed milk+cream instead of the evaporated milk+sugar combination. It is only recently that I like eating fruit salad.  I used to dislike eating anything mixed. I used to be a purist. I eat the fruits but when they are not combined with other fruits. Before,  when I eat fruit salad, I eat all the papayas first, then the avocado, and so on. The preparation of the fruit salad is my task in the kitchen. I like cutting the fruits into bite-size pieces. I feel like a chef because I can cut them with ease due to their soft flesh. The simple procedure ( cut+dump in bowl+add milk and sugar+mix a little+refrigerate) has become second-nature to me. Foolproof! On a regular day, there are 5 of us who share the fruit salad. We usually make just enough for one meal. Because we all like fruit salad, we tend to overeat. Some more voracious than others. The slow-eaters are at a disadvantage.  We figured we must portion out the salad instead of just putting one large bowl. Thus, we have these. If there are leftovers, we freeze them and we got ice cream the next day! Yum! Truth be told, my tummy is still heavy with the salad I ate for dinner. Therefore, I am still awake because sleeping with a full stomach is not advisable. Afraid of bangungot. Bangugot, according to my nurse relatives, is acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis. From what I gather from them, it happens when the body is on sleep-mode while the stomach continues its work in digesting the food. Before I end up in nightmares, I end the day with this prayer.

Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to whom His love commits me here, ever this day (or night) be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.