It seems like every year when autumn hits, I get a serious baking itch and I start baking like crazy. Anyone else do the same thing? I especially get into the quintessential fall baking ingredients - including pumpkin, apple, cinnamon and nutmeg. I feel like I can't get enough! I mean, is there anything that smells better than all of those delicious flavors baking in the kitchen? Playing around in the kitchen with my favorite sweet fall ingredients is precisely how this recipe was born. I'm not normally a juice drinker, but I bought apple cider a few times this season after trying some at a local orchard and remembering that apple cider is in fact delicious. This recipe puts a twist on pumpkin bread by including apple cider and diced apple in the batter. I also made ... [Read More]
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Apple Pie Banana Bread {vegan + gf}
Hello, hello! Today I have what's quickly becoming a new favorite recipe of mine to share with you guys, so let's dive right into it! Banana bread is one of my favorite ways to use ripe bananas, and I'm sure a lot of you would agree with me on that! There's just something so comforting and yummy about a banana bread fresh out of the oven. I like to eat a slice with a cup of hot tea. Today's recipe takes a twist on banana bread - a cinnamon apple twist, because hello October! This is my last recipe creation using the fruit from my apple picking excursion in Julian. There's been lots of apple eating and baking in my kitchen over the past month! ... [Read More]
Pumpkin Apple Banana Muffins {vegan}
Packed with apple, pumpkin, banana and cinnamon, and free of refined sugar, these healthy vegan muffins make for a great autumn snack, small breakfast, or guilt-free dessert! One of my favorite September activities is apple picking. But since it's pretty warm and summery feeling in San Diego in September, sometimes I forget that the apple orchards are ready to be visited. A few years we've been too late in the apple picking game and either a.) go when the orchards are pretty picked over, or b.) miss apple picking all together (like last year!). BUT NOT THIS YEAR! Nope, in 2016 I was on high apple picking alert! In the San Diego area, the best area to visit for apple picking is Julian - a cute little town I've talked about before. It's about a 75-minute drive from my house, and it's like ... [Read More]
Cinnamon Baked Apple & Peanut Butter Oatmeal
I'll let you in on a little secret: There are some foods that most healthy living bloggers swoon over I could totally do without. Take brussel sprouts and cauliflower for instance (ick). You'll find tons and tons of recipes for clever ways to eat brussel sprouts and use cauliflower to craft pizza crusts and make them taste like fries and whatever else you could imagine on foodie blogs, but not on here my friends. Why? Because I am not a fan of those veggies (sue me). Another good example is oatmeal. I get in the mood for a bowl of hot oats here and there, but for the most part, I feel very meh about it. Take pancakes away from me and I'd be a very sad girl, but take oatmeal away from me and I wouldn't even know it was gone. And so, the alternate title of this post was The Only Oatmeal ... [Read More]
Honey Apple Raisin Muffins
If there's anything that screams autumn, it's apple picking. After last weekend's failed attempt at visiting an orchard, yesterday was a successful afternoon of apple picking. My hubby and I journeyed to the town of Watsonville to check out Clearview Organic Orchards. Unfortunately we always seem to be a little late in the game when it comes to picking apples, and the trees were pretty picked over. We still found some good apples, and supplemented the rest of our bag with apples that had already been picked from the trees earlier. When the guy at Clearview Orchards told me that he "robs" the bee hives every week to get the raw local honey that they sell, I knew I'd want to nab a jar for myself. I put honey on everything lately! You may have already noticed this with my recent recipes - ... [Read More]
Banana Apple Cinnamon Mini Muffins
Lazy Sunday mornings are the perfect time to play around in the kitchen. After sleeping in late today, I decided to procrastinate cleaning my house by first doing some baking. Ever since I nabbed a mini muffin cup tin a few weeks ago, I've had mini muffin ideas floating in the back on my mind. The recipe started with a ripe banana and Granny Smith apple... Hi, how cute are these mini muffin cups?! I couldn't resist snapping a picture with a few of the sunflowers I picked up at the farmers' market yesterday for $3 [FABULOUS]. I love the idea of mini muffins because they're small enough as a baby snack or part of breakfast, but big enough in size to be a nice little dessert to satisfy a sweet tooth, and also easy to grab on-the-go. I love the combo of apple, banana, and cinnamon, and so ... [Read More]