Wild Sunshine and Lemonade

paleo

Rustic Farmhouse Banana Bread

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Ahhh, can you smell it? Banana bread and daffodils and basil?

If your family is like mine, some weeks they roll through a dozen bananas in a few days, and others those bananas sit on the shelf until they’re so spotted even the toddler won’t touch them. Aaaaand then there’s the bananas said toddler throws on the floor to become damaged goods. Ain’t nobody want to eat a bruised banana! This banana bread recipe comes to my rescue quite often in our journey to reduce food waste.

The good news is that bananas can be frozen. I peel them, cut them in half, and add to the ziplock bag in the freezer until I have time for Rustic Farmhouse Banana Bread. It’s good, y’all. And for the most part it’s Paleo (simply skip any add-ins containing sugar).

I didn’t have almond butter on hand, so I made my own by throwing about 2 cups of almonds in the food processor with some avocado oil, then blending for a good 5 minutes.

Rustic Farmhouse Banana Bread Recipe

  • 4 bananas
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup almond butter
  • 4 Tbsp melted butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground cloves
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips (these are my all time favorite)
  • 1/2 cup craisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mash the bananas with a potato masher. I don’t know how I lived without one for so long, they make mashing avocados, bananas, and potatoes a breeze!

Stir in the eggs, maple syrup, almond butter, and butter in a large mixing bowl. Mix the dry ingredients and spices separately with a whisk. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix. Stir your craisins and chocolate chips into the mixture.

Pour into a greased baking dish or loaf pan (I usually use butter or coconut oil). Bake for 55 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Cool for at least 15 minutes if you can keep your hands off it. I usually can’t. I burn my fingers and eat it anyway.

Strawberry Mint Paleo Pie

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Strawberry Mint Paleo Pie

Any/all of the links in this post are affiliate links of which I receive a small commission from sales of certain items, but the price is the same for you. 

It’s time to stuff your face with berries straight off the plant until the juice runs down your chin. The farm down the road that raises pastured beef also does pesticide-free strawberries. So we headed down the road last weekend with our small army of 5 pickers (more like 3 pickers, 1 three year old who starred at the cows, and 1 infant who stuffed her face. So guilty in this photo) and in about 20 minutes we had picked just under 20 lbs. That’s a boatload, and a really good excuse to whip up some Paleo Strawberry Pie!

What on earth do you do with that many strawberries? We try our best to eat Paleo, so we don’t eat jellies and jams. We ate so many fresh that our bellies hurt. I froze an entire basket. I made strawberry cobbler, which turned into melted goop when the topping dissolved into the filling (ahem, why I’m not sharing that creation here!). We were eating them for three meals a day. Then I remembered strawberry pie. I haven’t had such good luck with Paleo pies, the crust is always gross. Usually I make them crustless as a special treat. But because the cream cheese in here makes it SO good, it needed a crust underneath.

I found this recipe below on the Kelly and Cricket blog and it was good! I made a few modifications including the addition of a bit of coconut sugar, so I’ve included it here for you. The filling itself doesn’t get baked, so it’s a cold pie that’s perfect for these 80 degree NC days.

And a note on this pie’s “Paleo” status. Paleo means different things to different folks. Cheese is generally not considered paleo, nor are starchy flours like Tapioca. It works as a special treat for us, and I hope you enjoy!Paleo Dessert: Strawberry Mint Pie

Strawberry Mint Paleo Pie Recipe Paleo Pie Crust: egg, almond flour, tapioca, butter, coconut sugar

CRUST

  • 1 Pasture-raised egg
  • 1 1/4 cup Almond flour
  • 1/4 cup Tapioca flour (or Arrowroot)
  • 1 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 1 tbsp Coconut flour (I order mine off Amazon for a bulk deal)
  • 4 tbsp grass-fed butter, cold. I use salted.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the flours and the coconut sugar directly in a 9″ pie pan. Crack your egg and mash it in with a fork until everything is a little gooey. Cut your butter in small cubes. With two knives or a pastry cutter (I don’t use this tool often, but when I do THIS ONE has been a lifesaver! ). Cut in the butter until a dough forms. This is always sticky when I make it, so instead of properly rolling it I just press it around the pie pan with my fingers. Prick with a fork. Bake for 15-18 minutes until the edges start to brown.

