No Bake Strawberry Cream Bites (Paleo)

You can always tell that spring is in full swing when the cutest little strawberry stands start to pop up all over my town.  The boys have been begging me for a flat, so we picked up some last week and they were the sweetest and juiciest strawberries ever!

Since strawberry treats are some of my fav (like these Raw Strawberry Cheesecake Bites) I knew I had to make something yummy with them.  I have been working on perfecting this recipe for a little while now and I can proudly say it's now perfected.  These are basically like strawberry crack balls...so addicting!  They are sweet, creamy, and taste exactly like a strawberry shortcake rolled up into a bite sized frozen treat.  You're gonna wanna make these asap.

What you will need:

• 2 cups of chopped strawberries (plus a little extra for garnish) 

• 1 cup of coconut butter -- you can buy this at a health food grocery store or easily make it yourself with this recipe 

• 2 tbs honey

• 1 tbs coconut flour

• 2 tbs of chopped almonds for garnish (optional)

Directions: 

1. Combine all of the ingredients above into a food processor or high powered blender.
2. Blend until you have a creamy consistency. 
3. Roll together small bites and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet or silicone baking mat.
4. Sprinkle chopped almonds and finely diced strawberries on top. 
5. Place in the freezer for about 30 minutes to harden up.
6. Enjoy! 

These treats are best enjoyed cold, so keep any leftovers in the fridge. 

These bite sized strawberry treats are absolutely addicting!  Make sure to come back and let me know if you make them!

Things That Make Me Say Yeay

Ronin, feeling extra proud of himself as he walks across the "plank" without falling.  I love special little moments like this where you watch your kids conquer something they didn't think they could do.

A strawberry pie cream pop, which was sooo good.  I think winter forgot about us here in Southern California, and I am actually totally fine with that.  Summer forever please.

Freshly painted white walls in the hallway.  This makes me happier than it probably should.

After school shenanigans with scooter and skateboard jumps (built by the little dudes) on our property.

I recently purchased my first ever lipstick (such an adult now) and I LOVE it.  It's called Pink Nude by Bobbi Brown.

 Happy Friday! Have an awesome weekend.

Strawberry Pineapple Salsa

Summer just got a little bit more awesome because my sister is home from Germany for a couple months.  I haven't seen her in over a year so catch up time has been a major priority.  We have been doing all kinds of fun things and each day usually ends with her at my house, while we enjoy a glass  of wine (or two), make a yummy snack and watch the boys run around the backyard like complete nut jobs.  The other afternoon we put together this salsa, which I must say is pretty much the ultimate summer-time snack.

What you will need:

• 1 cup of diced strawberries
• 1 cup of diced pineapple
• 1 jalepeno diced (remove seeds) 
• 1/2 cup of chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup of diced red onion 
• Juice from 1 lime
• Dash of sea salt 

Directions:

1. Add all of the ingredients into a bowl and throughly mix everything up together. 
2. Serve with whatever chips you prefer (I love roasted sweet potato and beet chips) and enjoy!

The combination of the sweet, tart and spicy is just perfect...and completely addicting!

Things That Make Me Say Yeay

Peach picking with Nana.  I have never seen a peach tree produce so many juicy peaches at one time!  Every time we visit we leave with giant bags, which is never a bad thing.

Awesome night time ceiling effects from our dining room light.

A morning bagel date with my boys and lots of extra insulin for me ;)  Bagels are not the best choice for a type 1 diabetic (duh) but hey at least once a year I have to have one smothered in cream cheese of course.  I mean come on.

And to follow up that bagel picture since it's all about balance...a new clean eating restaurant discovery that will make even the unhealthiest of eaters conform to a clean meal.  Everything here is incredible and even their coffee, tea and smoothie bar was unbelievable.

The cutest little homegrown strawberry that was almost too perfect to eat.

Have a wonderful weekend! This weekend Ian and I are celebrating our 7 year wedding anniversary...woo hoo to that!  I can't wait to relax and enjoy some time with just the two of us.

Things That Make Me Say Yeay

Routine morning snuggles with my two favorite little people.

My sweet neighbor brought over these beautiful flowers from her garden along with chocolate chip cookies.  She also occasionally brings over solo beers and glasses of wine, which I must say is pretty awesome too :)  I mean...as far as neighbors are concerned you can't get any better.  We really lucked out considering we didn't even know our previous neighbors first names until the day we moved out of our last home.  True story!

Backyard lounging with Max and surprisingly delicious beet, lime and strawberry juice popsicles.

Project Life, which has become my latest obsession.  Have you heard of this yet?  It's makes documenting life easy and fun.  No scissors, glue and all the other little do-dahs that you need with regular scrapbooking (which I am not a fan of).  This takes all of the hard work out with ready to go slots for pictures and cute little already made inserts which you can write on to record special memories.  I dig it.

A fun flea market find that was recently hung in Max's room.  I felt like it was only necessary to introduce him to the band that is now displayed on his wall and he now requests "Yellow Submarine" every time we get in the car :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Strawberry Shortcake Muffins (Paleo)

The weather lately has been fan-freakin-tastic and all I have felt like doing is soaking it up.  I usually do all the grocery shopping on the weekends and since that can get quite monotonous I have been breaking up the routine with making more trips to the outdoor farmers market, where I have been getting our fruits and veggies for the week.  I picked up these strawberries over the weekend and we have been snacking on them like candy.  Since strawberry flavored anything is my jam I knew these  would taste delicious inside of a baked treat.  The texture and taste of these muffins reminded me of a cake (a shortcake) and my whole family inhaled them like it was the last sweet thing they might ever eat again...pretty typical of them.

