This gluten-free Key Lime Tart is made using honey and coconut milk for a rich, tangy and smooth filling! It’s simple to prepare and can be optionally topped with a honey meringue for a showstopper dessert. It’s gluten-free and made without any refined sugars.
Key Lime Tart
This Key Lime Tart is the perfect (and beautiful) dessert to roll out in both hot and cold weather. This simple tart is made using our favorite gluten-free pie crust, filled with a tangy and smooth key lime filling and optionally topped with a delicious honey meringue that you can either leave as is or toast it!
What makes a key lime pie a key lime pie is, you guessed it: key limes. But they are only available certain times of the year and they are much smaller than regular limes (known as Persian limes) so they take a bit more work to get the total amount of juice needed. And while there might be slight difference in taste (key limes have a bit heavier taste of “lime” with higher acidity), it is perfectly acceptable to use regular limes!
Can I bake this in a pie tin?
Technically yes you can. But depending on the size pie tin you are using, the filling might be a little low, as this is meant for a 9″ in tart.
Topping Options
Honey meringue (you can either pipe a pretty border, or cover the entire tart)! Toasting is optional but a nice touch.
Coconut whipped cream
Regular whipped cream
If you like this tart recipe, check out these others:
This Slow-Cooker Beef Stew is the perfect healthy comfort food for cold days! It’s hearty, flavorful, packed with veggies, and easy to make right in your crock pot. Make it for a cold winter night, or a festive St. Patrick’s Day meal! Beef stew is a simple recipe that will wow everyone who tries it.
The Slow Cooker is an amazing phenomenon in my opinion. Even those friends of mine who aren’t big cookers use it! Throw all the ingredients in with the right flavor combo and BOOM: the perfect stew. It’s hands off, easy to use, and safe!
What is Irish stew made of?
Filled with beef, carrots, mushrooms, onions, and potatoes is the perfect main dish for your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. The beef is so tender, it just melts in your mouth!
Tips For Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Brown your meat
Don’t use too much liquid
Don’t skimp on the cook time
Layer your beef and veggies
Set it and forget it! The beauty of a slow cooker!
This stew is: hearty, flavorful, tender melt-in-your-mouth beef, and packed with veggies! It is also paleo-friendly, dairy-free, whole30 compliant and has no sugar added… does it get any better than that? I love making this soup at the beginning of the week and enjoy it all week long!
What defines a stew?
In a stew you aren’t looking for the consistency of a soup, so minimizing added liquids is helpful!
Beef stew doesn’t need to be super, super thick. You’ll most likely be using potatoes, and their starch will naturally thicken your stew! If not, don’t worry, this stew thickens whithout it, too.
What kind of beef is used for stew?
You can buy beef stew meat, which is cut and cubed and is generally chuck or round! Beef round cuts (bottom and eye) are generally leaner than chuck (shoulder, leg and butt) and very well-suited to stew.
I always add beef stew meat to my ButcherBox order in the cold weather months. Each month, ButcherBox curates a one-of-a-kind selection of the healthiest, tastiest meats, humanely raised and free of antibiotics and hormones. Or you can customize your box and select your favorite cuts and get 20% more meat.The price works out to less than $6.00/meal and shipping is always free. You can also space it out so it’s not every 4 weeks, too! ButcherBox delivers your meat for the month, saves you money, and is the best quality! Order Today and get this amazing deal:
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Can you put raw meat in a slow cooker?
You certainly can, but for this beef stew recipe, we prefer to sear the meat first to bring out the amazing flavor that you’ll get!
Tools used to make this easy slow cooker beef stew recipe:
Slow Cooker: Inexpensive and works great. I’ve had mine for years!
Cast Iron Skillet: I like a nice, hot cast iron skillet to sear our stew meat!
Chef’s Knife: My go-to chef’s knife. Use whatever you have on hand!
There may be affiliate links in this post! By clicking on them, or purchasing recommended items I may receive a small compensation, at no cost to you! However, I only recommend products I absolutely love and use in my own home! Thank you for supporting Lexi's Clean Kitchen when you shop! See my privacy policy for more information about this, the information we save, and more!
This Lamb Chops with Crispy Shallots and Pomegranate Sauce recipe makes for a decadent meal done in under 20 minutes! It’s elegant, super flavorful, and comes together quickly and works equally as well for a romantic dinner for two, or a weeknight easy meal. They’re gluten-free, dairy free and paleo.
Lamb Chops with Crispy Shallots and Pomegranate Sauce
This Lamb Chops with Crispy Shallots and Pomegranate Sauce recipe is a great date night in meal to make with your significant other, or the perfect elegant holiday meal! The lamb chops are so easy to make and do not require much cooking at all, other than a quick broil in the oven. The crispy shallots are another effortless way to add something special to the meal and the pomegranate sauce adds a tough of sweet that brings the whole thing together. A special dinner in under 20 minutes? Sounds like the perfect meal!
