Tips For Eating and Living Well
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. …
Happy New Year, friends!
I decided to start the year off with a recipe that’s so easy and delicious, you’ll want to make it over and over again. These Coconut Tofu Nuggets contain only four ingredients and are vegan, oil-free, and gluten-free! …
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!…
It’s finally feeling like springtime here in Winton-Salem, which means the flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, and Abby is playing outside again! After being indoors with my almost two-year-old all winter, it’s such a treat to be able to play outside and work in the garden again. …
Yesterday I posted a recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars, and since granola bars are so customizable, I decided to make another flavor: Banana Berry with Toasted Coconut.
Dried fruit, although fairly high in sugar, is a convenient snack (especially for toddlers!). I decided to combine my two favorites — freeze-dried bananas (a.k.a. “space” bananas) and dried wild blueberries. And since I had some toasted coconut on hand, I crushed some of that and added it to the mix. All of these flavors, in addition to the almond butter and ground cinnamon, come together to form a granola bar that tastes like a blueberry muffin with a hint of banana. It’s a great bar for breakfast on the go! …
With my mom and brother coming into town to stay with us for a week, I needed to come up with something to serve for breakfast the next few days. I looked at several recipes and came up with these super nutritious breakfast bars. The base is a blend of oats, bananas, almonds, Chia seeds, cinnamon, maple syrup, and a touch of coconut oil. The topping is a mix of oats and superfoods — blueberries, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and almonds. …
Yesterday my husband brought home a box of contraband — an assortment of Girl Scout cookies. I support the Girl Scouts, but their cookies are nothing but junk. I always thought they had decent flavors, but their cookies taste like preservatives to me. Although not as convenient, homemade cookies are always better! …
When I came up with my shortbread cookie recipe, I had in mind a slightly sweet, light tea cookie that is also nutritious. First I created a citrus version, which contains Meyer lemon or orange zest and is topped with a very thin slice of citrus fruit. But with such a great shortbread dough base, I couldn’t stop at just one cookie flavor. I opened my fridge and noticed some unsalted pistachios and decided to add them to the dough with coconut flakes and almond extract. The results were delicious! …
