[1] A delicious strata for breakfast, brunch, or lunch (photos #1 and #2 © California Figs).

[2] You can use any dried figs you like, but purple figs will show up best in the strata.

[3] Fresh Italian hot sausage. You can use hot or mild sausage in the recipe (photo © Fresh Direct).

[4] Grated Parmesan cheese. The cheese always tastes better when it’s fresh-grated (photo © London Deposit | Panther Media).

[5] Here’s a slight bit of food fusion: Spain’s most famous cheese, Manchego, in an Italian strata (photo © Iberian Foods).

We’ve also linked to 25+ more recipes we’ve previously published, that use figs for cocktails, breakfast, mains, and desserts.

Are you ready for a fig fest?

> The history of figs.

> Types of figs, and ways to use figs at every meal.

> Ways To Use Dried Figs

> Ways To Use Fig Spreads

> Ways To Use Fresh Figs

There are links to many more exciting fig recipes below.
 
 
RECIPE: FIG & SAUSAGE STRATA
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 325°F. Use the butter to grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

2. WHISK together the eggs, half-and-half, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, and sage in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.

3. FOLD in the cooked sausage and figs. Transfer to the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the Manchego cheese. If you’d like figs visible on the top of the strata after it is baked, reserve a few pieces and carefully place them on top about halfway through the cooking time.

4. COVER with foil and bake for 25 minutes. When done, the strata should be set and only slightly jiggle when the pan is moved from side to side. If the center appears liquid, re-cover with the foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Once set…

5. REMOVE the foil and bake another 5 to 7 minutes, until golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes and then cut into 8 portions to serve.
 
 
MORE FIG RECIPES
Figs are often thought of for sweet recipes: fig scones, tarts, chocolate truffles, and of course, figgy pudding, a popular Christmas pudding.

Figgy foods aren’t just for sweet dishes. Figs are often cooked with pork, lamb, and even on pizza. Add them to stuffing; and whenever a recipe calls for prunes, you can substitute figs. Figs, fresh or dried, are delicious in yogurt or in hot or cold breakfast cereals.
 
 
Breakfast

 
Cocktails

 
Appetizers & First Courses

 
Mains & Sides

 
Desserts

In the 1920s, RIND founder Matt Weiss’s great-grandmother, Helen Seitner, opened a natural foods store in Flint, Michigan. Talk about being ahead of her time!

The Stay-Well Health Shop carried fresh produce, whole-grain flour, bulk seeds, nuts, and other wellness foods that focused on the power of whole foods.

RIND fruit snacks are also nutritious whole foods, but in current times, they have a secondary mission as well: to minimize food waste (more about that in a moment).

The brand also has an anti-hunger initiative called Love Is RIND. In partnership with local and national organizations, RIND has donated 35,000 bags of snacks to kids in need.

It’s a feel-good brand, as well as a taste-good one.
 
 
HOW RIND REDUCES FOOD WASTE

According to Feeding America and numerous other sources, food waste in the U.S. is a huge problem.

It’s not only for the waste it dumps into landfill, the labor and expense wasted in growing and bringing it to market, and the amount of water used and greenhouse gas expended in growing and processing it.

It’s also food that could have gone to feed America’s hungry.

By making dried fruit snacks that include rinds and peels, RIND saved 340,000 pounds of food waste in 2021 and aims to save 1 million pounds in 2022.

These are sustainable snacks as well as nutritious ones. RIND retains the nutrients that are in the peels and rinds, which are often the healthiest part of the fruit.

RIND snacks are made with the entire fruit, including the oft-discarded peel. There is only one ingredient in RIND: sliced, dehydrated fruit.

This “recipe” not only saves a lot of peel from landfill. It also saves fruits that would be headed for the landfill because they’re misshapen, discolored, or bruised so customers won’t buy them.

The latter is a big problem: Each year, 10 million pounds of tasty and nutritious but cosmetically imperfect produce is thrown away (read the whole article).

(Globally, 1.3 billion tons of produced food goes uneaten every year!)

