Nothing says summer quite like fresh strawberry shortcake, and since our kitchen is currently overflowing with berries after this morning’s trip to Krause Berry Farms, I thought Miss G and I would experiment with a healthier, wholewheat, sugar-free version this afternoon. The unfortunate part is that our little old house was sitting at 31 degrees, so turning on the oven to bake shortcakes certainly wasn’t our best plan, but you gotta do what you gotta do when you have fresh berries begging to be gobbled up! ☺
While I don’t mind baking with small amounts of honey and pure maple syrup, our recent {and delicious!} cookie dough boys have peeked my interest in baking with dates {and other sweet fruits} instead of the alternative sweeteners I usually turn to. I’m happy to report, that our first experiment was a total success! These shortcakes turned out soft, moist inside, and perfectly sweet! Plus the tiny hint of coconut flavour from the coconut oil made them even more delicious.
Brad loved them, and I think Gracen thought she’d died and gone to heaven went she saw a little plate stacked with cake, sliced strawberries, and freshly whipped cream coming her way.
Here’s the recipe to our new favourite summer dessert….
Strawberry Shortcake with Date-sweetened Biscuits (adapted from this recipe)
- 2 1/2 cups of wholewheat flour
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
- 2/3 cup of buttermilk (you can make your own by adding 3/4 of a tablespoon of vinegar to 2/3 of a cup of regular milk and letting it sit for 5 or 10 minutes)
- 8 tablespoons of coconut oil (in its liquid state)
- 1 egg
- 4 majool dates, soaked and pureed
- 1 1/2 cups of whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup
- strawberries, sliced
Before starting this recipe, place the dates into a small bowl, cover them with boiling water, and let sit for about 15 minutes. Remove pits and place dates, along with a tablespoon or two of the soaking water in a food processor or blender and process until smooth {or nearly smooth}.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If you’re making your own buttermilk, mix the milk and vinegar together and set it aside.
Whisk together the wholewheat flour, baking powder, and sea salt.
In a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk, coconut oil, egg, and pureed dates until as smooth as possible.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir until just barely combined. Divide the dough in 8 to 10 balls and bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops are slightly golden.
Whip cream until peaks begin to form, then add maple syrup and whip for an extra few seconds to combine.
Slice strawberries.
To assemble, cut shortcakes in half horizontally, placing the tops aside temporarily. Place a heaping scoop of strawberries on each shortcake bottom, then top with a generous spoonful of freshly whipped cream, and place the tops back on. Serve immediately.
Enjoy!
♥
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We arrived early and the farm was already bustling with visitors. We got our buckets weighed, put down our loonie deposit for a wagon, and headed out to the furthest corner of the strawberry patch. 
The berries were plentiful and our buckets filled quickly, though strawberry picking isn’t easy work. It was hot (really hot) out and by the time we were about halfway through our hour and a half long picking session, Grae and I gave up on crouching and full-on sat down in the strawberry field (slightly less glamourous, but oh so much more comfy!)
While my little helper was interested in berry picking and very patient about it all, she didn’t so much want to pick the strawberries herself. She did pick a few here and there, but sitting beside you while you filled her bucket for her was much more her style. That and sneaking a semi-clean strawberry into her mouth every once and a while…
With two extra-large sand pails full of ripe strawberries, we decided to have them weighed, pay for them, and check out the rest of the farm.
First stop – the 
Next up, we visited the 
After a quick stop to see the animals out back (there weren’t that many and the enclosures didn’t really allow for easy petting, but G enjoyed it anyways), we stopped to take a couple of photos along the raspberry bushes. By this time, we were all hot, sweaty, and tired, and Gracen was feeling straight up silly. For one reason or another, she decided that the only way she’d have her photo taken was if her tongue was out, and by that time, I really didn’t blame her. Sometimes joining the crazy is just more fun. ☺
Finished off a lovely day by escaping cooking in our 30 degree house and eating dinner on the patio of one of our favourite local restaurants instead. Now that’s seriously awesome.
