Friday Five {July 4th Edition}

The 4th of July is my second favorite holiday! The weather is usually nice, there is lots of delicious summer produce for healthy treats, you can dress up festively and not look completely rediculous annd, on top of it, there are lots of beautiful, glittery, explosions!! I cannot wait to spend the weekend poolside and catching up with friends. Here are some things I'm incorporating into my celebration this year....okay maybe not the DIY sparklers, but I plan on at least purchasing some.

1. This Paleo Friendly, Berry Tart!

2. These Classic Jack's in Red and White {And also on sale!}

3. Make your own Sparklers!!

4. Beaded Fringe Earrings! I wish my neck was long enough to pull them off!

5. With the beautiful weather I can't wait to spend today by this pool!

Blueberry-Lemon Bars {Paleo}

My friend E is not so much a sweets girl. When she asked me to make a dessert for her  Going Away party a few weekends ago I found an amazing sounding, paleo friendly, recipe for Bacon Chocolate chip cookies. As I was standing in the aisle at Whole Foods trying to decide how much more coconut flour I needed I realized the recipe I had found only made 8 cookies. After some panicked googling and found these delicious Blueberry-Lemon bars on The Spunky Coconut.

They weren't as sweet as I was expecting, but as E pointed out, they would be PERFECT for a breakfast. I added twice as many blueberries and probably would have done the same for lemon juice in addition to some zest. This also all came together nicely in my new blender so clean up was very easy! My adapted recipe:

Blueberry Lemon Bars {Paleo Friendly}

3/4 cup of Coconut Flour 

1/2 cup of Tapioca Starch

 1/2 cup of Shortening + 1 tbsp

 1/2 cup of Granulated Sugar

 1/2 cup of  Fresh Lemon Juice

1 tbsp of  Fresh Lemon Zest

 1 tbsp Baking Powder

 1/4 tsp  of Salt 

3/4 cup of Applesauce 

2 cups of Blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a square baking pan with parchment paper
2. In a blender, mixer or food processor, mix together the coconut flour, tapioca starch, shortening, sugar, salt, baking powder, lemon juice, lemon zest and applesauce until it forms a thick dough
3. Pour dough into a mixing bowl & fold in the blueberries
4. Place dough into the baking pan and press evenly into the pan
5. Bake for 43-45 minutes
6. After the bars cool, sprinkle the top with a pinch of granulated or powered sugar