Strawberries are in season in my neck of the woods, and my kids have been crazy for them. This simple recipe is a thing of beauty on a warm spring day. I love how smooth, creamy and tart it is. This is the way ice cream should be! Full of whole food ingredients that render a rich, satisfying treat. Plus, you can use all organic ingredients for less than what you would pay for a pint of organic ice cream at your local health food store. It has only 5 grams of sugar per serving compared to brands you’ll find at the store which will have around 25 to 35 grams of sugar. Enjoy!

Nutrition facts: 1 serving 1/2 cup: 150 calories, 9 net carbs,  5 grams sugar (all fruit sweetened)

 Quick Strawberry Ice Cream

1/2 cup of organic heavy cream

1 small very ripe organic banana

1 12 once bag of frozen organic strawberries

1 tsp vanilla

optional stevia to taste ( I didn’t need it)

Instructions

In a blender add the cream, banana, and vanilla and half the frozen strawberries. Blend until smooth. Stop to scrape down the sides if needed. Add the rest of the strawberries and blend until you have a smooth, firm consistency.

If using a food processor, place all the ingredients in the container. Blend until smooth.  Stop to scrape down the sides if needed.

You can place the ice cream in the freezer for 1-2 hour before serving if you desire your ice cream more firm.

You can also add 1 tsp of rum to the blender if you plan on freezing it longer then a few hours. This will make it easier to scoop your ice cream out after taking it out of the freezer.

I am so excited to be baking again! I am posting a recipe that is easy and best of all the recipe is sweetened with bananas! Oh, did I mention there is no added oil? Recently I gave up sweeteners and switched to sweetening my recipes with fruit. If you have very very ripe bananas make this recipe TODAY! :) Whatever you do,  don’t leave out the lemon zest. It gives the cookies brightness and depth; something you need to add when only using natural sweeteners. These have been keeping my kids happy for the past week and I feel no guilt indulging in a few myself. I hope you enjoy!

Makes 12 cookies. 1 cookie: 150 calories, 6 net carbs, 13 grams fat, 2 grams sugar.

Ingredients

2 medium bananas

shredded unsweetened coconut 1 8oz bag of Lets Do Organic

1 jumbo egg

a pinch of sea salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. lemon zest

Instructions

preheat 350 bake for 15-17 minutes

Mash the bananas in a medium size bowl until smooth. Add the egg vanilla, sea salt, and lemon zest and stir. Next add the coconut and stir until it’s all combined evenly. Spoon golf ball sized batter onto a greased baking dish. Form the batter in to macaroon shapes. Place them in the preheat oven for 15-17 minutes. Cool before eating.

This recipe is shared on: Thank your Body Thursdays, Tasty Traditions, GF Fridays, Whole food Fridays,

Strut Your Stuff Saturday,

I get really excited when I make these. I use very little dishes, simple ingredients, and I can make them in a pinch. I especially love that they are frozen. The texture is similar to frozen cookie dough. These are something I thought I would make and no one would like them except my weird little self. I was wrong. My kids love these little frozen treats. They prefer them over most sweets I make. And I love them because there is something so satisfying about the combo of chocolate and peanut butter.

Ingredients

1/2 cup peanut butter or other nut butter

1 tbsp honey or maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1-2 pinches of sea salt

1 tbsp coconut flour

1-2 tbsp mini chocolate chips

 Directions

Mix the peanut butter, honey, vanilla and sea salt together until smooth. Next, add the coconut flour and stir. Roll into bite size balls and then roll them into the chocolate chips (do this so you can use less chocolate chips and still see them on the outside). Place in a airtight container in the freezer for up to a month. Enjoy!

