gone bananas!

A quick, delicious mid-day treat! 

Banana Honey Cinnamon Shake

2 bananas

1 biiiig spoonful of honey

sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle of cinnamon

1 glug, glug, glug (or 3 glugs) of milk

2 handfuls of ice

Blend. Enjoy! 

oat.flax.fruit.carrot.coconut.

The story of how these cookies came to be is short and well...not so sweet. 

For Lent, I gave up eating sweets and baking with sugar. For a split millisecond I pondered giving up baking all together. hah! What a funny funny thought. 

The muse for these cookies was a successful job interview. I wanted a treat to celebrate, so I began my sugarless adventure.

The cookies consist of a fine range of pantry leftovers. Dried fruit, random nuts (pecans, almonds), flax seeds, sesame seeds, dried coconut. To add texture, moisture, flavor and some color, I added carrots and fresh coconut. 

Recipe

handful of dried fruit

handful of nuts

1/2 cup oats

1 cup flax seeds

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup dried coconut shreds 

1 egg (beaten with a splash of water)

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup honey 

1 cup flour

5 carrots - shaved and pureed 

4 tablespoons fresh coconut chopped and pureed with carrots 

Mix all ingredients together. If too dry, add more liquid (water or oil). The honey will make the cookies rather sticky and moist -- do not be afraid, this is exactly how it should be! 

Bake at 350 F for 8-10 min.

Devour! 

I added more honey to this batch -- yummmm! 

oh, crumble!

You can never go wrong with a fruit crumble, especially if made together with lovely, beautiful friends! 

Now, let me clear a thing or two up... for Lent, I've committed myself to baking without sugar and am refraining from indulging in desserts, candy and other treats.... however, since I was not in my own kitchen, the no-sugar rule did not apply. (there's a fine print for everything!) 

Presenting... apple, strawberry, raspberry crumble with extra crumble, of course! 

Slice apples and strawberries, keeps raspberries whole! Place in bowl, sprinkle with cinnamon and lemon juice. 

In separate bowl combine 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar 1 stick softened butter, cinnamon and in this batch (thank to Meg!) a dash of vanilla (amazing!)

In a buttered pan, spread out the fruit...crumble the crumble on top. Bake at 350 F for 40-60 min. 

Enjoy alone, with ice cream, whipped cream or lightly whipped sour cream! 

This batch was enjoyed with soy vanilla ice cream - delish! 

Enjoy! 

baking with my girls 

generous crumble layer...amazing

soy vanilla ice cream from Trader Joes:)