Gracen has been very anxiously awaiting this day since 
Surprisingly, the much talked about seal slide was not the hit of the day today… Instead, she was all about this much larger, much faster turtle slide over in the deeper end of the pool. The truth of the matter is that she loved this slide so much that very little swimming actually took place – it was simply slide after slide after slide for pretty much our entire visit, which was totally fine with me. Watching the anticipation as she climbed the steps and the absolute joy as she sped down and splashed into the water melted my heart and filled me with pride. I’m so, so glad our little lady loves water as much as she does.
The only slight downside to our morning was that it was chilly. Very chilly, in fact. Despite the fact that the pool is heated and it truly was a beautiful day, the wind off of the ocean sucked away the warmth and made you shiver the moment your shoulders left the water. And while Grae didn’t seem bothered in the least by it, at a certain point we knew it was time to get out, dry off, and warm up.
But that won’t stop us from returning very soon – Miss G’s already asking when that’ll be!
The other night, I had the absolute pleasure of joining several other Vancouver mom bloggers at 
Here’s our lineup of ingredients…. Pecans, dates {soaked in water}, coconut, raisins, sea salt, cinnamon, coconut oil, and vanilla. Now, I have to say that the original recipe includes coconut manna (also known as coconut butter) and not coconut oil… In fact, our healthy eating specialist explained that coconut oil is just the fat squeezed out of the coconut meat, while coconut manna is the coconut meat and fat combined, making it much more nutrient-rich. The trouble is, our local grocery store doesn’t carry coconut manna, so we had to improvise. While maybe not as healthy, the recipe still turned out great!
Anyways, onto actually making the cookie dough boys! First up, we drained {almost all of} the water our dates had been soaking in and blended them in our food processor. (Word to the wise, be sure your dates don’t still have the pits in them before blending. Oy.)
We processed them until nearly smooth, but not perfectly pureed. Because it was such a small batch, it did take several rounds of stopping the machine, scraping down the sides, and then doing it again, but that just meant more jobs for my little helper, which she of course loved.
With the date paste saved in a separate bowl for later, Miss G added our coconut and pecans to the food processor. Call us lazy, but we didn’t even wash out the processor bowl in between as it seemed like sort of an unnecessary step.
Then we pureed the coconut and pecans until they were meal-like.
Next up, Grae dumped all of the other ingredients (save the raisins) into the food processor with the coconut/pecan mixture.
Then we processed it all until it started to come together in a mass.
Here’s what it looked like when done.
The last step was to mix the raisins in by hand.
With our dough complete, we rolled it into balls using about a tablespoon of the mixture at a time.
And because Miss G is no longer a huge fan of raisins, before mixing them in, we set aside a part of the mixture. To set Grae’s balls apart from the other, she rolled them in coconut, which was a lovely addition.
The verdict? Delicious! They’re sweet and satisfying just like a good dessert, but come sans all of the sugar and fat regular desserts have. A definite success!
This morning Grae and I had the absolute pleasure of hanging out with the lovely 
Oh my goodness. Miss G and I had so much fun with this little project this afternoon. The best part is that it was completely impromptu. She wanted ‘to craft’ as she always says, and when digging through our craft supply drawer, came across a little bag of corks we scored at our last trip to 
With an idea in mind, it was time to gather up some materials. The corks were a given, the elastics would hold the actual boat together, the toothpicks or dowels would hold up our sails (we went with the mini dowels in the end), and the nail would help us poke our holes. The last thing we needed was something to make our sails out of… We thought of patterned scrapbook paper, but knew that would eventually just get wet. We also thought of the 
To get started, Gracen lined up 3 corks and held them together while I secured them with 2 thick elastic bands – one on each side.
Then, using our nail and “our big, big muscles” in the words of Grae, we created a little hole in the very centre of the cork wharf.
Together we pushed our mini wooden dowel down into the hole (a food pick or bamboo skewer could work too).
