fruit – Oven Love

Strawberry and Peach Cinnamon Bread (Guest Post)

Natalie — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 05:33:35 +0000

Happy Tuesday! The moving truck is in our driveway today and things are gettin’ real. While I’m busy carrying heavy objects (more likely children than boxes), please enjoy this guest post from Janssen of Everyday Reading. Janssen is a fellow contributor at MPMK and part of a very talented family of bloggers (you can find her sisters here and here). She writes about books, family, recipes, DIY.. she’s a regular renaissance woman. Thanks for visiting, Janssen!

One of my favorite things is a recipe that takes a food on its last leg and turns it into something amazing and delicious.

You know how banana bread rescues bananas from the trash can? This bread does the same for strawberries and peaches. The softer and riper they are, the better.

It’s great for a breakfast or snack, but my favorite is with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. But then, ANYTHING with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream is likely to be my favorite.

Strawberry and Peach Cinnamon Bread

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

60 mins

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

Makes 1 loaf or 3 mini-loaves or 1 dozen muffins

Author: Janssen Bradshaw

Recipe type: Bread, Baked Goods

Serves: 8-12

Ingredients

1½ cups flour
1 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
⅓ cup plain yogurt
⅓ cup oil
1 cup chopped and mashed strawberries and peaches (whatever ratio you have is fine – I usually pulse mine in the blender a couple of times to chop them).

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and stir until just combined.
Pour into greased pan (fill each pan or muffin tin about ⅔ full).
Bake for 1 hour if doing a full loaf, 40 minutes for mini-loaves, and 30 minutes for muffins (or until a toothpick comes out cleanly).

Patriotic Pancake Stacks

Natalie — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 16:37:56 +0000

I am pumped about these Red, White and Blueberry Pancake Stacks that I’m sharing at MPMK today. Seriously, I love them. I want to feed them to everyone. They are adorable, are they not? Perfect for 4th of July breakfast or any other patriotic holiday. Let’s celebrate ‘Merica with a short stack this year!

Best thing about these is how versatile they are- you can use your favorite pancake recipe (gluten-free, grain-free, paleo, vegan, whatever) and use dairy-free coconut whip if you need to. Adaptable to all diets- you know I love that! Go forth and eat pancakes, my friends.

Grain-Free Fat Almond Pancake

Natalie — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:15:41 +0000

A few weeks ago, I pinned this Fat Almond Pancake from Green Kitchen Stories and I knew I had to make one. (Definitely check out their blog, it’s gorgeous!) The original recipe wasn’t exactly grain-free, but I knew I could do some tweaking and make easily make it GAPS-friendly. I just loved the look and ease of it. And mainly, I just loved that it was called a fat pancake.

And so I hit the kitchen and came up with this beautiful thing. I mean, don’t you just want dig your spoon in there? You do. Trust me. We ate it hot and fresh from the oven for breakfast.. and then we ate it cold in the back of the car as we watched a freak rain storm.. then the kids finished it off during their bath time. So, yeah. We liked it.

Surprisingly, we all preferred to eat this cold. You can taste more of the almond flavor and the sweetness. I couldn’t tell you if it keeps well.. I imagine you’d want to eat it all in a day or two- let me know if it lasts that long in your house, I’d love to know how it keeps.

If you’re wondering, the fruit on top is a mix of strawberries, white peaches, blueberries and cherries. Any fresh summer fruit will do, but I love the look of the red, white and blue. Especially with the 4th coming up! This would be a perfect dish to whip up if you’re having company for the holiday.

Fat pancakes! It’s a thing.

3.5 from 2 reviews

Fat Almond Pancake (Grain-Free, GAPS, Paleo)

Author: Oven Love

Serves: 6

Ingredients

5 eggs
2 cups milk (cow’s, coconut, almond.. etc)
½ cup pureed squash, apple or pear (or more milk, if you like)
2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
1 tsp sea salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons almond flour
2 tbsp organic butter or coconut oil
chopped fresh fruit, mint, yogurt, honey and coconut chips for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place a 8×11 casserole dish in the oven to warm up.
While your dish is warming, whisk eggs, milk, squash and honey in a large bowl. (To make sure your honey is well incorporated, keep your ingredients at room temperature or whisk vigorously as you add the honey.) Make sure you have no lumps in your almond flour and add it to the liquid ingredients along with the salt.
Take the pan out of the oven and add the butter or coconut oil and swirl it around as it melts. Add the batter to the pan.
Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the pancake is set and golden brown. Top with chopped fruit, honey, mint and coconut chips; then serve in bowls with yogurt.

