January 22, 2015

DIY Flavored Coconut Butters – Sweet and Savory

Easy. Delicious. Nutritious. Affordable. Skip those $10 – $15 jars of expensive coconut butter and DIY it! I bought a 5-pound bag of organic unsweetened shredded coconut for $13 and made my own jar of coconut butter for about 60 cents! It’s easy and you can add all kinds of flavorings to suit your condiment needs. I made a Vanilla Cinnamon version and a Yellow Curry version. Sweet. Savory.

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January 13, 2015

Shredded Carrot Salad with Cilantro and Lime

Shredded Carrot Salad

Happy 2015! I took a few weeks off of blogging – spent time with family and friends, enjoyed the holidays, read a few cookbooks, relaxed a lot – and now I’m back in the game with this super simple and majorly delicious carrot salad! I’m tempted to say this is for a New Year’s healthy eating resolution, but it’s not. It just happens to be a healthy salad that came about from me getting a new vegetable peeler that I’m in love with. It’s got a super sharp blade, is light and easy to hold and really fun to use…plus it’s very inexpensive! I did make one resolution this year, though, and that was to give more high fives. Yeah!

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December 23, 2014

Apple Sage Sparkler + Holiday Cocktail Roundup

It’s time to celebrate! The holidays are here and New Year’s Eve is next week! Whaaaat!?! I can’t believe another year has flown by! As we say goodbye to 2014 and “Hello” to 2015…let’s celebrate with homemade cocktails! This Apple Sage Sparkler is simple yet elegant; perfect for a party. Plus, I’ve rounded up 20 other delicious cocktail recipes within 4 categories: herbs, spice, citrus, and punch. Let’s drink!

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December 12, 2014

Virtual Vegan Potluck: Lemon Thyme Polenta Bites with Arugula Pesto & Mushrooms

Lemon Thyme Polenta Bites with Arugula Pesto & Mushrooms

Hello and welcome to the 2014 Virtual Vegan Potluck! I’m so excited to be part of the VVP this year and want to give a huge shout-out to Annie, Angela and Poppy for organizing this worldwide virtual foodie event! Be sure to check out all the awesome vegan recipes by way of the Go Forward/Go Backward buttons at the bottom of this post. You can also go back and start at the beginning of the potluck chain. Have fun, get hungry and enjoy!

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November 17, 2014

Crispy Skillet Potatoes with Buttermilk Ranch Sauce

Crispy Skillet Potatoes w/ Buttermilk Ranch Sauce

For a very, very long time I’ve been trying to figure out how to make perfectly crisp skillet potatoes. The kind of potatoes that give you that supremely satisfying CRUNCH as you bite into them but are gloriously silky and creamy in the middle. I’ve been looking for a fool-proof method that would work every time…and I found it! This is it. And they are indeed crispy…crispy with a capital C-R-I-S-P-Y. And to top off these wondrous carbs, I made a buttermilk ranch sauce — because everybody secretly knows ranch is the BEST.

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November 6, 2014

Curried Apple Chutney

If you’re looking for a recipe to have fun with, to play around with, chutneys are the way to go. They’re incredibly versatile and very forgiving; you really can’t mess them up. They’re also a great way to use up a variety of fruit and vegetables you may have on hand. Have an overload of apples you need to use up? Some peppers that are beginning to wrinkle? Make this!

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November 3, 2014

Apple Kale Salad with Curry Vinaigrette

Restraint and I are not the closest of friends. I may have overdone it a bit on Halloween and the day after. So much candy. So many drinks. Such a good time. And that’s why kale was invented. It’s our reset button. Kale is our designated driver, our friend that reminds us to not eat that 10th mini snickers bar. Kale sets us straight, makes us right. And this salad does just that in the most delicious way possible!

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October 27, 2014

Vegan Garlic Cream Pasta w/ Roasted Broccoli & Mushrooms

Creamy garlic sauce that’s vegan. Skeptical I was. No longer I am. Like Yoda why am I talking? I think it’s because this is some Jedi-like cooking going on. It’s all Obi-Wan Kenobi up in here. I did not think a vegan cream sauce could be this good. But it is. It’s magic…or the Force. I wonder if a light saber would be a useful kitchen tool? {oh boy, i think halloween is getting to me}

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October 23, 2014

Watermelon Rum Fizz (+ mocktail version)

Watermelon Rum Fizz

Watermelon in October? Yep! Watermelon are still popping up at my local farmers markets and last weekend at our CSA farm tour my son found a huge one that we got to take home! We couldn’t eat all of it in time, so I ended up juicing it. I got 3 quarts of delicious, sweet pleasingly-pink juice outta the sucker!

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