Strawberry-Orange Popsicles

Strawberry-Orange Popsicles
15 medium strawberries, tops cut off and thoroughly washed
1/2 cup orange juice

Put the strawberries and orange juice into a blender. Pulse until thoroughly mixed. Pour into popsicle molds and put in the freezer for 3 hours.

Strawberry-Banana Bread

Strawberry-Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3/4 pint strawberries

1 banana (can use a frozen banana)

1/4 cup coconut butter

1 cup almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour/shredded flakes

2 eggs, whisked

1 Tbls coconut oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease the bottom and sides of a loaf pan with coconut oil.
2. Rinse the strawberries and cut off the tops. Dump into a food processor/blender and process until smooth (you can leave a few chunks if you like).
3. Remove 1/4 cup of the strawberries and set aside.
4. Chop up your banana and add to the food processor until fully combined with the strawberries.
5. Add in your coconut butter. Once combined, followed with the almond flour and coconut flour. (You'll probably need to grab a spatula and push the mixture down from the sides of the processor.)
6. Mix in one egg at a time.
7. Transfer to your greased loaf pan and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the center is firm.
8. Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan.
9. While cooling, heat 1 Tbls coconut oil on the stove. Once hot, add the 1/4 cup of strawberry puree that you had set aside in step 3. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. The mixture will turn a deeper red and start to clump together.
10. Slice up a piece and top with the warm strawberry mixture.

Paleo Popsicles

Last week, project management decided to reward us worker bees with ice cream. We got an email at 8 Wednesday morning saying that there would be an ice cream cart on every floor of our building (as well as our office in St. John's, Newfoundland) starting at 1pm. I tried to resist the temptation, but I ended up eating a strawberry popsicle. It was as healthy as I could get and even had strawberry chunks in it. Unfortunately, it contained sugar, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, beet color, etc. On the bright side, it did remind me of how wonderful and refreshing popsicles can be. And it led me to make my own Paleo Popsicles, which are super easy and tasty:

Orange-Berry Popsicles
1/2 cups 100% orange juice (Simply Orange)
1 cup chopped strawberries
1 cup blueberries

Blend ingredients together and pour into a popsicle mold. I bought a 4-popsicle mold from H-E-B for $1. Place in the freezer for 3-4 hours. When you're ready to eat them, dunk the entire mold into some warm water to loosen the sides so you can get the popsicle out. Voilà! A simple refreshing popsicle for the beach.