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Browsing Tag: Desserts

Carrot Cake Energy Balls

Carrot Cake Energy Balls on a yellow plate with dandelion flowers around it

Carrot Cake Energy Balls are bringing their double-packed punch of healthful + delicious goodness!

These little babies are the total package: gluten-, dairy-, and processed-sugar-free bundles of nutrients and flavor.

I love healthy foods because they make me feel good, all sharp-brained and physically energized. And I love delicious foods because, well . . . that’s pretty self-explanatory! I’m regularly on the lookout for ways to combine both qualities into one recipe. So it’s no surprise that Carrot Cake Energy Balls are a melding of tasty-yet-good-for-you stuff: fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, spices, and natural sweetener.

Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Strawberry Sauce

Every day is PB&J day with Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Strawberry Sauce!

Ice cream is an especially tantalizing treat when summer is bringing the heat. And ice cream that is both dairy AND processed-sugar-free? Well, that’s doubly nice. Add the classic complementary flavor combo of peanut-butter-and-jelly, and you’ve REALLY got a winner on your hands!

Gram’s Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Gram's Chocolate Zucchini Bread 1

I have a special recipe today: not one that I created, but one that I instead inherited from someone very important to me. Say hello to Gram’s Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

My beloved Gram passed away on July 30. I found myself wondering, “How do you say goodbye to one of your very favorite people in the world?”

You don’t say goodbye, it turns out – at least, I’m not.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Molasses Spice Cake

Chocolate and Pumpkin Molasses Spice Cake 1

Hello, all! For those of you in the U.S., I hope you had an excellent Thanksgiving!

My holiday weekend was nothing short of spectacular. Having a four-day break from my corporate day job had a much-needed restorative quality and allowed me to spend time doing all kinds of things I love: cooking, journaling, hosting a girls’ night at my house, and even attending a concert by Stevie Nicks, who is my all-time favorite Goddess Incarnate (she was AMAZING!!!).

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone here in the States, we have officially entered the Holiday Season – that hectic and wonderful time. How’s your December calendar starting to look, a little cray-cray? Yeah, I know what you mean; there are holiday summons bombarding me left and right, too! With all of the invites to work holiday parties (I’ve seriously gotten asked to FOUR there alone), brunches, and family soirées you are fielding – and remember: you don’t have to say yes to all of them! –  you’ve got to be prepared with recipes for stress-free dishes to bring in tow. Say hello to your new pal, Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Molasses Spice Cake!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars 1

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, everyone!!!!! It’s finally here!!!

I love Halloween. I love anything that celebrates fall. Fall is a delight! I’m going to be savoring these last few weeks of it, blocking out that other holiday season that will start hitting us over the head starting tomorrow. Let me not speak of it today!

Today, in honor of the spookiness, I have a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie bar recipe!

Italian S & I Cookies

Italian S & I Cookies 1

Happy Valentine’s Day, all! Appropriate to this holiday of love and appreciation for all of those who are special to us, I am featuring a recipe by someone who is near and dear to my heart, my grandmother. This is a recipe for Italian S & I cookies that she has passed down to me. You may be familiar with these delightful little alphabet-shaped cookies if you also have a grandmother of Italian heritage who likes to bake or if you’ve visited an Italian bakery; “S” cookies are definitely a staple there.

I have fond memories of helping my grandmother to crank out batches of these little guys – me forming the cookies and her glazing.

Two-Ingredient Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Raw Cacao Nibs and Sliced Almonds

Two-Ingredient Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Raw Cacao Nibs and Sliced Almonds

You may have heard of the two-ingredient banana oatmeal cookie. It’s the easiest baked good to make: Take some bananas. Mash them. Add some oats. Mix and form into cookies that you bake in the oven and Bam! The healthiest cookies ever are born.

Banana-Cherry Soft Serve

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Mmmmm, soft serve – always a delicious summer treat, but not something you’d want to indulge in every day of the week (remember that Seinfeld episode where that non-fat frozen yogurt they were obsessed with turned out to be anything but? Ha, ha, classic.). Unless that soft serve happens to be totally made from fruit – hello, banana-cherry soft serve!

Baked Pears with Lavender, Lemon, and Honey Glaze

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I’ve always wanted to try cooking with lavender, and I’ve always wanted to make baked pears, so that’s pretty much the origin story behind this recipe. Man, cooking with lavender – not exactly for the faint of heart. That stuff is potent!