Honey-Peach Pie With Streusel Topping

Prep time: Easy-medium (typical for a pie)

Source: My own brain, with crust inspiration from the Southern Living cookbook

You guys, there is a reason that this post doesn't have a picture (yet). THIS PIE IS SO DELICIOUS that Mahon and I just single-handedly consumed it in about 28 hours. Not only that, but I'm seriously tempted to march out this afternoon and buy another bag of peaches so that we can make it again, stat. It's the perfect blend of flavors with just enough sweetness to make it killer good, but not so much sweetness that it makes you want to keel over—and because it only uses 1/4 cup sugar and a bit of honey to sweeten the whole pie, it's relatively "healthy" as far as pies go. It. Is. So. Good. Go take that bag of overripe peaches that is breeding fruit flies and make it now!

For crust:
(A quick note on the crust—you CAN do a white-flour crust with shortening instead of butter for this recipe. You can. But using mostly whole-wheat flour and butter last night I seriously got one of the flakiest, crispiest, most deliciously flavorful pie crusts I have ever created. So really, I recommend doing it just as it's written.)

1 1/2 cups flour (I did 1 cup whole wheat, 1/2 cup white)

3/4 t salt

1/2 cup cold butter, sliced (unsalted if you have it)

4-5 T ice water
(If you really need an extra tablespoon or two of water, go ahead. I don't know if it's because I live in a desert or what, but I always seem to end up on the high end of pie crust water ratios, or exceed them a little.)

Mix together flour and salt and cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly and the pieces of butter are small. Sprinkle water over mixture one teaspoon at a time, stirring gently with a fork in between, until dry ingredients are moistened and there is just enough moisture in the dough for it to loosely hold together. Shape into a ball (it won't hold together very well, and that's OK) and cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate until ready to use, or for at least 20-30 minutes.

For Filling:
4-5 cups of fresh ripe (or overripe) peaches, peeled and sliced
Honey (I didn't measure, but probably used about 1/8-1/4 cup)

For Streusel Topping:
3 T flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 T cinnamon
1/4 cup oats
1/8 t salt
4 T cold or room-temperature butter

Slice peaches into a medium-sized bowl and drizzle with honey. Cover and refrigerate. Assemble streusel in a small bowl by mixing dry ingredients together and then cutting in butter until mixture is crumbly; set aside.

Preheat oven to 425. Lightly dust a countertop or table with flour and use a floured rolling pin to gently roll out the pie crust. When it's evenly thin and large enough to fit your pie plate, fold (gently) into quarters and place in your pie plate, then unfold. Trim excess pastry along edges and shape them as desired.

Pour or spoon peaches into pastry shell. Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over top of filling. Bake pie at 425 for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 375; bake for 20-30 minutes, or until crust and streusel are browned, and pie is bubbling a bit around the edges. Allow pie to cool before serving.

Berry Chocolate Coffee Cake

Prep time: Medium

Source: Mostly from my own head; the cake base is adapted from a few other recipes

Yesterday morning I decided that we needed a Valentine's-appropriate dessert to follow our dinner of heart-shaped pupusas. Because I've really been in the mood for a rich, delicious coffee cake this week, that's what came into my mind! What could be more perfect for Valentine's than a coffee cake laced with just-barely-sweetened berries and studded with dark chocolate? After tasting our creation last night, Mahon and I decided: Pretty much nothing! This is definitely a recipe we'll be keeping and making again.

For Berry Ribbon:

1 cup frozen mixed berries

1/2 T honey

For Cake:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 cups flour

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

3/4 t salt

1 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

For Streusel Topping:

1/4 cup butter (cold and sliced, or room temperature)

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

2 t cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour an 8" or 9" pan (I used a round springform pan). In small saucepan on stove, heat berries and honey together and simmer for a few minutes, or until they have made a syrup. If desired, roughly blend berry syrup using an immersion blender or regular blender (our mix had large whole strawberries, so this kept the chunks to a manageable size!). Set syrup aside.

To prepare the streusel topping, combine all ingredients in small bowl and cut together with a fork or pastry blender until crumbly. Set aside.

