Memorial Day Weekend Fun

Beautiful Hydrangea's that my mom brought me from her garden!  

     I posted about Brandon all weekend and that was mostly for family and friends. What did I do? Watched and photographed Brandon's swims, cleaned, cooked, blogged, school work and got to hang with my parents. They decided to come down Sunday night and play! My dad and I got up at 6:30am and went for a 3.5 mile walk around my neighborhood. I love spending time with my dad- he is the best dad in the world! We talked about lots of stuff and enjoyed the beautiful morning weather. Brandon and I also made dinner for my parents on the grill and some dessert. 


Here is something for my foodies! 


On the Grill-


I marinated grilling steaks for about 2 hours with salt, pepper, garlic, Chef Leo's meat rub and coconut amino's.
Brandon grilled them with a little Chef Salt for a kick of  flavor (chef salt is another one of our friend the stone broke chef's creations that will be for sale soon!) 
We had grilled brussel sprouts and a large Garden salad.

        Dessert was delicious and easy. After making Lemon Bread  I decided that it kind of tasted like pound cake and then all I could think about was pound cake with berries and cream. 

Lemon Almond Pound Cake 

(Red, White and Blue for memorial day)

Ingredients: 

3 1/2 C. Almond flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 Lemons Zest

2 Lemons, juice

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 C Honey

2 Tbsp Coconut Milk

1 tsp Cinnamon

5 Eggs

Process: 

1. Combine Eggs, Milk, Honey, lemon juice and Vanilla in a mixer, beat well
2. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, lemon zest and cinnamon, mix well
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, beat well. 
4. Grease an 8x8 cake pan (or any cake pan) and pour batter into the pan. 
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes (time varies but start watching closely after 25 minutes) You want the top to be a nice golden brown and for a toothpick to come out clean. 
6. Top with fresh berries, coconut ice cream and a little dark chocolate drizzle. 

Crappy Phone Picture

This is an easy recipe and I ate it without berries and cream and still enjoyed it. Non- paleo friends loved it with the berries and ice cream but people who aren't use to the almond flour thought it was too nutty. (I had to make my mom ice cream, berries and chocolate instead because she didn't give me a chance to prepare the dessert properly for her without digging in!) 

Memorial day Monday- I spent at an auction house in Ashburn with Brandon and my parents. It was really fun bidding on antiques and watching bidding wars. I am still amazed at what some people buy- stamps, old letters, ugly lamps and broken plastic dolls! Crazy but fun. Afterwards we went to the All American Steakhouse in Ashburn and enjoyed delicious salads. This is a photo of what I had to turn down (Brandon couldn't resist and neither could my parents.) 

Happy Memorial Day weekend

My mom loves fresh hot gluten rolls! 

The Hooch bottle Brandon got at auction for $7.00. 

Sunday Funday!

Yesterday Brandon and I received our first order of Thunderbird Energetica Bars. They were good and definitely filled us up until our late lunch. We tried one while we were setting up at church this morning. We split the Cocoa Hemp Walnut bar with a cup of coffee!


After church, we came home with every intention of working in the yard and cleaning house but I got in the kitchen and started experimenting. While Brandon grilled us some asparagus and Old Bay Tilapia, I made Rosemary Garlic Mashed Cauliflower and a Double Chocolate Cookie Pie. 

Crust 
1 Cup Almond Flour
1 Tbs Raw Honey
1 tsp Palm Sugar
2 Tbs Grass- Fed Butter, melted

Mix well and roll into a ball. Grease a 9" Pie plate. Place the ball of dough into the pie plate. Hand form the dough into the shape of the plate. Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Filling

1 1/2 Cup Almond Flour

2 Tbs Raw Honey

2 Tbs Grass- Fed butter, melted

1 Tbs Dark Cocoa

1/2 Cup Dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup walnuts (optional)

1 Egg

1 tsp Sea Salt

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix the dry ingredients in a mixer until well blended. In a separate bowl, combine all the wet ingredients. Add to the dry and mix until well blended.  Add Chocolate Chips and walnuts (optional)

Pour mixture into the pie crust.

Bake in the oven on 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Pictured here with some SO Delicious Coconut Milk Coconut Ice Cream! It was so good :)

After a delicious meal like this, we had the energy and stamina to go out and get the yard cleaned up. Work inside for spring cleaning: vacuum, dust, laundry and dishes. Brandon even got time to go to a wetsuit demo in Leesburg while I ran/walked 5 miles with my cousin! What a way to enjoy this beautiful March day.