Made with ample bananas, whole wheat flour, brown sugar & a flax egg, this vegan banana bread recipe is a great way to use up a few ripe peaches that you have on hand! Summertime is my favorite time for peak season produce - especially the fruit. From watermelon and peaches to strawberries and blueberries, I adore summer fruit! Sometimes I feel like my peaches feel not quite ripe enough for forever, and then all of a sudden they're soft and super sweet smelling.. and about a day away from being overripe! These are the perfect instances to bake with peaches. In fact, this recipe was born out of me having a couple of ripe peaches on hand. I realized that on my long list of recipe ideas to test, peach banana bread had been on the list since last summer. A few banana bread experiments ... [Read More]
dessert recipes
Healthy Mint Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies {vegan}
These healthy mint chocolate chip cookies put a spin on traditional cookies by featuring a base of oats + whole wheat flour & sneaking in shredded zucchini. I have a thing for cookies. I've always liked them, but I really started becoming a Cookie Monster when I was pregnant two years ago. All of a sudden I craved cookies every day, and I satisfied it in moderation by eating a few cookies on a daily basis. Fast forward to now, and I still am a big cookie lover. I have a few go-to kinds of healthier store-bought cookies that I like, but I also enjoy whipping up homemade cookies often. In the wintertime I also love mint everything - as does my toddler. She begs for sips of my peppermint tea, loves when I make chocolate mint chip banana ice cream, and over the ... [Read More]
The Best Ever Vegan Pumpkin Bread
This crowd-pleasing vegan pumpkin bread is moist & delicious, and makes for a perfect dessert, snack or breakfast. I've been on the pumpkin train for a couple months now, and I have yet to feel like I've gotten my pumpkin fill for the fall. Pumpkin cookies, breads, pancakes, smoothies, muffins... you name it, I'm into it. It was probably the fifth time I've made today's vegan pumpkin bread recipe this season when it dawned on me that I should share the recipe with you all. I actually shared an older version of this vegan pumpkin bread recipe forever ago, but I've modified it over the years. I've nixed a few spices that I didn't even miss when I baked it without them. I also made the recipe a teeny bit easier to whip up - not that it was ever difficult - by whisking ingredients ... [Read More]
Healthy Caramel Apple Dessert Pizza {vegan}
This healthy dessert pizza features an oat crumble & almond butter "caramel" combined with fresh apple slices on an easy homemade pizza dough! Recently I put together an article for Shape that rounded up healthy dessert pizza recipes, and it got the wheels turning in my head for a caramel apple dessert pizza. Especially since it's autumn and time for all things apple! I thought why not combine a few of my favorite things? After all, pizza + dessert + apples must = a heavenly recipe! Am I right? And so here we are with this vegan caramel apple dessert pizza, which features an oat crumble & almond butter "caramel" atop fresh apple slices on an easy homemade pizza dough. I've made a healthy caramel sauce with several different recipes, and the combination of maple syrup with ... [Read More]
Soft & Chewy Whole Wheat Carrot Cookies
Made with shredded carrot, maple syrup, Greek yogurt, and almond butter, these healthy cookies are a soft & chewy snack or dessert! How many servings of veggies do you eat a day? I find that I always eat a veggie-packed dinner, but earlier in the day I tend to eat a lot of fruit and not that many veggies. I also incorporate a lot of avocado and tomato into breakfast, lunch, and snacks, which I tend to calculate as veggies, but since they're technically fruits, that doesn't help me in reaching my daily veggie quota. Being mindful of this as I try to provide my 1 year old with a healthy diet packed with nutritional goodness for her growing little body and developing brain, lately I've been working on sneaking more veggies into the mix earlier in the day - some spinach in our smoothies ... [Read More]
Easy Strawberry Crumble Pie {vegan}
This easy summertime pie is bursting with fresh strawberries and features an oat crumble topping! Recently my little family went to a local farm to pick strawberries, and we came home with a huge amount of berries to enjoy. When I go fruit picking, I always look at it as a challenge to use up the produce in as many ways as I can - and to not let any fruit go to waste. Today's strawberry pie recipe is the product of my recipe testing with my CT-grown berries. I've always loved being a locavore, and hope to instill a love of eating locally and being connected to the food we eat in my daughter. Camryn had been iffy on eating fresh strawberries on their own, but when I put our haul of strawberries in front of her to snap a photo, she started going to town on them. It was worth letting her ... [Read More]