We would hope that produce growers and local governments would get together to distribute these perfectly edible foods to the hungry, but so far they haven’t connected. (Why not write to your local growers and officials?)
 
 
RIND FLAVORS

The chewy fruit chips are high in fiber, flavonoids (antioxidants), and vitamin C, with a satisfying crunch.

For a product with no added sugar, we enjoyed it very much; that is to say, we’re a big fan. There’s an entire fruit department worth of flavors:

 
 
WAYS TO USE RIND SNACKS

RIND is more than a grab-and-go, or sit-and-eat, snack. The fruit can be used as:

 
 
GET YOUR RIND SNACKS

Try them yourself, and buy them for healthful* stocking stuffers!

You can buy them online at RindSnacks.com.

Here’s a store locator.

The brand is also available on Amazon.
 
 
________________
 
*“Healthy” vs. “healthful”: The Difference. Healthy is an adjective used to describe someone or something (animal, plant) in good health. Healthful is an adjective used to describe something as health-giving or abetting good health.

[2] RIND orange and coconut chips used as a fruitcake topping (or carrot cake, pound cake, or other cake).

[3] Pineapple rings garnish a smoothie.

[4] Apple chips on a plain bagel and cream cheese, with a honey drizzle. The chips are also great on toast and English muffins.
 

[5] Coconut crisps are available plain or with cocoa and sea salt.
 

[6] Bags of Apple, Straw-Perry.

[2] Acorn squash. You can toast the seeds for a snack or garnish—on salads, breakfast cereal, grains, etc.—see the footnote† (photo © Kim Daniels | Unsplash).
 

[3] Use whatever honey you have (photo © National Honey Board).

[4] You can grind hazelnuts into powder† or purchase them already ground. Note that hazelnut powder isn’t .
 

[5] Sunflower seeds (photo © Umpqua Oats | Facebook).

If you typically season roasted/baked squash with a pat of butter and some cinnamon or nutmeg—our go-to—this version is an elegant upgrade.

The recipe was created for the National Honey Board by Executive Chef Ashfer Biju of Perrine NYC & The Pierre, A Taj Hotel.

This recipe is for 24 servings, but you can use this serving size recipe converter to cut the recipe to the size you like.

Do you know the difference between roasted versus baked? See the footnote‡.
 
 
RECIPE: HONEY-ROASTED ACORN SQUASH WITH HONEY-LEMON RICOTTA & SPICY HAZELNUT GRANOLA
 
IngredientsFor 24 Servings

For The Granola

 
For The Cheese Mixture

 
For The Acorn Squash

 
For The Garnish

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the granola. This can be done a few days in advance. Combine all the ingredients. Spread on an oiled sheet pan and bake in a 350°F oven until the mixture is dry and crunchy. Cool and store in an airtight container.

2. MAKE the cheese mixture. Whip the ricotta with the honey, lemon zest, and juice, and season with salt and pepper. Fold in the Parmesan and hazelnut powder and taste for seasoning. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the cheese mixture. Set aside.

3. MAKE the acorn squash: Preheat a convection oven to 375°F. Prepare a marinade by whisking together the honey and olive oil. Add the thyme, salt, and pepper.

4. TOSS the marinade with the squash and spread the squash on a sheet pan with the crushed garlic. Make sure the squash is patted dry before the marinade is applied.

5. ROAST for 20 minutes, or until the squash is cooked through. Increase the heat to 400°F, then cook another 5 minutes to get a deeper, darker color on the squash.

6. PLATE: Place 4 or 5 pieces of squash per serving on an ovenproof dish. Pipe several dollops of cheese mixture over the squash. Gratinate under a salamander (or a broiler) until the cheese starts to turn golden brown.

7. REMOVE and top with a generous sprinkling of granola and chopped parsley. Spoon over extra-virgin olive oil and top with crushed peppercorns.

Chef’s Note: Cooking time of the squash may vary depending on the ripeness of the fruit. Leaving the skin on provides a great texture for the final product.
 
