Dressed-Up Strawberries

Berry season rocks! The other night I threw some ripe strawberries in a bowl to have with dinner. I’d say 99% of the time, fruit is consumed as-is in our home, but decided to change it up quick for something different. Sweet tooth, satisfied!

I simply drizzled a little raw honey, probably 1 TBSP Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips, and topped with a sprinkle, maybe 1/2 TBSP of Madhava Organic Coconut Sugar.photo (3)

Joshua Tree

For several years now, I’ve talked about going to Joshua Tree (Seth might say incessantly). For some reason I have had this strong draw to go there, maybe to just be surrounded by nature? To get away from the daily grind in a big city? For serenity? Then I told my dad that Seth and I were finally heading to Joshua Tree, and he told me it was one of the places my Grandma Hazel actually remembered in her late life dealing with memory loss. Having such a special relationship with my Grandma, almost a kindred spirits type connection, now I knew why I was so drawn to go.

Seth and I went away for a long weekend over Memorial Day to a resort in Desert Hot Springs, and got up at 3:45 am one morning to drive the hour to the middle of the park, so we could watch the sunrise. It was everything I’d hoped it would be; beautiful, silent, serene and peaceful.

If you haven’t been, I’d recommend it. I realize it’s just a lot of pokey trees, but there is truly something magical about it.IMG_0213[1]IMG_0148[1]IMG_0156[1]IMG_0151[1]IMG_0164[1]IMG_0172[1]

Monkey Bars from The Paleo Mom!

Last week I was craving something sweet, and for a couple of days the Monkey Bar recipe from The Paleo Mom kept popping up in my feeds. I don’t bake often anymore because I just don’t like the sugar, but I happened to have everything on hand (especially bananas that needed to be used), so I decided to give them a try! The recipe was very easy to follow, and easy to make.

You can find the recipe here: Paleo Monkey Bars. I made a few adaptations: I did not have crunchy almond butter, so I used smooth (Maranatha Brand), and I used Bob’s Red Mill Almond Meal/Flour. I used about 1/2 cup of Enjoy Life chips in the batter. For the drizzle, I used about 1/4 cup of Enjoy Life Mini Chips melted with grass-fed butter. They turned out fabulous, however, the texture on day 1 is more dry/cakey, and on day 2 they started to get very moist. I’d suggest making them same day or night before, for a party or get together as they do not keep long.IMG_0518[1]

I used one of my favorite drizzle frosting tricks; prepare your melted frosting and then spoon into the corner of a ziploc baggie. Snip the corner of the bag off, and then use as a makeshift pastry drizzler (I’m sure there’s a proper name for this tool…).

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