Strawberry Meyer Lemon Cream Pie

Do you know what day it is today? It's March 14, otherwise known as Pi Day not to be confused with National Pie Day, which is celebrated on January 23. Yes, I'm totally math geeking out today because I'm celebrating a Greek symbol  “π” which is used in mathematics to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter which is approximately 3.14159. My inner math nerd finally remembered to celebrate this day with a sweet piece of homemade pie and it's like an episode of Lost, where I corresponded the numbers to something meaningful...i.e. Pi day!

I'm no stranger in making homemade pies, and one of my absolute favorite pie to bake is apple pie. However, I wanted something simple enough to prepare and wanted to use two of my favorite seasonal ingredients - strawberries and Meyer lemons. With this second pregnancy, I have been eating bowls of mixed berries- strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries like it's my job. Plus, we have an abundant amount of Meyer Lemons that are fully ripe to use (if any of my local friends want any - please come over and take a basket). With a quick search on Pinterest, I found this gorgeous Strawberry Meyer Lemon Creme Pie and knew it was the one I had to make because I had most of the ingredients at hand.

Mango Strawberry Limonata

My wonderful friend, Carrie, over at Carrie's Sweet Life is featuring me as one of her Friday Faves. I'm so honored to be guest posting on her blog.


Please check out my recipe for my refreshing Mango Strawberry Limonata over at Carrie's Sweet Life.

Strawberry Milk

This post is sponsored by got milk? in partnership with local California organizations that educate kids about the importance of proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle.

One of my biggest cravings that I had during my pregnancy was milk. I craved large bowls of cereal in the mornings, a warm glass of milk before I went to bed, and the occasional glass of milk with my dinner, too. It's funny to say that I loved milk because I was lactose intolerant. But I guess the body and the more importantly the growing baby tells you what it wants and what it needs.

From what I remember from my childhood eating habits, milk was always a constant. It was always something that I remember my mom telling me to drink so I would have strong bones and grow big. As I grew older, I had consumed less milk than my childhood days and I had started drinking soy, or almond milk as an alternative. It's not the same as real milk, but I didn't see the value of milk as I do now. As a new parent, I want to teach the importance of a healthy diet to my own daughter so she can have strong bones and grow big, too.

Did you know that imitation milk has up to 12 ingredients, and real milk has 2? During my pregnancy, I grew to love milk again and stepped away from the imitation milk. I'm very happy to partner up with the California Milk Processor Board - the creator of the Got Milk campaign. They are working with THINK together to help educate children on the pure, simple and wholesome food choices for a healthy lifestyle. This is a great way to teach children to be healthy, avoid the imitation milk, and promote healthy choices. 

I wanted to feature milk with something that is pure and healthy and nothing too fancy. As a new parent, I'm always looking for healthy recipes that I can make quick and fast. This was a no-brainer because I absolutely loved strawberry milk as a child, and you probably remember "it" as the special pink stuff that changes the color of your milk. I simply took some fresh strawberries that I got from the farmers market and pureed them and combined it with a simple syrup. Thus, making my own version of fresh strawberry syrup which allowed myself to enjoy a childhood favorite via the healthy route.

Fresh, fast and refreshing!

Roasted Strawberry & Buttermilk Ice Cream

Happy Friday!! I'm amazed how 8 weeks have flown by and how big my little baby girl has gotten. We weighed Elena this past week and she's already up to 11 pounds. She weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces when she was first born and she is well on her way on doubling her weight. 

Since this coming weekend is Eric's first Father's Day I wanted to make something sweet that he enjoys. He doesn't have much of a sweet tooth but one of his favorite flavors of ice cream is strawberry. Ice cream is definitely something that I love during these hot summer days, and homemade ice cream is even better, too!

We enjoyed this strawberry ice cream all by itself. It's refreshing and sweet. The roasted strawberries truly accentuate the ice cream, and is the most important step in making this addicting ice cream. This recipe is easy enough to prepare and highlights the strawberries fruity factor and captures the juiciness of them, too.

Hurry up and make this strawberry ice cream before the season is over and for those special someone's in your life!

Roasted Strawberry & Buttermilk Ice Cream
ZipList Add Recipe 

Strawberry Muffins

Happy Friday!!!

I absolutely love living in SoCal. We are very fortunate to have sunny weather for probably 11 months of the year, enjoy fantastic places to eat everywhere and anywhere we want (gourmet food trucking anyone?), and the awesome farmer market finds available year round. There are a million other reasons why I love living in SoCal, but those are my top three. Right now, strawberry season is in full swing, and I have been enjoying strawberries by the pints. You would think I might have turned bright red from all the strawberries that I have been enjoying, but there is nothing as tasty as a summer ripen strawberry.

I finally got a chance to bake up these sweet muffins from Shawnda's blog. She has been teasing me for weeks with her strawberry posts and I have been itching to make every single strawberry recipe. Sadly, most often I'm enjoying strawberries all by their lonesome, or maybe sometimes mixed in with blueberries. Nothing too elaborate when you're a busy newbie mommy, but I finally had some quiet time this week and I had a little bit of mommy cooking time to bake up these sweet treats.

Can you believe that Elena is almost a month old? Time is flying by and she is growing away so fast. We have been enjoying these strawberry muffins for the past couple of days for a quick breakfast snack or after my nursing sessions. They are cake-like with little bits of sweet strawberries and a fantastic way to use up strawberries!

Strawberry Muffins
Adapted from Confections of A Foodie Bride
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
3 cups + 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 Tablespoon unsalted butter, cubed and softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt

Generous 1 1/2 cup chopped strawberries (~8 oz by weight, after hulling)

Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling tops (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare your muffin pans with desired cupcake liners or spray with non-stick spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the 3 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of the stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom as needed.

Add the eggs in one by one and mix in the vanilla and almond extract.

Mix in half of the dry ingredients, followed by a third of the yogurt. Add remaining dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the yogurt, until incorporated.

Toss strawberries with the remaining 1 tablespoon flour and add to the mixer, mix until incorporated. Batter will be thick.

Using an ice cream scooper, or 1/2 cup divide into prepared muffin pans. Sprinkle muffin tops with turbinado sugar if desired.

Bake for 8 minutes at 400 degrees, then decrease oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 12 more minutes until golden brown. Or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let muffins cool in the pan before removing and transfer to cooling rack.

Will keep for at least 3 days in a closed container.

Yield: 20 to 22 muffins

Review: Absolutely scrumptious and quick and easy for this newbie mommy. Make them for your next breakfast, brunch or get together!!

And here's a sweet picture of Elena and Eric. She is definitely daddy's little sweetheart!!