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!

strawberry yogurt muffins

I never want to paint a picture that my life is all dandelions and rainbows. I have bad weeks. This week was one of them. I wore myself too thin and feel pretty burnt out. To top it off Max is teething, miserable and running a low grade fever.

Sooooo anywhoo about the strawberries. There is a fresh strawberry stand by my house and I decided a frozen strawberry daiquiri sounded pretty fantastic. I was also desperately craving carbs...so i stopped and picked up a flat. SO that is how the strawberry yogurt muffin was born.

What you will need:

• 2 cups of fresh strawberries
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp of baking soda
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 1/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tbs coconut oil
• 1tsp of vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Stir together all the dry ingredients.
3. In a blender puree one cup of strawberries.
   
4. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites. Add the yogurt, strawberry puree, oil and vanilla extract. Combine with dry ingredients. Chop up the remaining strawberries and add to batter.
   
5. Spoon the batter into the muffin pan. Bake for about 15 min.

If your week is slightly suck-y these will definitely help, or if you are just craving carbs these will do the trick.

Have you entered THIS giveaway yet?

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!

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 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!

A Surprise Sprinkle Shower!

On Saturday my two best friends surprised me with a "sprinkle" shower! I thought I was just meeting them for lunch and when I arrived there were balloons, table decorations and all my friends were there! I was so shocked, which is surprising since I am usually Nancy Drew when it comes to secrets and surprises. I did not have a clue.

See the little crocheted baby booties above? My sweet friend hand made all of those for each person who came. So cute! Since I bring my camera with me wherever I go I was able to get a few pictures...

Opening all the fun little gifts for baby Ronin.

Cupcakes for all the non diabetics...which is everyone except me...

...and a giant all natural strawberry low sugar pie for me!

I was actually contemplating wearing yoga pants and Nike's (not an unusual outfit for me during pregnancy) to lunch since I thought it was just going to be my two friends. Good thing I changed my mind last minute.

My beautiful friends! It was such a fun afternoon. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful group of women in my life.

On a side note: I am sharing a super easy polymer clay diy tomorrow...that just might be one of my favorites so far!

Dairy Free Strawberry Lime Ice Cream (Paleo)

If I had to pick one dessert on my blog that I suggest you make as soon as possible it would be this one..oh and this one too according to my husband who just reminded me I have not made them in a few weeks.

As I mentioned yesterday I have decided to start eating Paleo. This means no dairy. What would the world come to if there was no ice cream? It would be a sad place. I don't care what diet your on ice cream needs to be allowed. The good news is, if you are cutting dairy out of your diet or you just want to have a healthier option to regular ice cream this is the solution since it is made with coconut milk.

This recipe is my own creation and right up to the point of tasting it I had no idea how it would turn out. My two year old was anxiously waiting for the whole 20 minutes while it was churning it the ice cream maker, so thankfully it was a huge success. I am not a fan of meltdowns.

What you will need:

• 14 strawberries
• 1 can of full fat coconut milk (14oz)
• 1 tbs fresh lime juice
• 1 tbs of honey (I used raw)
• 2 tsp of vanilla
• 1/2 tsp of sea salt

Directions:

1. Mash the strawberries up in a medium size bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix them together.
2. Place your ice cream mixture into an ice cream maker. Follow the directions of your ice cream maker and watch the magic happen.
3. Enjoy!

*If you do not have an ice cream maker you can still make this, although the end result will not be as creamy. Full instructions can be found here.
Heaven in a little bowl. This was creamy, refreshing and had just the right amount of sweetness. It reminded me of a delicious sherbet but without all that extra processed sugar and milk.

A Few Valentine's Day Past Favorites

Today I am doing a "cheat" post. I originally had this really fun polymer clay tutorial planned but I got distracted last night and before I knew it the Bachelor was on and I was not about to miss the crazy ladies battling it out over Sean (who is not a bad lookin dude).  Are you watching the Bachelor?  I ALWAYS tell myself I am not watching it again and somehow I get sucked into it all over again each and every season. 

So today I am sharing a few past Valentine's Day DIYs as well as some things that really have nothing to do with Valentine's Day but they are yummy and Valentines Day is a great day (excuse) to eat something yummy so here ya go...

 DIY Polymer Clay Candy Heart Bracelet 

 DIY Heart Glitter Nail Polish

This is one of my family's favorite desserts!  And I am sure they would love it on Valentine's Day or any day.  Dairy Free Strawberry Lime Ice Cream

One of the most annoying things when you are single is watching and reading all about Valentine's Day.  Right?  I have been there.  So this is perfect if you just want to forget all about Valentine's Day but still want to make a single serving of a delicious flourless 3 minute mug cake for one! 

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!