If you made my Paleo Pie Crust but didn’t fill it with anything yet, fear not. This dairy-free Banana Cream Pie filling is the perfect companion for it. It’s made with five ingredients (coconut milk, coconut oil, bananas, dates, and stevia) and primarily fruit sweetened.

You’ll also appreciate the fact that it’s a quick and easy recipe. Bake your pie crust ahead of time, then simply throw your ingredients in the blender and you’ve got yourself a Paleo pie. My children love this one and I often serve it with dairy-free Coconut Whipped Cream for them and their pals.

Have you been craving a healthy, yet decadent fluffy pie made with very little added sweetener and all Paleo ingredients? Maybe with an almond flour crust? I have, and I’m sharing my latest inspiration with you in two installments –first comes this easy-to-make Paleo Pie Crust. Next, in a few days, will be a dairy-free Banana Cream filling.

I love baking with almond flour, it’s gluten-free, grain-free and much higher in protein than other gluten-free flours. While I don’t eat almond flour on a daily basis, it’s absolutely wonderful for special occasion treats such as this Paleo Pie Crust.

Meet Steve, one of my favorite people in the Paleo Community. Steve runs the website Steve’s Paleo Goods where he sells scrumptious Paleo snacks. He also runs Steve’s Club, which provides CrossFit programs to at-risk youth. Further he donates a portion of the proceeds from Steve’s Paleo Goods to support these CrossFit programs. As you can see, Steve is pretty amazing.

On top of that, his product line is delicious. My children downed the dried mangoes and dried strawberries, saying the apple juice sweetened dried strawberries taste like gummy bears. My favorite snack in his product line is the Paleo grain-free granola. It comes in 5 flavors including Cranberry, Cinnamon Swirl, Apple Pie, Traditional, and Nut Free. I like to eat a bowl of Cinnamon Swirl Granola with homemade almond milk for a Paleo dessert. The other flavors are incredible as well.

We also enjoy his line of Paleo Chef condiments, our favorite is the Ginger Cilantro tossed over a bed of baby kale.

While there isn’t a product in Steve’s line that I don’t love, another one of the highlights is the Grass Fed Paleo Stix. Steve has also created a completely original product that I have not seen before –a delicious mix of grass-fed beef jerky, raw macadamias, raw pecans, dried strawberries and cranberries. Called a Paleo Kit, it’s a wonderfully complete little meal after a CrossFit workout. It’s also perfect for hiking or traveling.

My children and all of their friends have been munching on Steve’s amazing Paleo products all week and we can’t get enough. Thanks Steve for creating wholesome food that works equally well at home or on the go.

For those of you asking about gluten-free food options while you are off traveling this summer, this is a perfect Paleo solution.

Mother’s Day is coming up, and what better way to start Sunday than to prepare a batch of this healthy French toast made with my Paleo Bread dipped in a coconut milk-based batter. This Paleo brunch recipe is based on one called Bradley Inn Blueberry French Toast Casserole that I found in our local paper, the Daily Camera, in December 2007.

I suggest baking Paleo Bread the day before making this gluten-free French toast casserole; allow the Paleo Bread to cool overnight, then prepare this dish the next morning. Another tip –be sure to bake your Blueberry French Toast Casserole on the lower rack of the oven so that it cooks through evenly and the top does not burn.

Serve this Paleo French toast with dairy-free Coconut Whipped Cream. This dish travels well to a potluck.

I like food. You may have guessed as much by perusing the 700 recipes on my website. You may also notice that it is gluten-free, grain-free recipes that have appeared here since 2006, the year I launched this site. In fact, I have been on a grain-free diet for more than a decade. Not because I think it’s the “right” way to eat; I follow it because it works for me. I can’t digest grains. And I’m glad that I figured that out on my culinary journey, which started in my mid 20′s.

This blog is my views of food, that’s why it’s called “Elana’s Pantry,” not “Gluten-Free Pantry” or “Paleo Pantry.” It’s a collection of ideas that I have for better living, reflections on how to make food, how to store food, how to enjoy and celebrate food.

My passion for food fuels my work on this website. I believe that all people deserve access to clean food, that this is one of the most basic human rights issues of our time. It is these principals that have drawn me to the Slow Food movement for decades.

This week I had the incredible honor of sitting with two of the most influential people in the Slow Food crusade. I had lunch with Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, and Richard McCarthy, Executive Director of Slow Food USA. These men are the philospher-poets of this movement whose words inspire me to move toward an ideal, one that that can become a reality in our lifetime –the right to clean food for all. As Petrini told us. “Our revolution is to understand our evolution.” It is statements such as these that make me think of Petrini as the Aristotle of the food rights movement.

Over lunch Petrini and I (with his interpreter parrying our exchange in our respective languages), agreed that the food movement is a big umbrella and largely overlapping with environmentalism. We also spent some time agreeing about what it is not –it’s not about being afraid of food. It’s not about counting calories –food is not math. It is about passion. A passion for life, and food is life.

Food triggers humanity’s most basic of urges, and is our common bond. We all need to eat. So today instead of posting a recipe for a dish, I’m posting a recipe for life –Slow Food. I’m celebrating our appetite for the good, by writing about this magnificent movement, the movement for clean food, and the organization that supports it.

What is Slow Food? Here is a description from Wikipedia:

Slow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. The movement has expanded globally to over 100,000 members in 150 countries. Its goals of sustainable foods and promotion of local small businesses are paralleled by a political agenda directed against globalization of agricultural products…In 2004, Slow Food opened a University of Gastronomic Sciences at Pollenzo, in Piedmont, and Colorno, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Carlo Petrini and Massimo Montanari are the leading figures in the creation of the University, whose goal is to promote awareness of good food and nutrition.

If you are interested, visit Slow Food USA’s website. Or, look up your local chapter of Slow Food (there are more than 200 across the USA). Or, hold your gratitude before your meal for just an extra moment the next time you eat.