Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Cake (Gluten-Free, Vegan)

Long time no chat. Nothing like a long weekend to go strawberry picking with the 3 year old (time flies!) and whip up a summer crumble along with rhubarb from my garden. I have been really enjoying having nearly 10 years of recipes to draw upon, and while I did consider making a hybrid Cranberry Apple Oat Crumble meets Peach Chia Crumble with an Almond-Coconut Topping meets Blueberry Peach Raspberry Crumbles, in the end, I was tempted to look at some of the awesome recipes my friends have created over the years.

Quick and Easy Peanut Butter Granola Balls

Hi everyone! Long time no blog. I honestly thought my food blogging days were behind me. It felt like my priorities or rather my hobbies shifted after becoming a family of 3. It certainly feels like I have less time for myself during the day.

But, but, but…. I have this really awesome recipe that I just had to share because I know you’ll love it too.

Fudgy Double Chocolate Brownies from Fuss Free Vegan

I hope everyone had a wonderful stretch of holidays. Maybe you are still on vacation, or maybe like me, back at work alreadyl

I don’t think I mentioned it in my last post, but vacation has a new definition for me now that we are a family of three. Kiddo in daycare and parents at home alone is definitely more relaxing for me now! Daycare was closed for a week, so all three of us were home with plenty of excursions to visit family. No relaxing here at all.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies + But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan! cookbook GIVEAWAY

I hope you aren’t sick of cookies yet, because if there was one way to share vegan yumminess, it would be through desserts. If you have been trying to eat vegan during January (aka Veganuary), I have the perfect cookbook for you: But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan!. Kristy Turner’s second cookbook, following the success of her first cookbook But I Could Never Go Vegan! (you can see my full review here).

Chocolate Candy Cane Pots de Creme

It might not surprise you, but Rob and I do not have plans for New Year’s Eve. Last year, when I pregnant and super tired, we stayed up as late as I could muster, but these days, I am still sleep deprived and it is not worth staying up all to midnight when my baby will be waking me up a couple hours later. 

Candy Cane Fudge Cookies + Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook GIVEAWAY

Just so we’re clear. All those Spicy Chocolate Snickerdoodles that disappeared… it wasn’t Rob’s fault. Blame the breastfeeding mama and her group of mom friends. I am making a second batch so Rob can enjoy them, too. They will also come with me to our much anticipated annual cookie exchange. Last year, I made 3 batches of cinnamon snaps to share and swap, and this year, decided to share two different kinds of cookies. In theory, I could simply multiply the recipes but instead, I wanted to #tryallthecookies.

Spicy Chocolate Snickerdoodles

With the wickedly warmer weather this year, it is hard to believe that Christmas is only a couple weeks away. We had our first true snow fall yesterday as the temperature dipped below freezing. This brought me more into the Christmas mood. The snow has since melted but it feels a bit more like winter now. Thankfully I am not hosting any gatherings over the holidays, but I still wanted to make something special for the season.  I resorted to our favourite holiday snack: cookies. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes

My mom had a (self-imposed) daunting task: use up all the poppy seeds. How many poppy seeds could she possibly have? A cup or two? No, more like 10 cups of poppy seeds. As such, Rob and I were the recipients of many, many poppy seed infused desserts this summer. In particular, everyone enjoyed these vegan lemon poppy seed cupcakes.

NEWS + Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with the Best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

First of all, some news. As you may have noticed, I have not been posting nearly as often this year. At first, this was due to first trimester pregnancy food aversions and fatigue and later on, I had pregnancy complications that kept me on rest in and out of the hospital. A couple weeks ago, Rob and I welcomed our baby boy into the world. He is a small fighter and will be in the hospital for a while, but we are thrilled he is doing so well for now. Between the NICU visits and exclusively pumping for him, life has been filled with fatigue and we know it will only get worse. Please forgive me for my patchy posting schedule.

Because I was in the hospital, my baby shower was cancelled with 2 days notice. My mom, of course, was already ready to party and had these delicious cupcakes prepared for dessert. While I was sad to miss my own baby shower, it meant Rob and I (with some help from my parents and brother) basically ate all the cupcakes. They actually didn’t last that long in our house.

Roasted Maple Rosemary Almonds

Looking for an easy snack? Perhaps for your next holiday party?

Allow me to suggest these Roasted Maple Rosemary Almonds and Cashews. 

Vegan Cinnamon Snaps

This weekend was cookie overload.

I baked 110 cookies Saturday morning and by the end of the day, I had sampled 7 different cookies and returned home with 7 different cookie dozens. Yes, I went to my first vegan cookie exchange!!

I wanted to keep it a secret, so I could look pretty awesome with 8 different cookies come Christmas, but I already told my mom, so now it can be public knowledge.

Blackstrap Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies

Bring on the vegan Christmas cookies!

I am starting my cookie baking early so I don’t have to worry about it closer to Christmas. Last weekend, I decided it was the day to begin cookie making. I flipped through a few of my picks. I was missing more than a few ingredients.

Coconut Sweet Potato Pie + True to Your Roots cookbook GIVEAWAY

I scouted out white sweet potatoes for this recipe, but I think it would have been even better with purple sweet potatoes. Purple sweet potatoes are taking over the blogosphere! In any case, without the typical orange hue, you may have a hard time believing this is a sweet potato pie but it is.

Vegan Apple Hand Pies

I am kind of sad I didn’t take a picture after I took a bite from one of these hand pies. The photos don’t really give the hand pies the justice they deserve.  An apple pie you can pick up with your hands? Oh, yes. The escaped filling is only a hint of the delicious filling.

Salted Caramel Pear Butter

This post is a two-fer.

First, I made the most awesome pear butter this weekend. Salted caramel pear butter. Oh yeah.