CREAM CHEESE LAYER(almost) Paleo Strawberry Pie with cream cheese filling

  • 8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese, full fat
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp honey

Set your cream cheese out for a bit or soften in the microwave. With a fork, stir all three ingredients together until well combined. Spread over the cooled pie crust.

STRAWBERRY LAYER

Wash and slice  3.5   cups of strawberries. Place on top of cream cheese.

 

 

STRAWBERRY MINT TOPPINGGooey Strawberry Syrup gelatin topping

  • 1.5 cups strawberries
  • 1 tbsp arrowroot flour (can’t find this at the store? Get it HERE)
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup (because I’m heating this on the stove, I chose maple syrup. Feel free to use no sweetener or another of your choice)
  • 1-2 tbsp water
  • 3 leaves fresh mint, torn into small pieces (you can experiment with more, my mint plant is tiny so I didn’t want to take too much!)

Almost Paleo Strawberry Mint PiePlace all ingredients in small saucepan on low-medium heat. Once it begins to steam, stir constantly to mix all ingredients. As the strawberry juice and arrowroot start to jell, it may stick to the bottom. Add a bit more water. Stir every few minutes until you can mash the remaining berries, about 15 minutes total. Remove from heat and let cool a few minutes before pouring over the pie.

Refrigerate pie until ready to serve!

Almost Paleo Strawberry Mint Pie

 

Cranberry Orange Energy Bites

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A favorite festive holiday snack for us: Cranberry Orange energy bites (Paleo and Vegan)

Any/all of the links on this page are affiliate links of which I receive a small commission from sales of certain items, but the price is the same for you.

‘Tis the season to boost my willpower and not eat all things sugary, then feel like crap come January 1st. It’s easier said than done. About three weeks ago, I went to my college homecoming. We ate pizza, burritos, drank copious amounts of wine, and had a good time reminiscing until the wee hours of the morning at the home of one of my college roommates. Two days later, Larkin broke out in a weepy red puffy rash on her entire face and her legs. WTF. She’d always had a bit of baby eczema on her cheeks, but this was bad. Long about a week after my dairy-free diet, I was really wanting something sweet. I scoured Pinterest for energy bites, and played around with several recipes until I came up with something easy that tastes a lot like my mom’s homemade scones. The combination of orange and cranberry sings of Christmas morning rolls and special weekend breakfasts. Although we don’t eat these things often in our household, it’s funny how a combination of flavors can take you back. The Cranberry Orange energy bites were a holiday life saver!

After our pediatrician assured me it was eczema and that I should put hydrocortisone cream on it, I smiled and thanked him and did what I normally do. Go into psycho mom-with-a-sick-kid mega geek mode and spend all day on the internet researching alternative remedies. Because I really do not want to use a steroid cream on my 6-month old unless it’s absolutely necessary. It turns out that no one knows what causes eczema, although many folks have a good idea. Anything from an allergy to dust to a food sensitivity can cause the skin to react. Usually the best natural course of action seems to be to heal the gut (hello probiotics and bone broth… oh wait, my baby is breastfed so this shouldn’t be an issue) and keep the skin comfortable.

Since the end of October I have not eaten dairy or gluten or sugar (and I even went a week without eggs to see if that made a difference — I was starving so eggs made a comeback). Larkin gets 1-3 doses of probiotics a day, and her usual 1/2  tsp of cod liver oil plus vitamin D drops. She has not eaten dairy or eggs since. I have bathed her in epsom salt baths 1-2 times a week, I wipe her face down with saltwater twice a day, and at night I lather her cheeks with Lanolin (it helps!). So far I’ve kept the major outbreak from returning and I’m hoping that as her gut matures it disappears because I have no idea how people deal with life-long eczema.

My kids LOVE these! Dates, orange peel, craisins, nuts, spice.

