Tips For Eating and Living Well
Last week my son was at camp, but my daughter Abby stayed home with me. At first she was super bummed that she didn’t have camp, but I told her we could have “Mommy Camp” and do fun things together instead. As a result, we had a great week together! We spent time at a local bookstore, went for a long hike at Hanging Rock, NC, cooked a delicious dinner together, and developed a fun new recipe — Sugar Cookie Granola! …
Easter is on Sunday, so it’s time to be planning ways to make it a special day for your family without having the extended family over for a fancy brunch (thanks, COVID-19). This time of year is all about carrot cake and coconut cake, both of which I love. I already have a Carrot Cake Oatmeal on the blog, so this year I created some gorgeous Baked Coconut Donuts! These donuts turned out beautifully — cakey, moist, and the perfect amount of sweetness. …
Being a parent to two young kids is no joke. Mornings have become a divide-and-conquer task as we get both kids ready for school. When I have time, I prefer to make smoothies or oatmeal, but both of those must be fed to Luke (or cleaned off of the floor and walls later), which takes up my time when I need to be doing Abby’s hair or making the coffee. I needed something healthier than a handful of Cheerios that Luke could feed himself while I do other things in the kitchen. My solution was to create these delicious, nutrient-dense Breakfast cookies, and I gotta say, they’re pretty fantastic! …
I know, I know, overnight oats have been a thing for quite a while now. And yet, I’m just now jumping aboard the overnight oats train because, well, I’m SO TIRED OF OATMEAL. There, I said it. When I do eat it, it’s because I know it’s good for me, not because I legitimately enjoy eating a bowl of warm mush. But I’ve found that I actually look forward to eating my overnight oats because they’re already prepared when I wake up, I try lots of fun flavors, and it’s like eating dessert for breakfast every morning! …
Nothing says ‘Easter’ quite like a pretty coffee cake served on dainty plates. And since we vegan and gluten-free people also want our cake (and to eat it, of course), I decided to alter this recipe for a Raspberry Almond Breakfast Cake so it’s also vegan. The result . . . delicious! …
Happy Fall, everyone! To celebrate my favorite season, I decided to create a sweet caramel apple bread that will fill your home with the fall aromas of baked apples and cinnamon. And to top it off, I added date caramel to make it extra special. Oh man. This cake bread is so good, you’d never guess that it’s vegan, gluten-free, and oil free!…
Apparently National Donut Day was just last week, but if I’d realized that, I would have gotten my act together and perfected this recipe in time to post it then. But really, do we need a special day of the year to enjoy a good donut? NOPE.
I’d recently bought half a peck of peaches from the Abbott Farms stand, and I was eager to use them in some sort of dessert recipe. I’d also been wanting to experiment with buckwheat flour, so out of my test kitchen came these earthy, peach buckwheat donuts that are surprisingly good for you!…
It had been way too long since I’d made granola, which is a shame because it’s a nutritious snack or breakfast that’s easy to take on the go or give to friends and family. I’ve found that the store-bought granolas are full of oil and sugar, and thus empty calories. So if I eat granola, I prefer to make it myself and use nut butter instead of canola oil, and maple syrup or coconut sugar instead of cane sugar. It’s still fairly high in calories, but it’s also packed with protein, minerals, and fiber to keep you full and energized.
For some reason I wanted to try my hand at a savory coffee granola because, duh, I love everything coffee-flavored. With Abby’s help, I came up with this nutritious coffee almond butter granola that my father-in-law described as “almost as good as [my husband’s] shot on hole 17” last weekend. Apparently it was his best golf shot of all time, so I decided to take that as a major compliment. …
I’ve been experimenting with cooking with Indian spices lately, so I’ve developed a love for cardamom. To me, it makes every sweet dish a little more decadent and interesting. That’s why I created this Cardamom Stewed Banana Porridge!…
Every winter I get super excited when I see blood oranges in the produce section. If I see them, I have to buy a few. They look like regular oranges with a little red blush on the skin, but when you open them up, they’re a gorgeous crimson. I prefer them because they’re sweeter than regular oranges and typically just contain one or two seeds. I like to add them to fruit salad, squeeze some of the juice into hibiscus tea, or add them to baked goods, like my citrus tea cookies, or . . .
these blood orange muffins!…
It’s starting to feel like fall here in Winston, and I couldn’t be more excited! Fall is my absolute favorite season, and it always seems like the shortest. Just the smell of the crisp fall air makes me think of cool family walks, going to the fair, playing in piles of leaves, and eating bowls of hot soup.
But before I get back to sharing soup recipes, I wanted to post my newest — and now favorite — granola bar recipe: Coconut Cashew Granola Bars! My new obsession is coconut manna/butter, which is different from coconut oil in that it’s a whole food — pureed coconut meat. It adds a natural coconut flavor and richness to desserts, granola, and granola bars, and I can’t get enough of it! Combine it with the cashews, buckwheat, and other crunchy ingredients in this granola bar, and you have a nutritious breakfast or snack that tastes like a dessert!…
In my previous post, Feeding Toddlers, I added a list of nutritious snacks for toddlers which included a new favorite in our household: mini cinnamon rolls!…
