A few weeks ago I shared an ice cream recipe and while it’s delicious, it does take a little time to make. Plus, if you don’t have an ice cream machine (which I don’t) it can be a little more labor intensive. That’s why we have popsicles. 
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dessert
4th of July BBQ Round-Up
Happy 4th of July! I thought it would be a good idea to give you some BBQ recipes so that you can enjoy some delicious food on our day of independence! 
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Individual Cherry Basil Cobbler
Ok, take a moment to get over the fact that there is basil in my cherry cobbler.
You good?
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My Best Summer Recipes
Since summer is (almost) officially here, I thought I would share some of my best summer recipes to get you ready for the warm months ahead!
I could eat this on repeat and never get tired of it. I love the bite of vinegar, the crunch of the cucumber, and the sweet of the tomato/basil combo. Make a huge batch of this and eat it throughout the week because it gets even better with time!
This is a great dish to bring to a BBQ or potluck because it makes a lot and doesn’t have to be served hot. Plus it’s free of gluten, dairy, eggs, and meat so it can please a lot of diets. Oh, and it’s delicious.
This is a re-do of my original BBQ sauce and it’s one of my favorite things in the summer. I use it on vegetables, in marinades, and try to put it on every dish. It comes together quick and doesn’t have any funky ingredients.
Ok, hear me out on this one. I know cold soup sounds really unappetizing and for a long time, I avoided gazpacho because gross. But when it’s really hot out and nothing sounds good because it involves heat in some way, gazpacho is really refreshing. And this one is super creamy and delicious and you can have a refreshing dinner quick.
I like making this casserole ahead of time and then serving it up cold or room-temperature. It’s best if you do all of the cooking in the morning so you don’t have the oven on during the hottest part of the day. And the tahini BBQ sauce is finger-lickin’ good. Yeah, I said it.
Have a vegetable garden and 20 lbs of vegetables that you don’t know what to do with? Send 10 lbs to me and then use the other 10 lbs to make this ratatouille!
If you like key lime pie and popsicles then boy are you in luck! These take a little bit of prep work but once they’re done you will be thankful you made them! Cool, tangy, and refreshing, they’re perfect for hot summer days!
Homemade Banana Pudding
Ok, so I learned some new things while making this recipe. First, I have to tell you about my inspiration for this one because it’s weird and who doesn’t like weird stuff? No one. That’s who.
I was making a loaf of my gluten-free banana bread (which you should make immediately because it’s the bomb. Side note: I’m bringing back “the bomb”) and as I was blending the banana and avocado together I thought to myself, “Antoinette, (I call myself Antoinette NBD) that kind of looks like pudding. I wonder if it would be any good as pudding? I wonder if there is banana pudding?” So I set about to research banana pudding.
This is my life people.
I remember pudding snack packs used to have a banana flavor but I doubt that there was any actual banana in that pudding. My google searches told me that banana pudding was indeed a thing. A southern thing. Which means it’s delicious because it has all the fat and sugar. All delicious things have fat and sugar. Most recipes called for making a vanilla custard type deal and adding sliced bananas, vanilla wafers, and in one case merengue. While it wasn’t a difficult process, it was more steps than I wanted for my pudding. And by more, I mean this is pretty much just one step.
There are no eggs in this so you don’t have to cook anything but because of the addition of avocado, stick with me, it is creamy and delicious without the eggs. And depending on how ripe your bananas are, it’s pretty sweet too. You can add maple syrup if it isn’t sweet enough but mine was totally delicious without it. See? Fat and sugar. Just a better version of fat and sugar.
I know you’re probably getting tired of me putting avocado in things but I’m not, so get over it 🙂 It’s delicious and I can’t stop, won’t stop. You can get creative with toppings like coconut whip cream, pecans or walnuts, crumbled up graham crackers, or in my case cacao nibs because, chocolate.
Banana Pudding
As I was making this I started singing the part about figgy pudding from We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Adam asked me if I was singing a Christmas song and I said no, I was singing a pudding song because how do you make pudding without singing about it? So feel free to sing about pudding while making this because I think it enhances the flavor.
- 2 very ripe bananas, sliced (about 2 cups)
- 1/2 avocado, diced (about 1/2 cup)
- 1/2 cup coconut cream (you can buy coconut cream from Trader Joes or just put a can of full-fat coconut milk in the fridge overnight and scoop off the solid cream)
- 1 tbsp maple syrup, optional if your bananas aren’t super ripe. I didn’t need any extra sweetener for mine
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 tsp maca powder, optional but adds a nice caramel-y flavor
Toppings (optional)
- chocolate chips or cacao nibs
- pecans or walnuts or almonds
- sliced banana
- coconut whip cream
- graham crackers
- nilla wafers if you’re rebellious or Southern 😉
- Ready for this? Put all the pudding ingredients into a blender and blend until super smooth. Dish it out and put on all the toppings.
Told you it was one step 😀 Happy Friday friends! Have a great weekend!
Life Healthfully Lived 