In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer with beater attachment, cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add the flour mixture alternately with the yogurt/sour cream and blend batter until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.

Fold half of the cake batter into your prepared pan. Pour berry syrup evenly over batter. Add remaining batter on top of syrup; using a rubber spatula, swirl the batter and syrup together to create a berry ribbon. Top with streusel topping and bake 45-55 minutes, or until edges are beginning to brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool at least a few minutes before eating—the cake is much easier to cut when it's completely cooled, but if you're like us, you won't be able to wait that long!

Apple-Peanut Butter Snack/Breakfast Bars (Gluten- and Sugar-Free)

Prep time: Easy

Source: HappyHealthyMama.com, via Pinterest

After hearing lots of people talk about intense postpartum hunger, I'm trying to get some healthy, filling snacks in my freezer for after the baby comes, so that I have something quick and easy to grab when hunger strikes (especially in those early days of breastfeeding, when I imagine my hands will be pretty tied!). Yesterday I was scouring through old Pinterest pins looking for recipes that might work, and I hit on this one. I wasn't really sure how the apple, peanut butter, and honey would go together, since they're all strong flavors, but after making them this afternoon I couldn't stop myself from eating two straight out of the pan! I'll definitely be keeping this recipe around. Best of all, between the oats and the peanut butter, these little bars are very satisfying! (A note—although they look a little like granola bars in the pictures, don't be fooled; they're much more like a soft, moist breakfast bar.)

I 1 1/2-sized the original recipe so that it would fit in a 9x13" pan.

3 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups grated apple (I used all of a medium-sized apple and it was perfect)

1/4 cup + 2 T peanut butter

3/4 cup honey

2 eggs

3/4 t cinnamon

3/4 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking dish and set aside. In large bowl, mix together grated apple and oats until thoroughly blended (make sure that the apple isn't clinging together in clumps, which it likes to do!). Add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly (mix will be very wet). Press into pan and use the back of your mixing spoon to smooth. Bake for 20 minutes (until the edges start to brown), and allow to cool thoroughly before cutting into bars.

To freeze these, I placed them on a plastic-lined cookie sheet after I'd cut them, put more plastic wrap on top, and flash-froze them for about 3-4 hours. Then I pulled them off and put them into a freezer ziploc bag. To eat them later, I plan to allow them to thaw at room temperature or pop them in the microwave for a minute to reheat.

Strawberry-Lime Colada (Sugar-Free)

Prep Time: Easy

This delicious smoothie was inspired by what I found when I was cleaning out the fridge this afternoon—both the lime juice and the coconut milk had been pushed to the back of the fridge, next to each other. I decided to throw them into the blender with some strawberries and honey, and the result was even better than I'd expected! We will definitely be making this easy and healthy dessert again.

1 can coconut milk, chilled

1/3 cup lime juice

3 T honey

1/3 cup water

8-10 frozen strawberries

Ice if needed

Combine all ingredients in a blender. The measurements are approximations, so feel free to taste it and add more of something if it needs it. Enjoy this delicious, healthy treat!

Blueberry Struesel Muffins (AKA, Best Blueberry Muffins Ever!)

Prep time: Medium (for muffins—still not that hard)

Source: Adapted from OurBestBites.com

Words cannot describe how amazing these muffins are! Everyone I have made them for has begged for the recipe. They are seriously delicious! I also have found that you can replace at least 3/4 cup of the white flour with wheat flour without changing the flavor or texture much. Since I don't usually have buttermilk on hand, I substitute it. My favorite combination has been using half regular milk and half plain yogurt—this combo makes the muffins SO incredibly tender and fluffy! I've also used soured milk (just under 3/4 cups milk with about a teaspoon of vinegar, allowed to stand for about 5 minutes) and that worked just fine. Also, I've adapted the original recipe so that it only uses 2 bowls instead of 1.