We love when delicious meals come together so quickly, using minimal ingredients, but taste so amazing!The recipe calls for pomegranate juice to make the sweet sauce. You can either purchase pomegranate juice or you can juice your own by blending together 1 cup of pomegranate
Whole muscle meats such as roasts, steaks, and chops may be cooked to 145 °F (medium rare), 160 °F (medium), or 170 °F (well done). Times here are based on lamb at refrigerator temperature (40 °F).
How can you tell if your lamb chops are cooked?
Use your finger to estimate if roasted, grilled or broiled lamb is done to your liking. Press firmly on several sections of the lamb. If the meat gives easily but is firm and has cooked for the recommended length of time, it is likely medium-rare. A firmer texture and feel indicates more well-done meat! For best results, use your Thermopen!
Watch the video:
If you like this showstopper main course, check out these others:
Place on a lined baking sheet and broil on high for 5-6 minutes on each side. Set aside.
Meanwhile, make the crispy shallots: In a small pan, heat oil and sauté shallots for 5-10 minutes, stirring often, until crispy but not burnt.
Make the sauce: In a small pot, pomegranate juice, balsamic vinegar, honey, apple cider vinegar, and stir. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and whisk in the arrowroot. Let simmer for 5-6 minutes until the sauce thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
Top lamb with crispy shallots and sauce and serve immediately with sides of choice like Mashed Potatoes, cauliflower mash or roasted veggies.
Recipe Notes
To make your own pomegranate juice: blend 1 cup of pomegranate seeds.
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There may be affiliate links in this post! By clicking on them, or purchasing recommended items I may receive a small compensation, at no cost to you! However, I only recommend products I absolutely love and use in my own home! Thank you for supporting Lexi's Clean Kitchen when you shop! See my privacy policy for more information about this, the information we save, and more!
These Gluten Free Cut Out Cookies are the best for decorating holiday cookies! They are so simple to put together, can be rolled out immediately and decorated (or not) to celebrate any holiday! These versatile cookies are made with only 5 ingredients (plus a pinch of salt!) and are a great activity to do with the kids. We’ve included tips and tricks for decorating using an easy powdered sugar icing so you can get your holiday bake on now!
Gluten Free Cut Out Cookies
How cute are these Gluten Free Cut Out Cookies? They’re also easy to make, taste delicious and we’ve offered a few different flavor options so they’re customizable! They can be baked and left plain, or topped with good quality colored sugar, or they can be fully decorated to match the holiday you are celebrating!
We had SO MUCH FUN making them, and honestly it didn’t take long to come to a recipe that we were happy with. The best part about these cookies is that you don’t have to wait for them to chill before rolling out! Usually with sugar cookies the dough has to set up for a few hours in order to get great cookies, but we had amazing results with rolling the dough out immediately. You can also make the dough and then chill for a few hours to days if you want to break down the steps as well! Read below for some tips and tricks on how to make the cutest Gluten Free Cut Out Cookies!
Tips for Rolling Out Dough
We may be biased but we felt this dough was SO EASY to roll out! For us it went straight from the mixing bowl to being rolled out! We didn’t have any issues moving the cut out cookies from where we rolled them out to the baking tray. But if you are a beginner cut-out cookie maker follow these tips below for best results:
Prepare a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.
Roll out dough between two sheets of parchment or plastic wrap.
Stamp cookies out as close together as possible to get the most out of each time you roll out the dough.
Using a small offset spatula or knife lift up cookies and transfer to baking sheet. If you are having trouble moving the cookies and having them keep there shape, place in the refrigerator to chill for a few minutes until they are stiff.
You can re-roll the scraps as many times as you would like because there is no gluten in these cookies so they won’t be tough from re-rolling!
Tips for Decorating with Powdered Sugar Icing
As we said above, these cookies are delicious as is! But if you’d like to make decorative cookies at any time of the year we’ve included a recipe for a stiff powdered sugar icing. We chose this over a royal icing because it is a lot easier to make and the end result didn’t look too different. If you’d prefer to use royal icing, than feel free to use that instead.
If you want to do more intricate decorating you’ll want to make two different consistency icings. One for piping, or borders, which is more thick. And a second for flooding a border, which is thinner.
We tried out a few different types of artificial dye free food coloring (see below) to make the most festive cookies. Once you have mixed your base icings you can divide them into smaller bowls and add the natural food coloring.
Pipe the border details first and let it dry briefly (10 minutes or so) before filling in the flooding icing.
We piped ours using both piping bags and also tried using squeeze bottles. We didn’t use a tip in the piping bags we just cut a small hole! Squeeze bottles would be great to use with kids! We use these Piping Bags and these Mini Squeeze Bottles!