Using another mini dowel for reference, sketched a quick sail outline on the back of our sparkly foam.
Because our foam was of the adhesive variety, we made our sail double-sided, but this would be unnecessary if we had just regular foam sheets.
After making a couple of teeny little slits in our sail, one at the top and one at the bottom, we slid it onto our dowel post.
The finishing touch was adding a little flag above our sail. To do this, Gracen selected a roll of washi tape and folded a piece in half around the top of our dowel. Then I cut it to form a flag shape.
With our first boat complete, it was time for the big moment – to see whether or not it would float. It did!
And this little lady was very pleased about that.
We made one more boat, and the play begun immediately. Bobbing, blowing, and swooshing ensued throughout the afternoon and I’m sure it’ll continue for the next several days. 
The upside to a very rainy June is that we’re crossing things off of our rainy day idea list that I thought we wouldn’t get to do before leaving Vancouver in July. Today, we headed out to UBC to do something we’ve been meaning to do for a long while – attend a drop-in gymnastics session! The class was held in Osborne Centre (where there is plenty of metred parking out front) and was a ton of fun. We walked into a gym filled covered in mats and soft, padded flooring with everything from balance beams to parallel bars, to trampolines, rings, and ropes and Miss G began exploring. Despite her very cautious nature, Grae had a wonderful time and actually asked if we could ‘flip the car around’ and go back to gymnastics while driving home. Sadly, today was the last day of the spring session, and starting July 4th when the summer session begins, drop-ins will be on Thursday nights from 7:15 to 8:15 p.m. only, which really doesn’t work with young kids. 
Whenever Miss G and I have her very 
First up, we followed 
Then we placed the dough between two layers of parchment, rolled it out nice and thin, and used a pizza cutter to slice them into quick and easy squares.
I contemplated just placing the entire sheet onto a baking pan and cooking them in one big mass, but in the end, decided to scoop them up and flip them onto a pan while quickly separating them. 
And because they reminded both Brad and I of Cheez-Its (one of the only ‘Americanized’ types of crackers available during our four years in Kuwait), I added the centre holes with one of 
We baked them as usual, and even though little squares may be a little more on the boring side, they’re every bit as delicious!
Back in early spring while hanging out down by 
It started the other day when Gracen wanted to make something and I really wanted the two of us to get outside and get some fresh air. We pulled out our rocks, some acrylic paints, a couple of foam brushes, and set up a little workspace in the backyard. Grae painted her rock collection all sorts of bright colours, while I painted mine with a couple of coats of plain white.
Once dry, I typed Grae’s name into a word-processing doc, selected a font that is similar to the way I’d like her to print her name (in this case Illuminate – see some of my favourite fonts 
Next, I carefully cut the letters out.
Because my rocks were not collected with a specific project in mind, they were all a little bit differently shaped and sized, so I just took my letter cutouts and matched each one up with a stone as best as I could. 
Then, using a regular children’s glue stick, I stuck the paper letters directly onto the painted rocks.
Using acrylic paints again (we went for rainbow colours, because well, we love rainbow!), I painted the rocks. I made sure to use a dabbing motion near / on top of the letters, just to be sure that I wouldn’t get paint underneath them and they wouldn’t move around. Two coats of coloured paint gave really nice coverage and the white paint underneath really allowed the colours to pop.
My original plan was to actually soak the paper letters off in warm water once the paint was dry, but to my surprise, they peeled off very easily. As you can see, the letters certainly weren’t perfect at this point. I also had not yet painted the bottoms of the rocks yet {mostly because I wasn’t sure if this method would be a success}, so I made sure to do that carefully, but next time I’d do it before removing the paper letters.
Next up, I used a flat-tipped brush and some white acrylic to just touch up the letters here and there. This certainly isn’t necessary (Grae thought the rocks were perfect as is), but it was really easy and did make the edges look a lot cleaner.