1 large egg

3/4 c. buttermilk

1/3 c. canola oil

1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. sugar

2 3/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. table salt

2 tsp. grated orange or lemon peel (optional—I'm sure it's amazing but I usually don't have it, so I leave it out; sometimes I add a splash of lemon juice instead)

1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

1 Tbsp. flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

Streusel Topping

1/4 c. sugar

2 1/2 Tbsp. flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 Tbsp. softened (not melted) butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. In medium mixing bowl, combine egg, buttermilk, and oil and beat with a fork or whisk until thoroughly combined. Gently scoop flour, sugar, baking powder, zest, and salt into the bowl so that they lie on top of the wet ingredients. With your fork, gently whisk dry ingredients together; when they are somewhat combined, go ahead and mix everything (wet and dry) in the bowl together until just combined. In smaller bowl, mix 1 T each flour and sugar. Add in blueberries and stir together until blueberries are coated with flour mixture. (This helps keep your blueberries from turning the whole batter purple!) Fold blueberries into batter. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin.

 In the same bowl that the blueberries were just in, add sugar, flour, and cinnamon for streusel topping. Cut in softened butter with a fork until topping is moist but crumbly. Sprinkle streusel over muffins (about 1/2-1 t. each). Bake at 400 for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool on a cooling rack still in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to the cooling rack by itself. (If you can resist eating one immediately out of the oven!) Enjoy!

Peach Smoothie

Rating: 5 stars

Prep time: Easy

A perfect, simple, tangy peach smoothie!

Peach Smoothie

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1 large peach (1 1/2 regular peaches)

1 T orange juice concentrate

1 T sugar

4-8 ice cubes

Blend until smooth, adding ice until your desired thickness is reached. May need a little more sugar if your peaches aren't naturally super sweet. Enjoy!

Jam Tips

I get asked a lot about my freezer jam recipe. Well, let me tell you—it's easy. I buy the No Sugar Needed Sure-Jell pectin (in the pink box) and use the Quick and Easy Freezer Jam recipes included. Contrary to the label on the box, you do need sugar, but it's a lot less than a typical recipe. The directions are given in minute detail; as long as you follow them to the letter, you will get perfect jam every time! For my last two batches of jam, I also went off the beaten path a little and substituted some mild-flavored clover honey for some of the sugar. (I would have done all, but I didn't want the honey to overpower the fruit. As it is, it adds a nice sweetness and mellow undertone.) In both jam batches I made (strawberry-raspberry, and peach) I put in half the sugar called for. Because honey is slightly sweeter than sugar, I didn't put in quite as much honey as sugar; the general rule of thumb is to replace sugar with honey at a 1 cup to 3/4 cup ratio. So for a jam that called for 3 cups sugar, I did 1 1/2 cups sugar and about 1 1/8 cup honey. For a jam that called for 2 1/2 cups sugar, I did 1 1/4 cups sugar and 1 cup honey. The only other change I made was to decrease the water by 1/4 cup and boil the honey/sugar/pectin/water mixture for 3 minutes instead of 1, to account for the extra moisture in the honey. Both jams ended up with a great taste and a nice firm set. So go out and buy yourself some fruit and No Sugar Needed Sure-Jell! Freezer jam is really one of the easiest recipes around!

There is one other issue with jam... the issue of texture. As any jam maker will tell you, the texture of your jam is very important! The fruit shouldn't be pureed; you should have visible chunks in your jam. (Yum...)

HOWEVER, I personally don't agree with the way that the package tells you to prepare your fruit (berries: mashed, fruit: finely chopped). I like chunks of fruit in my jam, but I also like my jam to have a good amount of spreadability. What I've found works best for me is this—for most fruits, I will take about 3/4 of the fruit called for and put it in my blender on the lowest setting (on mine it is called "grate"). This setting evenly chops your fruit without grinding it too finely. It gives you nice fruit chunks that are not too big, not too small, and fairly even in size. (The exception to this rule is raspberries, which really are by nature pretty mushy and so can be smashed with a masher and come out just fine.) Once the fruit in the blender is all evenly chopped, I put it into a 4-cup glass measure or small bowl. (It may help to process your fruit in smaller batches if your blender is having a hard time with the full 3/4 amount.)

