Fabulous Vegan Recipes

You can melt together vegan butter and vegan marshmallows, transfer them to a bowl and slowly add rice cereal and you will get amazing rice crispy treats. You can't mess up this recipe...you can't. I measured everything out for you because...that's what a recipe is but when I doubled the batch, I didn't measure the second round of ingredients so make these as sloppy or as by-the-book (or blog post!) as you wish. I also give you some cool flavors to add so read on! I bought all of these ingredients at Trader Joe's because I knew they have all the ingredients vegan. Trader Joe's sells rice cereal that is organic and has all vegan ingredients-I believe they are also GF but check first before buying if you are strict GF. I am not gluten-free so I don't look for that label unless I'm making it a point to make the recipe gluten-free for someone else. Earth Balance is my favorite, and most readily available, dairy-free butter and Trader Joe's only sells

It's been so long since I wrote a blog post containing a recipe much less a long blog post about my life. So, where have I been? I remember how obsessed with this blog I used to be: 3 posts a week, cooking so so much, taking pictures, obsessing over my Fb page likes. Then life happened and this blog took a back burner. But lately I've been thinking about getting back to it; just not looking through the same lens as I once looked at it.

It's been a minute since I posted. I had my last Munch & Meditate event of 2018 and it was so nice. The menu is always vegan, of course, but this time I did gluten-free as well and it was easier than I thought. I taught a beginner's gentle yoga class followed by vegan appetizers and desserts. Come to my next one on Jan 6th !

I'm obsessed with blackstrap molasses. So I had to make cookies with this amazing syrup and they turned out so delish.

This recipe will be an experiment for you to delve into the world of nut and seed butters. I was going to use one particular butter for this recipe but we all have different preferences so I'll let you choose. This recipe is only 2 ingredients and you just need to mix by hand; the result: ooey goey caramel.

I saw a chocolate pound cake at the farmers market this morning and was about to get it. It was a small piece and it was $5 and I wondered if all the ingredients were organic and non-GMO so I put it down and decided to make my own. I had all the ingredients at home except for enough sugar so I had to use a little confectioner sugar and maple syrup instead of coconut sugar. I always use maple syrup or coconut sugar because they are more natural, not as processed sources of sweetener. But you gotta use what you have!

My mom used to make spinach bites all the time when I was a kid, usually just for the holidays, and we devoured them. She made them with egg and butter so they were definitely not vegan friendly. This Thanksgiving, we made them vegan and they turned out so awesome.

When I do compilation posts, it's always a wonderful trip down memory lane. I love to see how my photography improved or how different I lay out my posts. I also love to see how my cooking has changed and what foods I was obsessed with two years ago. I love to see how I've grown and I start planning ways to improve my blog even more.

I never do mashups, which I want to do more of, because I have so many recipes that I feel I need to organize them better. What better way to do that than combining a few recipes into one blog post so you can see them more easily?! I picked 10 chocolate recipes because 1. chocolate is the bomb and 2. the holidays are here and everyone loves a chocolate dessert. These recipes are mostly clean, way healthier than processed, store-bought recipes and easy to make.

When I think of a comfort drink, I think of a homemade coffee smoothie or a hot chocolate. Now that it's cold pretty consistently, I've been craving hot drinks lately. I'm still doing a sugar detox because I really went wild the past few months so this hot chocolate is only sweetened with dates, nothing else. Honestly, I haven't thought much about sugar and I feel wonderful. Dates can sweeten pretty much anything and they are more than enough to make your recipes taste great without throwing yourself into a food coma.

I've had three recipes in my head since coming back to the city after Thanksgiving but I'm low on leafy greens (I know!!) and my new hot chocolate recipe did not photograph well this morning. I have a cool summer roll recipe that I'll post when I stock up on kale. I'm on a sugar detox! My only sugar source has come from dates, other fruit and veggies. I tucked the coconut sugar away and the chocolate chips. I'm also measuring out the fat. I already feel better!

I bought a butternut squash at the farmers market on Saturday with the intention of baking it, which I finally got around to doing. All of these Thanksgiving dishes are giving me some major inspiration to make something seasonal and warm and delish. So here goes! Let me tell you about my Thanksgiving plans for the last two years. I always have big ideas about making a ton of meatless dishes along with a ton of awesome desserts but I live in NYC and my family lives in the Philly burbs. So, it's difficult to travel home the day before Thanksgiving, run out and get ingredients and make a bunch of food. My mom's oven only holds so many dishes so it can be tricky. But this year, I think I'll be able to sneak this dish in there 😄

These little bites are the bomb! They are chocolately and super fudgey (thanks to coconut oil) and chewy. Isn't coconut oil awesome? It's so versatile, I use it in my recipes and I use it to moisturize my skin and hair. To refresh my face, I spray a combination of peppermint, cucumber, lemongrass essential oil on my face and then follow up with some coconut oil. My face feels fresh and hydrated and it wakes me up, Coconut oil, at least for this recipe, makes the chocolate very decadent and rich so that you are biting into an almost ganache-like filling. These are my favorite bites thus far!

These cookies looked good and the cookie dough was delish but when baked, the cookies were tough and rubbery. I used gluten-free flour from Trader Joe's and I don't think that flour was best for cookies. I usually use oat flour or a mixture of oat and garbanzo or another gluten-free flour...and I'm not gluten-free, per se, I just usually end up being gluten-free by default; it just seems to go well with being vegan. So, for this recipe, you can use regular all purpose flour, I just want to be able to make these GF and have them turn out fabulously. Also, I didn't have baking powder so that may have thrown the cookies off as well.

Happy Holiday Season!! I originally posted this recipe last Christmas and now it's back! Because it's easy, awesome and so yummy and I will probably be making it again. This recipe is supersized so that you have a enough pie for your whole family. You can use any amount of the ingredients as you wish so feel free to change this recipe to fit your holiday table. I loooove this avocado pudding mix, I make it for everything, you can eat it by itself or top a pie or cupcake with it. It's so yummy and versatile and everyone will love it!

It's that time of year again! The hectic running around, the overindulging, the lack of sleep, the fun, family get togethers; a time when we need to remember to reconnect with ourselves. It's easy to mindlessly eat or forego exercise during this time so having a plan is the best way to go this holiday season. I'm writing this now after years of gaining weight during the holiday season, feeling horrible about myself then working to lose the weight.