C&C in the Kitchen

Last week I hosted a holiday luncheon and cookie exchange, so I thought I would share what I served and the cookies I exchanged. I decided to keep it simple and serve soup and bread. I made two soups, the first a butternut squash, leek & apple soup from My New Roots.

And the second, one of my favorites, Thai sweet potato and carrot soup from The Wanderlust Kitchen. 

I made three types of cookies: 

Peppermint Brookies from Weelicious which were so dang good and were a big hit with the Mini Fashionista. 

Peanut Butter Blossoms from Hummusapien which were equally as delicious. The Mini especially loved helping with these. Unwrapping the kisses and placing them on the cookies was the perfect job for a 6 year old. 

And lastly, I had to include one "healthy" cookie, so I decided on these gingerbread chocolate chip almond butter cookies from Recipe Runner that are paleo and gluten free. I was a bit skeptical of how they would turn out, but they were super moist and tasty (although mine looked nothing like this picture)!

I highly recommend trying all of these recipes! I will be adding them all to my list of favorites. 

Betsy's Best Bar None Giveaway

A few weeks ago I happened upon the most delicious "bar" at my acupuncturists office. The cinnamon cardamom flavor spoke to me at first sight and first bite, so I immediately looked them up.

Betsy’s Best Bar None was founded in here in Portland, Oregon in 2011 with the goal of offering a wholesome, allergen-free product that is, above all, delicious and nutritious. Betsy’s Best bars are 100% organic, vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, and grain-free. They are made without isolates, fillers, or preservatives and do not contain any GMO ingredients.

And most importantly, they are super tasty!

Being the "connector" that I am, I couldn't help but want to share these amazing bars with everyone I know, and that includes all of our C&C readers. So, I reached out to Betsy's Best and asked them if they would be interested in doing a giveaway.

And guess what? They said "Yes". So, today is your chance to enter to win one of three boxes of the Betsy's Best Sample Box.

In the box you will receive all seven of their delicious flavors. To enter you MUST comment on the blog (below) which flavor you are most excited to try! We will select three winners (at random) and announce them on Friday. 

Also, Betsy's is currently offering 15% off and FREE shipping for orders over $100! 

C&C in the Kitchen

Early sunday morning the Mini Fashionista and I were enjoying some time together when we realized that our bananas were looking pretty tired. So I asked her what she wanted to bake with them, and her response was "banana bread."

I've made this Paleo Banana Bread recipe a few times before and have since altered it slightly into my own recipe (below). This bread is spongy and moist and totally delicious. And what I love most about it is the complete absence of any sweetener besides the bananas! In the words of the Kix commercial, this bread is "kid tested, mother approved".

Happy Baking!

Spongy Banana Bread
Ingredients
4 ripe bananas
4 eggs
1/2 cup almond butter (or other kind of butter such as coconut, sunflower, peanut, etc)
4 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of sea salt
chocolate chips, walnuts etc. (optional)

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Combine bananas, eggs, nut butter and coconut oil into a mixing bowl and mix well. I used a Kitchen Aid mixer and suggest that or a handheld mixer.
- Add in coconut flour, almond meal, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and sea salt and mix well.
- Pour into a week greased loaf pan (I used coconut oil spray to grease my pan)
- Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
- Remove from oven and flip your bread out onto a cooling rack