Recipe creation is a funny thing sometimes. At times, I come up with an idea for a recipe moments before and I just throw ingredients together. Other times, I have a recipe in my head for weeks and weeks that I just have a feeling will be a winner that I will want to share on here, but it takes me awhile to actually make and photograph it. The latter was the case with this granola. When I randomly threw a bag of dried blueberries into my shopping cart one day, the idea of making granola with them immediately popped into my head... but then I wound up eating all the blueberries before I could get to making any granola. Oops. So then I had to wait until the next time I found myself in a food store with dried blues to make this recipe. But, the next time I went to make this ... [Read More]
gluten free recipes
Banana Almond Butter Muffins {Vegan & Gluten Free}
Happy Friday friends! Hope that your first full week of January has been awesome, and that you have some fun weekend plans ahead. Speaking of fun, today I've got a fun recipe to share with you guys! Whenever I go food shopping, bananas are always on the list. I buy a ton of bananas! A and I both use them for smoothies almost daily, plus I like to smear bananas with nut butter or top yogurt bowls with banana slices often. However, I somehow wound up with too many bananas in the house over the past week. We couldn't eat them fast enough, and before I knew it, I had 5 brown bananas sitting in my fruit basket. I threw a few of them in the freezer for later smoothie use, and then I had a yummy idea for the remaining ones... ....baking some muffins! ... [Read More]
Cinnamon Raisin Granola [Vegan & Gluten Free]
Nearly all of the billion people on the planet who have eaten it say this, but granola is seriously addicting. Despite knowing this, I got in a granola munching mood recently and couldn't resist whipping up a new homemade version: cinnamon raisin flaxseed granola. Since it's well documented on here that I'm cinnamon obsessed and eat it on nearly everything, it shouldn't be a surprise that this granola is full of cinnamon-y goodness. I decided to use a sweetener I haven't used in awhile: brown rice syrup. A few tidbits about it: Brown rice syrup is made by culturing cooked rice with enzymes to break down the starches, then straining off the liquid and reducing it by cooking until the desired consistency is reached. It's vegan and gluten-free. It has a sticky consistency ... [Read More]
Banana Chocolate Buckwheat Pancakes [Vegan & Gluten Free]
Being the big pancake lover that I am, I obviously couldn't let National Pancake Day pass me by without whipping up a new flapjack recipe! Before talking about my yummy creation, I want to share a picture of the newest addition to my family -- a baby boy name Daniel Richard! I became an aunt for the third time this morning when my younger brother Danny and his girlfriend welcomed him into the world. How precious of a little face right? Being across the country from my loved ones is hard when things happen with my family. I would love to hold him while he's so tiny, but I'll have to wait a few months for my next trip to the East coast to meet him. Moving onto other happy things, pancakes... When I picked up some buckwheat flour at my local health food store yesterday, I immediately had ... [Read More]
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies [Gluten Free & Vegan]
Hi friends! I am super excited because I'm heading to Lake Tahoe tomorrow for a getaway with my hubby! I've never gone skiing before, so wish me luck. We're also planning on trying snowshoeing, and I found a bunch of restaurants that are my style -- including a couple of vegan and gluten free specific eateries that I'm looking forward to trying out. I'll certainly be recapping my trip next week, but today, let's talk about another fun topic: cookies, specifically dark chocolate peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies. How's that for a mouthful? There are a few kitchen creations that are my go-to recipes when I'm in the mood for something specific. When I get into what I think of as a cookie monster mode, this is definitely one of my no brainers to make. When I felt the need to make them ... [Read More]
Pistachio Pesto [Brown Rice] Noodle Salad
Hi there! Sunday night has come so quickly! My weekend was filled with things like running errands, hiking, cleaning and Apple tech support. My Mac was acting crazy the past couple of weeks, and since I rely on it for so much - including my full-time job, blogging, freelance writing work, plus all of the typical social media and Internet browsing nonsense - I was having a bit of a heart attack that my computer would conk out and I'd lose all of my files. I was debating whether or not to get another Mac or go with a cheaper option, but in the end, off to the Apple store I went to get a new MacBook. I'm an Apple brat now and I suppose there's no turning back. ;-) There was something very anticlimactic about getting a new computer that looked exactly like my old computer, but hopefully this ... [Read More]