Frozen Smoothie Bags

Natalie — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:53:00 +0000

I am very excited to share this idea with you today! If you are looking to streamline your morning routine or looking for a quick and healthy mini-meal or snack for the kids, pay attention! This is a good one.

I was inspired to make these frozen smoothie bags by The Tidy Nest‘s make-ahead freezer smoothies and Muffin Tin Mania‘s green smoothie cups. I love having ready-made smoothies waiting in the freezer instead of pulling out tons of ingredients and making a big mess. All you need to do is empty the contents of your bag into a blender and add juice or milk until you reach your desired consistency. Easy and healthy- a win/win.

The green smoothie cubes are my favorites (you’ll find the procedure for freezing yogurt and the green cube recipe at the end of the post). If you haven’t been brave enough to try a green smoothie yet, I assure you that the greens give each smoothie a healthy punch without changing the flavor. It’s a great way to add greens to your diet if you or your kids* don’t typically enjoy their taste.

*Kid Tip- if your kids won’t touch anything green in color, put one of these smoothies in a cup with a lid where the color is undetectable and they’ll never know the difference! I also recommend these Sili Squeeze containers if your kids like the disposable squeeze pouches- I fill them up with smoothies and my little guy loves it.

Here are a few of the smoothie bag combinations that I like to have on hand.

Tropical Smoothie Bag:

pineapple, mango, banana and yogurt cubes. add orange juice or coconut milk.

(if you omit the mango and use coconut milk, you’ve got a Pina Colada bag!)

Green Smoothie Bag:

kiwi, pineapple, banana, green cubes and yogurt cubes. add white grape juice or milk.

(you can also add other green items- celery, green apple, etc.)

Mango Berry Smoothie Bag:

strawberries, raspberries, mango, green cube and yogurt cubes. add orange juice or milk.

Here are a few other ideas for smoothie combinations:

Mixed Berry Smoothie Bag: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and/or blackberries and yogurt cubes. add pomegranate juice.

Orange Strawberry Banana Smoothie Bag: strawberries, bananas and yogurt cubes. add orange juice.

Blue Banana Smoothie Bag: blueberries, bananas and yogurt cubes. add pomegranate juice.

If you’re wondering how much of each item to add to your bag, don’t worry too much about it. Each of my bags has about 1-2 cups of fruit, a few yogurt cubes (depending on the size) and 1-2 green cubes. The amount of smoothie that you get with each bag will vary anyways, depending on how much liquid you add, so don’t worry about exact measurements. Just have fun with it!

*Note: If you’re wondering what mold I used to get the bigger yogurt cubes, I use these Beaba freezer trays. These are excellent for freezing purees of any kind, especially if you want a larger portion than what you can get with an ice cube tray. The little heart cubes are made using a heart mold from the $1 section at Target and the green cubes are made with a silicone mini-muffin tray like this one.

Procedure for Freezing Fresh Fruit:
Wash fruit well and pat dry. Cut off any unwanted skins or stems. Chop into small slices or pieces and place on a baking sheet. Do not allow the fruit pieces to touch each other. Freeze until firm. Remove from the baking sheet and place in a freezer-safe plastic bag and store in the freezer.

Procedure for Freezing Yogurt:
Spoon or pour yogurt into a mini-muffin tin, ice cube tray or flexible silicone mold. Freeze until firm. Let sit at room temperature for a few minutes and remove from the mold (try to avoid running hot water over the mold, it can melt the yogurt). Place in a freezer-safe plastic bag and store in the freezer.

Green Smoothie Cubes
by Oven Love

Ingredients:

leafy greens of your choice- spinach, kale, swiss chard, etc
liquid of your choice- yogurt, milk, juice or water

In the bowl of a food processor or blender, combine the greens and liquid. Process until smooth, adding extra yogurt or liquid as needed. Spoon or pour the green mixture into a mini-muffin tin, ice cube tray or flexible silicone mold. Freeze until firm. Let sit at room temperature for a few minutes and remove from the mold (try to avoid running hot water over the mold, it can melt the mixture). Place in a freezer-safe plastic bag and store in the freezer.