Baking with Blueberries

Have you found yourself with too many blueberries on hand? Yeah, that was me this week. IS me I should say because I still have a bunch left.

And when I say too many I don't mean that in a "bad" way. It's just tricky to use up a lot of them before they go bad, and blueberries going bad, now THAT would be the bad thing.

So the other day I found myself with an overstock of blueberries…

What happened is we bought one big pack at Costco and then we had to quickly stop at Sobeys and grab something where my husband picked up another pack, not realizing we already had one from Costco. So now here we are LOTS of these sweet little blue morsels. 

Since then we've been putting them in everything. Blueberries in our Sunday pancakes, in our yogurt, in our Shakeology, in my late night cereal snack (ooopsss), in this morning's oatmeal. And I have a blueberry lemon loaf baking in the oven right now to take to a friend's for afternoon tea ;) Keeping my fingers crossed it turns out well, haha.

That pretty much took care of ONE PACK! I still have another one to dig into. I'm thinking another batch of pancakes to freeze to pull out for quick snack or breakfast. I may also do a baked oatmeal with them. 

Now all these blue buddies wouldn't be so bad either if I hadn't also grabbed a thing of strawberries and raspberries!! I observed yesterday that I can tell when the fruit season shifts as I have next to no apples and pears on my counter but my fridge is jam packed with berries of all kinds. NOT complaining though as berries are super duper healthy and the kids and I love 'em. 

What are some of your favourite ways to use up extra fruit so it doesn't go bad? I do find that baking with it makes a great option but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

And in case you are interested here is my recipe for the blueberry the blueberry lemon loaf.

Blueberry Lemon Loaf

Mix together the dry ingredients

1 and 3/4 cup flour 

1/3 cup coconut sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

zest of 1/2 lemon

Mix together the following wet ingredients

1 cup milk

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together

****When wet and dry ingredients are partially mixed add in 1/2 cup melted coconut oil****

Add in 1 cup blueberries

Place into a coconut oil greased loaf pan

Baked at 375' for approx 40 minutes

If you like you can also make a super easy glaze that soaks into the top by mixing the juice of one lemon with 1 tbsp coconut sugar, then lightly pour over the top while still warm. 

Now I better go check on that loaf, it smells pretty yummy from my spot at the table. 

Weekly Menu and Groceries (March 10th-16th)

Hey there! I have another weekly menu and grocery post for you. I also included a few pix of my fridge and what I have in my cupboards. 

As always it is my hope that showing what I buy and how I stretch it and what we do in general can help and inspire others to cook healthy in their kitchen too. 

For the most part all you see here, plus a few things already residing in my fridge and cupboards, will be able to breakdown into meals to feed our family of five ALL WEEK! And then some because of the bulk packages of meat. Not only do I love feeding my family healthy food, I love that it is economical as well.

This is really a general grocery haul and very typical for our family. Lots of veggies, lots of fruit, lots of meat (specifically chicken). A few things we are trying out this week that are new to us are a plantain and a spaghetti squash.

These are kind of the randoms. Some cream, milk, butter, yogurt, noodles (gasp), almond milk, diced tomatoes, and some mineral water (to mix with my happy planet juice). This really is the extent of our processed/packaged goods. I do have a few others in the cupboard but yeah, pretty minimal, just how I like it. 

Below is our family menu for the week. I have been really liking looking at it menu style as opposed to a spreadsheet, and then leaving our options for breakfast, lunch, and snacks more as guidelines as opposed to a strict plan. 

And now time for a a mini fridge and dry goods tour!!!! Please avert your eyes at the unhealthy selections you may see ;) 

The few things not shown here are my spices and my little bulk section where I have my chia seeds, hemp hearts, sliced almonds, alternative flours, and those kinds of things. That area was a disaster so no pix on that one.  Also my stash of tea and Shakeology aren't shown. Those almost deserve a post of their very own. 

Well, that about wraps it up. Hope you enjoyed this little peak into my fridge and little cupboards and are able maybe make some use of the weekly menu. I'll be getting tonight's supper on the roll shortly. Saucy Mozza chicken is going to ROCK (just not sure about the spaghetti squash).