Melon Boats
This is one of those fun recipes which involves the kids in the kitchen. Summer is offering the bountiful fruits to cool us down. A trip to the Whole Food market last week made us load our cart with these delightful little cantaloupes they were offering four for a dollar that day.
I have never seen a cantaloupe so little; abut 3-4 inches in diameter, & it was just perfect for this kitchen project. Every now & then we get a magazine from “Texas Power” which promptly goes to the recycle bin. As I carelessly flipped through the pages before tossing it, I saw this cute colorful pictures of the melons filled with jello & fruits – a summer fruit salad! The tiny cantaloupes came just in time.
We got busy immediately to make our fruit filled melon boats.
Melon Boats
Ingredients:
- 1 Melon (Cantaloupe, Honey Dew or Watermelon)
- 2 Small Packets of Flavored Jello (Use any flavor you would like; I used Blue & Dark Cherry) – you would need more/less depending on the size of the melon
- Chopped Fruits (any combination of fruits you have in mind – I used peaches & pears along with some of the scooped out cantaloupe)
Note: Keep in mind that some fruits like pineapple & guava will not allow the Jello to set; so avoid those fruits.
Preparation:Cut the melon in half.
Remove the seeds & discard (in a Cantaloupe or Honey Dew; try to get a seedless Watermelon if you are using one ).
Scoop out some of the fruit from each half, to make space for the jello & fruit filling while leaving some flesh to bite into. (See the pictures) – Save the scooped out melons.
Prepare Jello as per instructions; Pour the Jello into the Melon halves.
Chop the fruits including some of the melons you scooped out & stir them in carefully in the liquid jello in the melons.
Chill in the refrigerator till the Jello sets.
Cut into slices/boats. Serve chilled.
This is an excellent kitchen project to do with kids. They will be able to help with scooping & mixing the jello & of course the greatest fun comes when the jello sets & they get their own boats. Any kind of melon can be used for this, & try to choose your jello with contrasting colors for more colorful fun.
Now let us Mingle with the Melons; Meeta’s Monlthy Mingle is being hosted at Chew on That. Sending melon boats to the mingle, the theme being the Marvelous Melons this time.
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so creative, not to mention colourful!
Interesting combo:)
Very interesting, hats off to your creativity!
Soma, you know how to make food look good! I see an alternative career prospect here for you 🙂
it looks like a piece of art or a boat of art. 🙂
how spectacular this looks! it would be the perfect for this month’s monthly mingle!
Oh thats so cute Soma! Very innovative and colorful!
Simply awesome…looks fab
Yum yum yum.Summer dessert , healthy and quick too
OMG!! This is amazing!! Very much new and innovative idea.
Amazing clicks!!
Wow, what am i seeing?? Looks gorgeous!
Lovely creations with the melons, I would love to try this for my daughter who never eats fruits.
Cute! I made Jello shots like this in oranges :o)
Woww so cute and very colourful!
wow..so creative n colorful;…….
Amazing..!! what more can I say??
Aesthetically beautiful !!
what a great idea. I have to remember to do this with my nieces and nephews when they are visiting next!
Wow, Soma, that jelly looks like photo effects! Kewl!
Very creative…look so refreshing…nice pictures!
spectacular Soma !!! They look great !!! 🙂 Glad to see you having a great time !
very very creative and colourful!!
Siri
How cute! Someone emailed me something similar the other day and I was so excited. I’ll make them when the weather heats up a little perhaps 🙂
Those are very cool! A great, creative project to do with kids!
What a fun project that must have been for the kids! 😀
Looks very good.
What fun these are! I can’t wait to make them with my nephew!
Such an innovative idea!They look fancy and beautiful!
Wow, that is a great idea… I love it and kids would love it, too! Thanks for sharing!
Your posts are always full of surprise and things to try.
About the other ingredient to use for salad instead of mayonnaise. I read recently where someone used butter milk. It looked good in the pic. Maybe Greek yogurt because it is thicker?
that looks beautiful!!
so cute!!!!!!!!!very colorful!
How delightful these look! I love all those psychedelic colors and they’d tickle any kid pink, I’d imagine. Lovely idea, Soma.
Looks super fun! My dad who only knows how to make one thing, jello, would love this.
These are so cute! They look like a very fun snack.
Oh look at them, they are gorgeous! That reminds me of an ice cream shop in Mexico city that served its ice creams in melon halves. I was going for that when I took the pictures for my melon ice cream, but smaller melons like these would’ve worked better. I love the idea!
I have never seen anything like this before !!!! gorgeous !!! just loving it…….yummyyyyyyyyyy
Oh wow, nostalgia overload. Mum used to make these (and with oranges too) whenever we had birthday parties as kids 🙂
By the way, did you know that heating the pineapple in water with half a capsicum (red pepper) will inactivate the enzyme that stops it from setting gelatin? Science!
Hi Tim
Thanks a bunch for that pineapple tip! has to be science!
cheers
Soma
That is very creative!!!!!
hehehe make use of them all. you are such a creative blogger 🙂
Sig said the same thing I said! You should so consider it! 🙂 Research about it and I will see if I can come up with something (don’t rely on me :O)
Thanks all for liking my Cute Boats 😉
colourful and so gorgeous!
First time to your blog. You have a wonderful blog with great dishes and awesome presentation. This is really so innovative. Colorful too. So much impressed seeing this. Take a peep at my blog when you find time.
That’s very creative!
Those things have “Midwestern Potluck” written all over them. Great update on the classic jell-o mold…
These are so original and look like so much fun to make! I love finding fun things at Whole Foods.
hmm… :-s
i must have either used the wrong type of jelly, or some fruit that doesn’t let the jelly set properly… does the recipe work with jelly that’s not “jello” brand name?
i had kiwi fruit and apple and pear in there.. they dont stop the jelly from setting, do they? because when i sliced it, it all spilled right out of the rock melon!! :-s
did i do something wrong??
nevertheless, urs luk great!
Hmmmm.. I wonder what could have happened. You should be able to see if the jelly is set. It will be tight and not wobbly or liquidy. When touched it should kind of spring back up.
It could the Kiwi fruit that you used. Here is an article (see the last paragraph): Sounds like it prevents jelly from setting.
http://www.foodreference.com/html/tkiwifruit.html
Sorry about that.. hope it works if you make it again.
such a cute idea!
Ugg, I wouldn’t eat those. I like the idea though.
I am continually browsing online for posts that can benefit me. Thank you!