Let the icing harden a bit before storing (a few hours, or until dry).
Have fun with it!
Let’s talk about natural dye options:
We’ve talked about making your own food dye with food based powders this past year. While you certainly can frost there cookies with buttercream, it’s more traditional to use an icing so we tried out a bunch of different brands of artificial dye free food coloring. We actually loved them all, but they vary in price. We tried:
Whole Foods Market 365 Brand: This one was the most economical and worked well, except for the red which tinted more towards pink. This brand most resembles traditional dye in the sense that it comes in little liquid squeeze bottles. It is under $10 for a few different colors and offers a guide on the package to mix additional colors.
ColorKitchen Foods: This dye free coloring comes in powder form. You can mix it with your dry ingredients to hydrate, or add in a touch of water to hydrate before adding it in the icing (which is the method we used).This one was surprisingly very potent, but it’s on the pricier side. It comes in single use packets which can be either useful, or annoying if you don’t want to use the whole amount. At the time that we tried this brand they didn’t have a red color that we found, but since we developed this recipe they are offering a red velvet color (though we have not been able to try it yet).
TruColor: This brand works magically, but it is expensive and harder to find. It also comes in powdered form but in small jars (depending on the amount you order) so you can store any leftover right in the container. You must store it in the refrigerator. Any red coloring that you see in this post uses TruColor, and does in fact make a brilliant red.
Don’t feel like stamping out designs with these cookies? No problem! The dough can also be formed into a log, placed in the refrigerator for about 1 hour (or more) and than sliced! Bake as directed. We’ve also included a couple of different flavor options in the post to include almond, citrus and mint!
Add dry ingredients to butter and combine. It may look crumbly at first, but continue to mix until the dough comes together.
Roll out immediately (see directions below) or wrap in plastic wrap and keep in refrigerator until ready to roll, up to 3 days.
To Roll Out and Bake Cookies:
Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
Roll out dough between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Roll out to a thickness or 1/4" and stamp with cookie cutters. Carefully peel stamped cookies off parchment and place on baking sheet. They will not spread so you can spaces them as close as 1/4" apart.
You can re roll scraps, chilling in between if dough is getting too warm.
Bake for 7 minutes, until slightly golden around the edges.
Let cool before decorating.
To Decorate:
Whisk 1-1/2 tablespoons almond milk, vanilla and powdered sugar together until smooth. You want it to be thick enough to pipe. If you plan to flood the cookie you can make two smaller batches and add a touch more almond milk to want to make it thinner to floor the cookie in between the piping icing. Drop in some food coloring (see post for more info) depending on what color you'd like to make. Decorate using squeeze bottles of piping bags.
Recipe Notes
Read post for more information and tips for making these cut out cookies.
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There may be affiliate links in this post! By clicking on them, or purchasing recommended items I may receive a small compensation, at no cost to you! However, I only recommend products I absolutely love and use in my own home! Thank you for supporting Lexi's Clean Kitchen when you shop! See my privacy policy for more information about this, the information we save, and more!
Decorating Party:
Share a photo of your LCK Cut-Out Cookies on Instagram or in our Private Facebook Group with the hashtag #LCKCOOKIES to be entered to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!
Bonus entry: Leave a review below of how the recipe went for you!
Winner picked 12/19 at 12pm EST.
Note: Must be public on Instagram for us to see your entries!!
Fourth of July weekend is coming! Whether you are headed to a BBQ with family or friends or hosting a get together of your own, you’ll need a classic festive cake for the all the parties! Let’s make the most perfect (AND nut-free) vanilla cake topped with an easy buttercream and garnished off with tons of fresh fruit (red and blue for good measure)!
Gluten-Free 4th of July Cake (Nut-Free)
This super easy cake is a great gluten-free and nut-free cake recipe for any occasion! Top it with your favorite fruit, clean sprinkles, and other naturally colored frosting flavors for a perfect grain-free cake recipe!
If you’ve seen my new gluten-free cake recipe, you know it’s pretty epic! BUT I get a lot of requests for a gluten-free cake that is nut-free and made with no almond flour! This cake is for you.
This cake is…
Fluffy and moist
Gluten, grain, dairy, and nut-free!
Flavorful
Topped with a perfectly sweet and fluffy buttercream
July 4th, Memorial Day, and Labor Day festive!
And loaded with fresh local, in-season berries!
Want other festive paleo desserts? Try these favorites:
Lexi’s Clean Kitchen turns FIVE today and to celebrate, we made The BEST Gluten-Free Layer Birthday Cake. Seriously, it’s the best cake ever. It tastes like the real deal cake you’ve been wanting!!!
