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]
snack recipes
5-Ingredient Healthy Strawberry Cashew Trail Mix
This healthy trail mix requires just 5 ingredients & makes for a tasty snack! A couple of months ago, I went strawberry picking at a local farm and not so surprisingly, became temporarily obsessed with whipping up strawberry recipes. I had so many fresh, locally grown strawberries that were going to go bad quickly, so I figured why not go berry crazy? I made healthy strawberry banana bread, strawberry oat pancakes, and strawberry crumble pie, to name a few things. Since I love smoothies, I also put some berries in the freezer (which disappeared so fast!), and I also pulled out my dehydrator to dry some strawberries. And then a funny thing happened... I ran out of strawberries in less than a week! Dehydrating strawberries - or any fruit or veggie for that matter - is not difficult, ... [Read More]
Healthy Cinnamon Oat Bread {vegan}
No shocker here, but I'm still obsessed with all things cinnamon, so today I have a delicious cinnamony snack/breakfast/dessert recipe to share! Lately cinnamon rolls and breads have been calling me. I ordered a gooey cinnamon roll a month or so ago while working at a coffee shop to satisfy my craving, but it's stuck around. So what did I do my friends? Came up with a healthier version of cinnamon roll bread, of course! This bread is a more nutritious play on the typical white flour, butter, and refined sugar-filled cinnamon swirl breads we all know and love. Instead, we've got an oat + whole wheat flour base. Apple sauce, a flaxseed egg, and coconut oil are added into the mix in place of butter, eggs and vegetable oil. Instead of an excess of sugar, pure maple syrup ... [Read More]
Peppermint Matcha Hot Chocolate {vegan}
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it! I hope that you're having a wonderful end to your year. I'm popping in to share an easy recipe that's perfect for wintertime - one that I've made at least half a dozen times in the past few months. Matcha green tea powder is packed with antioxidants, but it can be too green tasting for some people. Hell, I like matcha and I don't even like it strong! But what I love about this recipe is that it pairs matcha with peppermint extract, and the two blend so well together. Peppermint extract is strong and it kind of mellows out the matcha. In the end, what you'll taste is a chocolatey, pepperminty drink with a hint of matcha that's perfect for pepping you up on chilly days. Since I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk for this recipe, it's also a ... [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 chance to ... [Read More]
Brownie Batter Almond Butter Banana Bread {vegan}
Here's a fun tidbit: February is National Chocolate Lovers' Month. There are so many days and months out of the year declared food holidays - but I'm not complaining, I kind of like celebrating the randomness. The other day, I decided to start checking out the food holidays of February. Besides the entire month being declared a chocolate lovers' celebration, we also just passed National Carrot Cake Day and National Homemade Soup Day last weekend. And then there's National Fettuccine Alfredo Day on the 7th, National Drink Wine Day on the 18th, and National Chocolate Mint Day on the 19th.... and those are just the holidays that I can really get behind, I'm leaving out the ones that didn't appeal to me! Chocolate is certainly worth celebrating, don't you agree? Someone asked ... [Read More]