Macaroons.
Dear goodness they are scrumptious!
A little soft, a little chewy… Little sweet round pastries of heaven.
I’m in trouble. Big trouble.
These macaroons are from the Lafayette Bakery & Cafe in Carmel, CA.
*Vanilla and pistachio macaroons not pictured. They didn’t survive long enough for a photo.*
Recently, muffin making has been a ‘thing’ in our household. I usually make a ton so my husband can take them to work during the week. I put whatever I can find in them from zucchini to carrots to apple to banana… With chia seeds and oatmeal too!
I’ve never been a huge baker but I figured I should have some go-to recipes like these. Ready for the fail-safe recipe?
Ingredients (these are the ones I use):
3 cups of organic flour
1 cup of organic sugar
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1.5 cups of yogurt
3 eggs (2 whole, 1 egg white)
1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons)
Additional items based on preference:
2 tablespoons of chia seeds, 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats, 1/2 cup chocolate chips, 1/2 cup chopped or grated veggies or fruit of choice, 3 tablespoons of peanut/almond/cashew butter and the list goes on!
Feel free to substitute coconut oil instead of butter as well 🙂
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together.
3. Slightly melt butter.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk all wet ingredients together.
5. Fold in the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients gently. Be sure to not over mix!
6. Add additional ingredients of choice.
7. Spray the heck out of your muffin tin! No lining needed.
8. Fill your muffin tin with scoops of the mixture until it is filled to the top.
9. Bake for 25-27 minutes. Use a toothpick to see if it’s done! Cooking time may vary depending on the type of ingredients you choose.
10. Take out of the oven and let rest for 5 minutes.
11. Enjoy!
Love chocolate? Me too! Being diabetic and lactose-intolerant, I tend to stay away from desserts sometimes. This recipe has NO sugar added and NO dairy!
What you’ll need:
2 ripe, medium-sized avocados
5 dates – seeds removed and chopped coarsely
1/2 cup almond or coconut milk
1/3 raw cacao powder (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon of natural vanilla extract (optional)
a pinch of sea salt
Optional: dried coconut, berries
Recipe:
1. Soak the dates in almond/coconut milk in a bowl for 15 minutes to soften.
2. Add half the cacao powder to the milk with the dates. Mix.
3. Blend avocado and the remaining milk.
4. Add mixture with dates, milk and cocoa powder to the blender.
5. Blend until smooth.
6. Add more milk if needed to make blending easier. Add cacao powder to taste.
7. Place in refrigerator for 30-45 minutes. Serve chilled.
Garnish with mint, berries, dark chocolate, or coconut! Enjoy!
We took a quick trip to LA for my dad’s 60th. Check out this phenomenal cake!!!
For those that have apricot trees, I’m sure there are so many that you don’t know what to do with them!
We recently acquired some from my future in-laws, and as they were sitting in our fridge, I was trying to figure out what exactly to do with all of these yummy fruits…
Of course, my go-to is butter. Who doesn’t love to spread fresh homemade fruit butter onto your toast, pancakes, muffins, waffles, oatmeal or on top of some ice cream! Yum!
Here is the recipe, it is quite simple!
You’ll need:
40-50 small apricots
1 cup organic raw sugar
1.5 cups coconut sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 dash ground cloves
1.5 teaspoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
How-to:
1. Rinse apricots!
2. Cut apricots into halves or thirds, remove pits and place into slow cooker.
3. Add all sugar, spices and lemon juice and stir it in!
4. Keep stirring until all sugar is mixed in.
5. Turn slow cooker on low for 8hrs.
6. Once finished, use an emulsifier to blend contents.
7. Take the top off, turn off slow cooker and let it cool for an hour or until room temperature. This will help thicken the consistency.
8. Can, and enjoy as desired!
🙂
We recently acquired quite a few peaches from Tom’s dad’s house. Of course I had a lot of ideas of what I could make but unfortunately time doesn’t allow for that many!
My first thought was a peach sauce or jam. I think I shall call it saucy peaches.
It is one of those, throw it together, set it and forget it kind of recipes! Here’s the deal!
You’ll need:
We had 15-20 small, ripe peaches.
Use 8-10 med-large peaches if you’d like as well.
2T water
1-1.5T cinnamon
1t nutmeg
3T of local honey (you can use more depending on the level of your sweet tooth)
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of cloves
2t Apple Cider Vinegar
1. Rinse then cut into small cubes WITH the skin on. Gotta love that fiber!
2. Add to crock pot.
3. Add all other ingredients to pot.
4. Stir to get those spices soaking into the peaches.
5. Set on low for 8hrs. (I like to do this at night so I can wake up to the wonderful smell in the morning!)
6. With a potato masher, mash peaches to the consistency of your liking. You can also use an emulsifier if you’d like also.
7. If you like it sweeter, add more honey!
8. Nom nom. Can it!
I’ve put this into my oatmeal, yogurt, cereal, on top of ice cream, bread, have used it for baking and added it to sauces.
It’s so bad… But sooo good.
Nourishing Zen 