The BEST Gluten-Free Layer Birthday Cake
We took my nut-free cake and made it even more amazing. SO if you’re looking for a nut-free cake recipe, go for the two in my cookbook or this July 4th Classic Cake!
Aside from the health benefits of using gluten-free flours in this cake, the combination of almond and coconut flour is so moist and tender! While you do have to cream the butter and sweetener together, this is a relatively fool proof recipe as there is no concern about the cake being tough from over-beating the batter like there is with a gluten flour containing cake. We also use all natural/homemade food dyes, see here!
I can’t believe Lexi’s Clean Kitchen has been up and running for FIVE whole years. I truly feel so blessed that this is my job and that all of you trust me with the recipes you feed your family and friends, and yourself! Thank you for trusting me, supporting me, continuing to follow along this journey, and for being a part of the LCK family. I truly mean it with all of my heart. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Let’s celebrate!
Tips Tools Needed to Frost a Cake Like a Pro
Now not everyone is going to frost this cake like we did. But if you want to give it a whirl, getting these tools make it easier to get an even and smooth cake!
Use the video as a guide on how to build up the cake. Additionally here are some tips that make it easier to frost a cake:
Temperature matters: Chill your cake layers before assembling, and chill the cake after you have built your layers as it helps keep your cake evenly stacked.
Apply a crumb coat: Frost the cake with a thin layer of frosting that locks in any stray crumbs
To achieve a smooth finish: Once you have finished frosting the cake, chill again for 10 minutes and then heat the bench scraper or off-set spatula with hot water (make sure to dry it off completely) and make one final swoop to smooth it all out.
Video:
Tips to Making Cake Ahead of Time:
Make the cake layers and the jam the day before. Once the layers are cooked completely wrap them up or put them in a large airtight container, otherwise they will dry out.
Make the frosting and assemble the day of.
Cakes keep wonderfully fully assembled in the frige for a few days.
Pre-heat oven to 350ºF and prepare three 6" cake pans by cutting out a three parchment paper circles to fit exactly inside the cake pan. Butter sides and bottom of cake pan and place parchment paper circles inside.
In a heavy duty stand mixer, or hand held mixer, add butter and honey/maple syrup to bowl and cream together until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, blending together after each one.
Add almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and beat on medium for 1-2 minutes until well blended.
Add almond milk, vanilla extract and almond extract and beat on medium for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
Divide batter into cake pans, about 1 cup of batter each, and bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Let cake cool in pan for 5-10 minutes, and then remove from pan to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
For Strawberry filling:
In a medium sauce pan place strawberries, honey and lemon juice and turn on heat to medium low.
Cook, stirring frequently, until reduced, about 15 minutes.
Let cool completely before using in cake.
For Buttercream Frosting:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment beat the butter until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
Add the sugar and mix on low speed until well blended. Increase the speed to medium and beat until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the vanilla and 1 tablespoon of almond milk (or more if needed) and beat on medium speed until lightened in color.
Add natural food coloring if using and blend.
To Assemble Cake:
Once cake and jam is cooled completely place first layer on serving plate and frost with a thin layer of buttercream. Create a 1/2" dam of buttercream on the perimeter of the cake layer by piping it, or using a offset spatula, to prevent the jam from leaking out of the cake. Top with 2 heaping tablespoons of jam and smooth over.
Add next layer of cake and repeat with layer of buttercream, buttercream dam, and jam.
Place cake in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes, to let set up and to make frosting cake easier.
Once cake has chilled, add about half of frosting to the top of the cake and using an offset spatula frost cake starting with the top and moving excess down the sides of the cake and smoothing as going.
Decorate as desired with additional frosting.
Cake will keep 3-5 days in refrigerator.
Recipe Notes
We used a combination of maple syrup and honey equal to 1/3 cup together to prevent the cake from taking on the flavor too much of either one.
The butter absolutely must be at room temperature or it will not cream together with the honey. It is always best when making a cake if all ingredients are as close to room temperature (especially eggs and milk) as the cake batter comes together more easily and you get a fluffier textured cake. If the eggs are not at room temperature you can place them in a bowl with warm (not hot) water for about 10 minutes. You can also gently heat up milk using your preferred method (stove top or microwave) to bring it up to room temperature (but make sure it is not hot).
Sprinkles we use: We get them from Whole Foods because they are artificial food dye free. These are also a decent option.
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There may be affiliate links in this post! By clicking on them, or purchasing recommended items I may receive a small compensation, at no cost to you! However, I only recommend products I absolutely love and use in my own home! Thank you for supporting Lexi's Clean Kitchen when you shop! See my privacy policy for more information about this, the information we save, and more!
Thank you for being a part of the Lexi’s Clean Kitchen family throughout these amazing 5 years. I love you all!!
Key Lime Tart
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