 

A favorite festive holiday snack for us: Cranberry Orange energy bites (Paleo and Vegan)Did I mention these are super easy? Just throw the ingredients in the food processor, blend, and roll into balls. Happy early holidays!

CRANBERRY ORANGE ENERGY BITES

Place into a food processor:

  • 1/2 cup craisins
  • 1/2 cup dates
  • 1/2 cup almond meal
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 Tbsp coconut oil
  • grated rind of 1 small orange or clementine
  • pinch of sea salt

 

Blend until everything is chopped and sticky, about 2-3 minutes. Roll into 1-inch balls and store at room temperature. I’m sure these would last a week, but in our house we’re lucky to have them for two days. I usually double this recipe.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dirt Cake

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My kids thrive on eggs a thousand different ways, they snack on dried anchovies (yeah, crazy, I know!), and don’t flinch when we say baked peaches are dessert in the summer.

BUT…

We take birthdays very seriously. There ain’t no way we are behaving ourselves when it comes to dessert! This past weekend my husband got another year closer to 40 and declared that he wanted dirt cake. Not just any dirt cake, mind you, he wanted chocolate peanut butter dirt cake. When I was growing up, I loved dirt cake. I requested it for at least a few birthdays, complete with the foil-lined flower pot and fake flowers on top. Boy was I excited to make this for him!

kids making dirt cake

kids making dirt cake

I set out searching Pinterest for a peanut butter chocolate version, but found NONE. Can you believe that? In the world of pinterest, what I wanted apparently didn’t exist. So I invented. I based this on an Original Dirt Cake recipe and made several changes, including real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip, and a 50/50 split between vanilla and chocolate pudding.

The morning of daddy’s birthday, I told the kids we were going to eat dirt and worms for dessert. They didn’t buy it… at first. Then they said they were ok trying some dirt and worms because, let’s face it, in a household where true sugar-filled sweets are rare these kiddos cannot wait to get their hands on some homemade goodies. Of course once they started helping me make the “dirt” and saw the “worms,” they laughed. And begged to try a gummy worm.

But the BEST part of making daddy’s dirt cake was watching him eat it. When the man pauses multiple times and says “dang, this is amazing!” you know it’s good. So I wanted to share.

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dirt Cake: crushed cookies, cream, pudding, and PB cups make this a hit

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER DIRT CAKE

To make your cooking experience easy, I’ve included a few links to items I use and love. Please note that I receive a small commission from sales of certain items, but the price is the same for you. 

INGREDIENTS Chocolate Peanut Butter Dirt Cake: crushed cookies, cream, pudding, and PB cups make this a hit
– 1 full package of oreos
– 1/3 cup butter, softened (I use Kerrygold grass fed butter, available at Costco if you consume it like we do!)
– 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
– 3/4 cup powdered sugar
– 1 package 3.4 oz. instant vanilla pudding
– 1 package 3.4 oz. instant chocolate pudding
– 3 cups of milk (I use whole)
– 8 oz. whipping cream
– 15 Reeses peanut butter cups minis unwrapped and quartered
– 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
– Gummy Worms (these are awesome if you’re looking for something dye-free)

 

1. Crush oreos in a food processor until they resemble dirt.
2. Beat together butter, cream cheese & powdered sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk vanilla pudding mix & 1.5 cups milk.
4. In a small bowl, whip the cream until it forms peaks. Fold into the vanilla pudding mixture.
5. Fold together cream cheese & pudding mixtures together until smooth.
6. In your whipped cream bowl (for the sake of dirty dishes), whisk the chocolate pudding and 1.5 cups milk. Set for 5 minutes. Swirl your peanut butter into the chocolate pudding.
7. Layer! I am slightly obsessed with my triffle dish because you can see all the amazing layers (snag one here) but you could go fancy and line a flower pot with foil. Always start with about a third of your “dirt.” I then used 1/2 of the vanilla pudding mixture, a few gummy worms, another 1/3 of the dirt, all of the chocolate pudding, sprinkle Reeses cups, the remaining vanilla pudding mixture, and top with what dirt is left and a few worms. Phew!

GLUTEN-FREE OPTION: Substitute a GF oreo and you should be set!

ENJOY!