I love berries. Like, really love them. They are just about my favorite thing (maybe more than avocados???). When you are searching for things to love about your new home (Michigan) when you just really, really loved your old home (Colorado), berries make home a happier place. Because Colorado? I’m sorry, but your berry selection is lousy…and tasteless. Michigan, you are a far superior berry state. You have produced the most delicious strawberries and blueberries I have ever tasted. Hands down. So, thank you, Michigan. While I would prefer a humidity-free and mosquito-free beautiful, Colorado summer, your summer ain’t too bad either.
So, naturally, in the spirit of embracing all Michigan has to offer, Landon and I had to do a Michigan summer activity and go strawberry picking. Last year he was still crawling so strawberry picking was not so interesting, but this year he was ready for his own bucket to pick away. (Note, you can fill your box or bucket much faster if you don’t eat every other strawberry you pick, but come on. Who has that level of self-control?)
Now, this is funny. Landon and I bring our big box of 10 pounds of strawberries home rather proudly. Hubsters comes home and asks what we are going to do with all of those strawberries. What are we going to do with all those strawberries???? We’ll be lucky if they last a week!
So naturally I accepted this question as a bit of a challenge and got to work making a crisp. I used my favorite crisp recipe that is gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free, and, dare I say it, dang delicious!! Now, I am sort of a fruit-crisp-for-breakfast kind of person (okay, I’m just a breakfast person, if you haven’t figured that out yet). I sometimes eat crisp for dessert, but generally I love it for a very special breakfast. I am proud to admit that my husband went out of town for most of the following week, and I single-handedly ate the whole crisp, guilt free. I’ll go to my grave saying this: real food is delicious. And this crisp? It’s real food. Eat up!
A few notes about this recipe…
- You can really use any fruit you’d like. I’ve used peaches and blueberries, a mixture of berries, just strawberries (like the photos above), apples, etc. Really, you will not mess it up. I would just chop up the fruit into 1/2 inch pieces if you are using something larger than berries.
- You can make this recipe completely grain free by subbing shredded, unsweetened coconut in for the oats. I will admit, I like the oatmeal version better, but the coconut works.
- You can really use any nuts instead of the pecans, but they’re my favorite.
- You can also use honey instead of maple syrup, but I do like the complexity of flavor that the maple syrup provides.
- Suffice it to say, this is a very forgiving recipe and you can recreate it in a million ways to fit your dietary restrictions or flavor preferences.
- 4 c. fruit (I love blueberries, strawberries, peaches, or any combination of those)
- 1 c. old-fashioned oats (or ½ c. oats & ½ c. shredded, unsweetened coconut, or 1 c. coconut)
- ½ c. raw, unsalted pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped
- ½ c. almond meal
- ¼ c. maple syrup
- ¼ c. avocado oil (or other neutral oil)
- ½ t. pink or sea salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly grease an 8 x 8 pan with coconut oil.
- Pour the fruit into the pan.
- To make crisp topping, combine the remaining ingredients in a small bowl.
- Top the fruit with the crisp topping.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is crisp and golden.
- (If using frozen fruit, bake for an additional 10 minutes or so.)
(This recipe is adapted from Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist. If you haven’t yet read this very delightful book, you should. But don’t blame me if you’re reading it right before bed, and bounce out of bed the next morning to make her goat cheese biscuits!)
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