What you will need:

• 2 1/2 cups of blanched almond flour 
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1/4 cup of coconut oil (melted)
• Juice from 1/2 lemon 
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of diced strawberries 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Mix together the dry ingredients and then add in the wet ingredients.  Mix well  until everything is completely blended together. 
3. Place baking cups into muffin tray. Scoop enough muffin batter to fill each muffin tin about 2/3 of the way full.  Add a few more diced strawberries on top if you wish. 
4. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
5. Enjoy! 

A few tips: 

• These are more moist compared to other muffins made with almond flour but that is normal.  
• If you overfill your muffin tins with batter (I did on a few) your muffins will sink in the middle.  So it is best to under fill rather than overfill with this recipe. 

These are moist, light and remind me exactly of a delicious strawberry shortcake (in muffin form).  Please come back and let me know if you make these!

Recipe makes 12 muffins and each muffin contains approx 12 grams of effective carbohydrate.

Raw Strawberry Cheesecake Bites (Paleo)

Two recipes actually got posted in one week?! Whaaaat?  That might be a record for me. But these were just too good to not share as soon as I possibly could.

Not sure what my deal is this week but I have been on this (way more than normal) crazy baking and cooking streak.  Since I am a complete scatter brain the hard part of doing anything when you have a million things burnin through your skull, is deciding which idea to actually execute.  ADD problems for sure.

These strawberry cheesecake bites might just be my favorite dessert made to date!  They are freaking goooooooood and it's hard to eat just one, which kind of defeats the whole bite size dessert thing but whatever.  Do what feels right when it comes to dessert, ya know? :)

These might seem complicated because of all the steps but I promise they are so easy to make.  All you are doing is putting everything in a food processor and letting that bad boy do all the work...and then waiting for them to set.   If you can measure, you can make these.

What you will need for the crust:

• 2 cups of almonds
• 1 cup of pitted dates
• 1/2 cup of shredded unsweetened coconut 
• Juice from 1/2 of a lemon

What you will need for the filling:

• 3 cups of raw cashews
• 3/4 cup of lemon juice (fresh is best)
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 3/4 cup of coconut oil
• 1tbs of vanilla

* Filling adapted from here. 

What you will need for the topping:

• 8-9 medium to large strawberries
• 1/4 cup of coconut oil 
• 1 tbs honey 

Directions:

1. Place all of the ingredients for the crust in a food processor.  Process until you have a sticky dough consistency. 
2. Take a small amount of crust and roll it into a ball.  Then place it on the bottom of your muffin tin and press down firmly so it holds together.  
3. Clean your food processor (the only annoying part of this process) and place all the ingredients for the filling inside.  Process until you have a smooth cheesecake filling consistency
4. Layer the filling on top of the crust, leaving just a little bit of room for the topping. 
5. Place all of the strawberry topping ingredients into the food process and blend until you have a sauce like consistency. (Are you sick of me saying ---- like consistency?  I am haha) 
6. Add the topping on top of each mini cheesecake.  
7. Place in the freezer for about an hour or until they are set. 
8. Enjoy! 

*I used a silicone muffin tin from OvenArt Bakeware and it's the BEST!  It makes the whole process of getting your frozen desserts out in the end so much easier.  If you can get one I highly recommend it.

If you make these please come back and let me know what you think!

Flourless Strawberry Chocolate Cake

I mentioned this cake in my Friday's post and on Instagram.  Many of you wanted to hear the recipe so here ya go!  Let me start this post by saying I am pre-warning you.  If you have a self control problem when eating cake maybe you should just make a single serving chocolate mug cake.  This cake is moist and chocolaty and oh so good it's almost impossible to have just one slice.  I may or may not have stayed up after everyone had gone to bed on Valentine's Day and sliced myself a (few) pieces.  I sound so awesome I know.  This recipe was adapted from Paleo Effect.  I made a few tiny changes to make the consistency just a little bit more rich and it turned out perfect. This will definitely be a recipe regular come birthday or celebration time.  We had our cake with a side of this ice cream and it was so so good.

Oh and the really awesome part about this recipe is it is perfect if you are in a time crunch.  All you need to make this is a blender.  No fancy mixing tools needed other than that.

Flourless chocolate cake recipe:

• 1/2 tsp of sea salt
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 cup of unsalted ground cashews
• 1/3 cup of cocoa powder
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1 and 1/2 tbs of vanilla
• 1/2 cup of melted coconut oil

* I topped the cake with sliced strawberries and I really recommend adding them on top.  The combination of everything is so delicious.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until you have a smooth somewhat watery consistency.  You might wonder at this point how this will turn into cake but trust me it will. 
3. Grease an 8 inch cake baking dish with coconut oil and sprinkle a little cocoa powder on the bottom.  Pour your batter in.  
4. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  

If you want to top it with chocolate (paleo) icing here is the recipe:

• 3/4 cup of cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup of coconut oil
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 tbs of vanilla
• 6 tbs of coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp of sea salt

Directions:
Mix everything together in a blender.  Once the cake cools apply.

Enjoy! 

Things That Make Me Say Yeay

A super soft 100% cotton tank c/o Wildlife Works.  Have you heard of this company before?  All of their products are fair trade organic and eco friendly, which I love! This company is awesome.  Every t-shirt that is sold goes directly to sustaining over 400 local Kenyan jobs with full heath benefits.  The company also helps preserve local forests and threatened wildlife.  You can check out their new spring line here. 

Signs of spring all along my street.

A much needed kid free ladies afternoon...and I promise all those wine glasses are not mine.

Our Valentine's Day treat that Max and I made.  A chocolate strawberry cake.  It was completely Paleo (flour and dairy free) and seriously delicious.

Stenciled baby leggins for Ronin, which makes for the perfect rainy day craft.

Have a wonderful weekend!