 
 ________________
 
*Toasted Squash Seeds: Rinse and drain the seeds and blot them dry with paper towels. Place on a small rimmed baking sheet and use more paper towels to blot up any excess water. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and season them with garlic salt (or cinnamon, if you plan to use them on oatmeal or yogurt). Roast in a 325°F oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown, tossing them once or twice (if some pop, that’s O.K.).
 

‡Roasted Vs. Baked: The main differences between roasting and baking are (1) the types of foods you roast versus bake, and (2) the temperature of the oven. Roasting requires a higher oven temperature of above 400°F to cook the food, while baking takes place at lower oven temperatures, around 375°F and below.
 

This recipe is from Folios Cheese Wraps, a Nibble Top Pick Of The Week.

They’re a great product that you can use instead of carb-loaded bread, pasta, etc., so check out the article. (They’re lactose-free, too.)

They’re used to make the “mummy wraps” in this recipe. There’s a larger photo of the mummies below.
 
 
RECIPE: MUMMY JALAPEÑO POPPERS

You can play with the recipe, using goat cheese instead of cream cheese. If you don’t want to use bacon, substitute a small dice of red bell peppers.

Or you can use Folio’s Jarlsberg or Mozzarella Wraps, which are paler in color than the yellow Cheddar wraps (more like mummy bandages, but less eye appeal).
 
Ingredients For 10 Pieces

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F. In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and crumbled bacon.

2. SPOON the mixture into each jalapeño half and arrange on a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

3. REMOVE from the oven and let sit until they are cool enough to handle. Then, one half at a time, carefully wrap the jalapeños with cheese strips (1-2 per jalapeño).

4. TURN the oven to broil and gently place the wrapped poppers under the broiler for 1 minute. Remove them from the oven and immediately place eyes on each popper. Let cool and serve.
 
 > The history of chile peppers.

> The different types of chiles.

> The history of cheese.

> The different types of cheese.

[2 The recipe uses the Cheddar variety for mummy bandages.

[3] We prefer the more pale Jarlsberg wraps.

[1] Instead of sugar, try maple syrup on your oatmeal. Here, there’s also a sprinkling of almonds for more protein—and crunch and flavor (photo © Wesual | Unsplash).

[2] Food fun: oatmeal topped with peanut butter—more protein—and jelly (photo © Simply Quinoa).

[3] Oatmeal can also be a savory dish, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here it’s fusion food, topped with an egg, scallions, and “leftover” shredded pork, Chinese-style. Here are more savory oatmeal recipes (photo © Omnivore’s Cookbook).

[4] Baked oatmeal casseroles are also delicious. Here’s the recipe (photo © Driscoll’s).

If you’re not eating enough whole grains, add some oatmeal to your diet. We’ve included some oatmeal recipes for October 29th, National Oatmeal Day.

Oats are whole grains, a good source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. According to the American Cancer Society:

 
> The history of oatmeal.

> A glossary of grains.

> Food 101: the difference between porridge and gruel is below.
 
 
OATMEAL RECIPES

For Breakfast

 
 
WHAT IS PORRIDGE?

If you grew up reading 19th-century novels, you probably read a lot about porridge and gruel. What’s the difference?

Porridge is a dish made by boiling ground, crushed or chopped cereal grains in water, milk, or a combination of both. It is usually served hot, often sweetened, and sometimes savory (the beloved cheese grits are porridge).

Any cereal grain can be made into porridge. Some of the most common in the U.S.:

 
Other cereals—flax, millet, quinoa, rye, sorghum, and spelt, for example—are also made into porridge; as are non-cereals like legumes and potatoes.

Pease porridge, from the old English nursery rhyme, is made from dried peas.

> Alternative grain porridge options.
 
 
WHAT IS GRUEL?

Gruel is a thinner version of porridge—so thin that it can be drunk, rather than spooned. Historically, gruel has been a staple of the Western peasant diet.

Gruel is often made from barley, hemp and millet. In hard times, chestnuts and even the less tannic acorns of some oaks were ground into flour and made into gruel.

Gruel was a cheap way for officials to feed the poor—most famously described by Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, a ward of the parish, who couldn’t even get a second helping of it at his orphanage.