Then I take the last 1/4 of my fruit and put it in the blender on the highest setting. This will finely puree the fruit into a smoothie-like consistency. Once this part is all pureed, I pour it into the glass measure along with the rest of the fruit and mix it up. Now, when I mix this with my pectin/sugar mixture, I'll get a perfectly-textured jam that has lots of fruit chunks but also a very good spreadability! (This method is also good for fruits like plums and peaches that have a lot of hairy fiber in them... it helps separate the fibers so that you don't have stringy jam that is difficult to spread.)

So there you have it... Cindy's Science of Jam Preparation. This may not be the way that works best for you, but as for me and my house, this makes the best jam on earth!

Strawberry Lemonade

Rating: 5 stars!

Prep time: Easy

It's that time of summer when I find myself craving cold, fruity drinks all day long. Tonight I came up with this delicious creation to assuage that thirst, and it was perfect! I will definitely be making it again. Also, if I've calculated it correctly, it's only got a little over 7 grams of sugar per cup. Then again, I never said I was good at math....

1 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup finely chopped or pureed strawberries (I used frozen strawberries and just put them in the blender while still frozen to chop them up)

1/2 cup lemon juice

5 cups water

In small saucepan, combine sugar, water, and strawberries. Heat until boiling; reduce heat and simmer for three or four minutes. Cover and let stand in refrigerator for about 15 minutes. In pitcher, combine water and lemon juice. Add strawberry syrup and stir; serve over ice (if you serve the lemonade right away, it will still be warm from the syrup, so don't skimp on the ice!). Enjoy. I also would love to try this with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc... the options are endless!

Green Smoothies

Rating: 5 stars—even my super picky sister likes these

Prep time: Easy

This is not so much a recipe as a method. Really, you can use any combination of greens/fruits that suits your fancy; you can also add sugar (although that would totally kill the nutrition factor), honey, agave, or another sweetener if you so desire. For me, the 100% OJ concentrate, plus the banana, sweetens it up just fine. This is the smoothie that I make every morning; it yields 4 cups.

Here are the steps:

1. Fill blender with 1 1/2 cups warm water

2. Add fresh greens in until blender is almost all the way full (but not packed)—I alternate using baby spinach and spring mix salad right now

3. Peel and chop one medium carrot; put chopped carrot on top of greens

4. Pulse in blender until carrots are somewhat chopped up; then allow to blend on highest setting for 1-2 minutes, or until you can't see anymore leafy bits and it's all liquified. (My blender is really enthusiastic and tends to throw stuff up onto the sides while it's blending, which leaves me with a lot of carrots and spinach chunks... not what I want to be eating with my smoothie! While the blender is going, I'll usually take a spoon and scrape down the sides so that all the chunks get integrated.)

5. Turn the blender off. Add in 1/2 banana (fresh or frozen), 1-2 Tbsp 100% orange juice concentrate, a handful of frozen strawberries (I probably do about 6-8 strawberries), and some frozen blueberries (I probably do about 1/4-1/3 cup blueberries). Pulse blender again to get the big chunks broken up, then blend on highest setting for another minute until smooth. If the smoothie gets too thick to blend, add in another tablespoon or two of hot water, stir it up, and blend it again. When it's done, I usually taste it to see if it needs something else—more OJ, fruit, etc.

Like I said, this can be done with any combination of fruit. I use the berries and banana because they are a) cheap and b) very flavorful, and make a great balance to the spinach. I know my mom sometimes puts apples in hers, but apples are a precious resource in our house and aren't getting wasted on any old smoothie! When peaches & pears are in season, though, I plan to add some of those in as well.

One last note—I do my grocery shopping every 2 weeks, which means it's hard to keep all the fresh stuff fresh. At the beginning of my grocery period, I will pull out some of my fresh spinach and put it into ziploc bags to freeze for the end of the grocery period, when the spinach tends to get wilty. Also, I will usually get about 7 bananas, enough for 2 weeks worth of smoothies. For the first week, I'll use half of a fresh banana every day, and freeze the other half... then when the second week rolls around (when the bananas would be brown), I use the frozen halves.