Pie Deconstructed

It is Malia’s turn to choose our family home evening treat for tomorrow and she requested banana cream pie. I always make our pies the day before we want to eat them so that they have plenty of time to set up, so I made the pie after church today. Malia, however, just couldn’t wait to enjoy her chosen treat so she topped a few leftover cookies from the crust with nice, big slices of banana. I have seen Oreos consumed in a multitude of ways over the years, but this is definitely the first time I’ve seen them used as a vehicle for plain fruit. Usually, the cookie is the focus, and the healthy stuff is just the mode of delivery and not the other way around. LAUGHING WITH TEARS SMILEY

Let the Baking Begin!

As soon as I’m done with my Halloween hijinks, I get to jump right into the holiday baking season. Or maybe the holiday baking season never ends…the holidays just rotate. Either way, I love it! Our inaugural flavor this year is the ever-popular dairy free banana cream pie. We love this recipe. In fact, I was never a fan of banana cream pie until I found this recipe. But the creamy coconut milk pudding atop the golden Oreo crust adorned with oat milk whipped cream is absolutely delightful. (I know it’s not standard, but you should really try a banana cream pie with a golden cookie crumb crust. It is an amazing flavor match.) 

Next week will bring more pie and I’m not the only one in this house looking forward to that!

Yet More Proof That Amazing Things Can Be Made With No Milk

For the past few years, Matthew has looked upon banana cream pie with longing. He loves bananas and having them in pie just seemed like a little bit of bliss. Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to make a cream pie taste alike that fit all his dietary needs. But with his successful food challenge for coconut earlier this year, all that has changed. Coconut cream has made a dairy free banana cream pie a reality. As usual, I was pretty impressed by how tasty it actually was. And Matthew absolutely loved it which was even more important. We all had one small slice and left the remaining two thirds of the pie for Matthew. And he consumed it with great gladness. (Although he didn’t eat it all in one sitting. That probably would have produced a rebound effect after which he would look upon future banana cream pies with disdain.)