Like most Americans, growing up, I always equated the holiday season to it being freezing outside. Oh the weather outside is frightful... Jack Frost nipping at your nose... Baby it's cold outside... ...We could go on & on with all of the frigid weather references in holiday song lyrics. But then when I moved from the northeast to Southern California, Christmastime felt different to me because it was still pretty lovely outside. The summertime vacationers were gone and it was no longer bikini weather, but the sun still shines most wintertime days in San Diego, and I often would throw on a sweatshirt and head to the beach to walk my dog or read a book with my feet in the sand. And while I absolutely love (and am missing) San Diego weather, Christmastime never ... [Read More]
dessert recipes
Pumpkin Apple Cider Bread {dairy free with gf option}
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]
Vegan Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Pillows with Cream Cheese Dipping Sauce
It's September... which means it's the start of football season... which obviously means I'm thinking about football food! I love the start of football season. I feel like by the end the season, I'm a little sad but also usually ready for it to end - ready to have my full weekends back to do other things. But then when August rolls around, I start to get excited again for football. Football season means Sunday and Monday nights filled with NFL football. It means catching college games at sports bars. This year, now that I'll be living in the northeast, it means going to a few of my dad's team's high school football games in Jersey. And for the last several years, it's also meant Fantasy Football fun. Last week I had my Fantasy Football draft during my cross country trip ... [Read More]
Salted Cookie Dough Bites {vegan + gf}
Made with almond meal, cashew butter, dark chocolate chips, and fine sea salt, these cookie dough bites are a guilt-free treat that takes 5 minutes to whip up! Lately I've been craving cookie dough all the time. I've been wanting to bake cookies just so that I can eat the dough. Who can relate? I think it started a month or two ago when my husband and I had a date night in downtown San Diego. We grabbed a bite to eat in Little Italy, strolled around to check out the art walk that was going on, went to a Padres game, and capped off the night by stopping into the new Salt & Straw gourmet ice cream shop. Just like when we visited the Salt & Straw in Portland, the new shop here was packed, and we waited on a long line to get in. But we were determined to eat their ice cream... A 30 ... [Read More]
Healthy Strawberry Oat Banana Bread {vegan + gluten free}
This seriously moist & delicious banana bread features fresh strawberries & an oat flour! After I went strawberry picking a couple weeks ago, I had all of these strawberry recipe ideas swirling around in my head. And so, today we're talking about strawberry recipe #2 of this season! {Recipe #1 was these dairy free baked strawberry donuts with strawberry cream cheese frosting.} Since we had picked a big bucket of berries, I thought that they'd be around for awhile, and that I'd get to test out at least a couple of recipes. But that was not the case! Less than a week after my husband and I went strawberry picking, we had eaten the entire bucket. What can I say, we both are big strawberry fans (I mean who doesn't like strawberries?!). Luckily, I did have the ... [Read More]
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Protein Oat Cookies {vegan + gf}
These healthy cookies are made with oats, peanut butter, banana, and cocoa powder, sweetened with monk fruit, and include chocolate protein powder for a protein boost. Ideal for breakfast, dessert, or anything in between! Have you guys ever seen photos of people's meal prep for the week that includes 5 containers of the same bland thing for each meal? If you've worked your butt off for a bikini competition and ate that way to get there, good on ya, but that looks like a bit of a nightmare to me. I like food too much, and I like diversity in my eats too much. Sure, I have my favorite smoothies and my go-to dinner recipes, but I certainly don't eat them on the daily. In general, monotonous, robotic living scares the hell out of me. No thank you, I don't want to do the same thing every ... [Read More]