Lastly, once the white touch up paint was dry, I gave the rocks a once over with Mod Podge to protect the paint from chips and scuffs. I like Mod Podge a lot because it’s water-based and non-toxic, but you could use a spray-on finisher if that’s what you prefer.
Here’s the end result… Bright and colourful and great for both playing with and learning with.
Gracen was so anxious to get her hands on them once they were done, she could barely contain her excitement.
Just for fun, I set them in a tray of sand (mixed up of course) and the little lady immediately began spelling her name. 
This is a little project Miss G and I have been working on ever since we went shopping for an event I was attending and Grae fell in love with some brightly-coloured bangles. Though it was a bit of a process, these wooden popsicle stick bracelets are really easy, fun, and inexpensive to make and my little accessory lover is very pleased with the results.
To start off, we soaked some wooden popsicle sticks in a covered mason jar of water for a full 24 hours. 
Then, I gently bent them into ‘C’ shapes in order to fit them in tea light holders. One thing I noticed during this step is that there seemed to be a way that the sticks naturally wanted to be bent… Working with that made the job a lot easier. The one I tried to bend against the natural direction actually ended up snapping.
We could have left our popsicle sticks in the tea light holders to dry as is, but since they weren’t perfectly fitted to the edges of the containers, we filled them up with water and let them sit another 24 hours before draining them and letting them dry out.
After drying a full day, the bracelets held their shapes nicely.
When we popped them out of the tea light holders, they looked like this. Certainly not perfect, but a cuff shape nonetheless.
At this point, the bracelets looked really tiny, but they fit G (who will be 3 in just a couple of months) perfectly. The good thing is that you can always make the opening a little larger with a gentle bend.
These could be decorated a multitude of ways, but we opted for a tissue paper colour transfer for watercolour sort of look. In order to do that, we got out a few things… Water in a small spray bottle, some tissue squares, a toilet paper roll (which was quickly replaced with a chunk of a branch similar in size), and the bracelets themselves of course.
We started off by putting the bracelets around the paper roll just to make them easier to work on.
Then Miss G gave them a light misting of water to make them ‘sticky’…
And covered the entire stick in tissue paper squares, adding a spritz or two of water along the way if needed.
Then, when she was happy with her coverage, she sprayed the whole thing down once again, allowing the tissue paper to cling tightly to the wooden bangle.
My part of the job was carefully removing the bracelets covered in tissue from the paper roll / branch. Once removed, I carefully wrapped the excess tissue around the backside of the bracelet. One thing I did not anticipate is that the small amount of water sprayed onto the bracelets actually starting causing them to lose their shape.
So back into the tea light holders to dry it was.
After another day’s drying time, Gracen peeled away the dried tissue paper to reveal beautiful watercolour-eque designs.
I did contemplate using black Sharpies to add stripes, dots, and other designs, but I think these are perfect just as they are. ☺
{Part of} My AMAZING Blogging Posse // Image courtesy of 
With our 
And when I say simple, I mean simple! Because our designated market builder seemed to miss a couple of steps in the process (*ahem* not me!) we have a couple of open slots near the top of the stand that were perfect for slipping a lightweight cotton scarf through to give the feel of a curtain. If we would have had a long, thin dowel, I would have attempted to fashion a working curtain, but no such luck. Of course, Miss G doesn’t seem to mind in the least.
The other small step we took to transform our market stand into a puppet theatre is to create a super simple welcome sign. We simply slid it into the poster holder in front of the fruit and veggie shop one and we were good to go.
All that was left was retrieving a few puppets, and luckily, Miss G had that covered.
These guys were up for some exercise and ended up jumping and ‘practicing falling’.
After playing with her traditional puppets a while, she pulled out her homemade 
Next up was the finger puppet crew. These guys did their usual performance – 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed.
Oh, goodness. Quite obviously the rain and being cooped up indoors got the best of us today as this is what we spent a good chunk of time doing this morning… Laying in bed taking crazy photos of ourselves with