SRC: Troyer’s Loving Life’s Fruit Crisp and Refreshing Strawberry Watermelon Drink

For August’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired with Kirsten of Troyer’s Loving Life. Kirsten is a stay at home mom who lives in Washington State with her husband and two daughters. She shares stories, moments and recipes from her life and journey as a daughter of the Most High King.

She has tons of delicious recipes – even including some gluten free ones! The following recipes caught my eye – creamy avocado dressing, Vegan peanut butter cups, Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Fusilli with Sausage, Zucchini and Cheese. When I was on holidays, we needed to bring a dessert to a dinner party, so I made a variation of Pioneer Woman’s Peach Crisp and it was a success! I was also feeling really ambitious, so on a hot day I made her Strawberry Watermelon Drink, which was super refreshing!

I did make a few modifications to the crisp to make it more “me friendly:” made it gluten and dairy free, didn’t add the maple cream sauce (although I’m sure that would be absolutely heavenly), reduced the sugar and used the fruit I had on hand. We served it with coconut ice cream and it was delicious! Definitely a keeper!

 

Gluten Free Vegan Peach Blackberry and Blueberry Crisp

3/4 c. Gluten free flour blend (I used Bob Red Mill)
1/4 c. almond meal (could use more flour)
1/4 c. gluten free oats
1/2 c. dairy free margarine (or other fat – coconut oil would probably work as well)
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of Allspice or Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
Juice and Zest of half a lemon
2 tbsp. maple syrup
5 – 6 c. of fruit (I sort of eye-balled it and used two sliced peaches, ~2 c. of fresh blueberries and ~3 c. of fresh blackberries. I didn’t skin my peaches, but if you want to, Kirsten has really good directions with her recipe.)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, almond meal, oats, sugar, cinnamon, allspice and Salt.
3. Cut in margarine using a fork or a pastry blender (or go really old school and use your fingers, like me) until it is a moist, coarse meal.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together fruit, lemon zest and maple syrup. Pour into a 8 x 8″ pan. (I also put some into muffin cups so that I would have some available to take photos of in case nothing was left over after the dinner party.)
5. Sprinkle topping over fruit and press down lightly.
6. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes.
7. Remove foil and bake for another 30 – 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbly. (The muffin tins took about 35 minutes total)
8. Let cool slightly before serving warm with the maple cream sauce or ice cream.
9. Enjoy!

Strawberry Watermelon Drink

Strawberries (I used less than 1/2 a pint)
Watermelon (3 – 4 2″ frozen chunks)
Fresh Basil Leaves (I used 2)Ice (if not using frozen watermelon)
Vodka or other hard liquor (optional)

1. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add additional basil/ice if desired.
2. Enjoy on a hot day!

Please check out the rest of Group D’s recipes by clicking below!

 

Caving Adventures

At the beginning of June, I had my company retreat. (That’s only 2 months ago… I’m doing well!) The second day we had “team building” activities and I chose to go caving.

At the beginning, I was wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into.

It was dark. We had to clip into a rope. It was a bit slippery.

It was only until I successfully went through the first practise “squeeze” that I started to enjoy myself. It’s funny how doing something successfully boosts your confidence enough to give you the boost to continue on and enjoy yourself!

It was kind of crazy going through the “big squeeze”, where you had to riggle through a tiny hole that the helmet barely fit through, pushing yourself a few inches at a time with your feet and hands.

 

It ended up being really awesome – slithering through holes, climbing up and down rocks to get between “rooms” and generally getting very dirty. Totally worth it!

At the end of our adventure, we went to the Grotto. So pretty!

Soda straws from the ceiling

After a while we all turned off our headlamps and it was dark. I know I shouldn’t be surprised at that, but even when you’re in a dark room at night, there’s still a little light that your eyes can adjust to. Nope. Obviously not in a cave.

The happiest thing was this mushroom growing.

All clean at the beginning…

 

All dirty at the end!

Have you ever done something that pushed your comfort levels but ended up enjoying it?