Taco meat can be very easy to make from scratch, so long as you have the right chili powder. Once you have that ingredient down, you really are just about done. You will also have the best tasting taco meat from scratch ever! The best part; you don’t have all those weird ingredient in your food. So many of the store bought seasoning packets have strange ingredients, added sugar, and processed salt. I make this concoction whenever I crave traditional Mexican dishes my mother made for me when I was growing up. I also add it to anything from steamed veggies and salads to tacos and casseroles depending on how good I want to be. My Mexican casseroles ROCK. And there are so many simple variations. I need to post one for you guys. Well, I can’t take all the credit. I stole most of the recipe from my mom. If you like veggies, spices and flavor you will love it.  As some of you might know I have three kids ages 5, 3, and 1. With this many young lives in need of nurturing, I am left with little time for my blog. I love my little blog, and I am working on posting more regularly. I’m a mom that is just becoming use to the idea of letting someone else take care of my kids other than my husband or Grandma. I jumped over a huge hurdle yesterday and let my neighbors daughter watch my kids while I tough my yoga class. I came home and saw how much they loved it. Duh, I thought! I gotta give this a go more often. Especially to be able to post more! Also, I want to share why I’m gluten free soon in another post, and I do want to tell you that I have been cutting out sugar lately ( from all source including fruit) and I feel so much better. I’m doing this to lose some inches off my stomach and wake up with more energy to get on with my day. It’s been doing both of those things. Which leads me to one of my favorite fast meals, Taco Meat From Scratch, which can be served in many ways depending on how much time you have.

First add the olive oil and garlic to a medium heated pan until your garlic looks like this.

Add 1 pound of ground meat and brown it. Then add the sea salt and stir.

Add the 1 teaspoon of pasilla chili powder and stir.

Add  1/2 teaspoon of Ancho chili and stir. Add the arbol here if you want spicy.

Add 1/4 cup of your favorite salsa. Stir.  Your done!

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 tbsp olive oil

4 large cloves garlic

1 lb ground meat (I used whole fat ground turkey from TJ’s)

1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp pasillo chili powder

1/2 – 1tsp ancho chili powder

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 cup salsa ( I used Double Roasted Salsa from TJ’s)

optional  – a pinch or two or more on arbol chili powder ( only if you want spicy)

We all know that leafy greens are an amazing super food. Getting them in our diet is the challenging part! It’s so hard to hide the bitter taste. Then I discovered Power to the Greens at Trader Joe’s. The secret is the greens are in “baby” form;  way less bitter, yet full of vitamins! This smoothie is my favorite morning pick me up when I’m craving something sweet. If you’re not big on all the fruit sugar, just sub out the banana for stevia to taste. The fat from the coconut milk and fiber from the greens make this really low glycemic, especially if you sub out the banana. I like to eat low sugar and a higher fat/fiber diet because it not only keeps me full longer, it also keeps my cravings at bay.  My moods seem to be more stable as well

Things you’ll need:

blender ( a high speed blender like a Blendtec or Vitamix will give you a smoother texture)

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut milk ( if you use a thick coconut milk you can use half coconut milk half water if you like) Trader Joe’s and Thai Kitchen canned coconut milk  are in BPA free cans.

1/2 cup frozen pineapple ( I buy mine from Trade Joe’s)

1/2 bag or less of Organic Power to the Greens from Trader Joe’s (it has baby kale, baby spinach and baby chard) or two big hand fulls of baby spinach. Because of the oxalic acid  present in raw greens boiling, steaming or blanching (reduces the amount by 75%) before using are great options.

Directions:

Place the coconut milk, pineapple, banana and greens in the blender and blend until smooth.

*Note: It’s best to use non fortified coconut milk which you can only find in a can or by making your own coconut milk. The calcium that is added to the milk with stop iron absorption. Also eat this with fried eggs for more iron absorption. The hemo iron in the egg helps the non hemo in the kale absorb. Non hemo (plant sources) only absorbs about 2-20 % compared to hemo (animal sources) which is about 15-35%. Hemo iron is superior for absorption because they are already in absorption form. Non hemo iron has to be converted. And that’s if you have a healthy gut. It’s best to combine them both with vitamin C. Also, if you are like me and can not tolerate raw mature kale,  baby kale might be something you want to try. Steaming or blanching your baby kale mix before using it in a smoothie is also a great option. Baby greens become really tender fast! I do both raw and steamed depending on how I feel.

Drink up!