Baking

Mmm...healthy dark chocolate cupcakes. And they're gluten-free and vegan too! This recipe was developed for my upcoming ebook (available in April). It was delicious but didn't quite make the cut for the new book so I'm glad to be able to share it with you today! These healthy cupcakes get their amazing texture and depth of flavor from golden sweet potatoes and whole grain gluten-free flour (most flours will work). So, yay!!! If you haven't heard, Baking Backwards will release an e-book for sale next month! Recipes are primarily e-book exclusive (ie. brand spanking new!). I am currently sharing unedited pics of a little of my recipe development on instagram. Have you followed me there yet? Get on it! A few modest unedited recipe development pics are also up on a special pinterest board! These are nowhere near the quality of my edited book images!!! Let's see what I mean by that: Big difference, eh? In short, my finished ebook photos are far superior to my instagram...

So...this post is a long time coming. By that I mean I have been toying with the idea of making toothpaste for months. Why? Well I live a pretty 'clean' life. I'm mostly vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free...I exercise daily...use organic shampoo...wash my face with olive oil...moisturize my hair with olive oil...the only thing I haven't revolutionized is my toothpaste. For years I've used standard toothpaste. Up until recently I wasn't too concerned. I guess it all started when I ditched my expensive face cream and turned to olive oil that I noticed what a huge impact a little change can make. My skin has never been more clear and evenly moisturized. Recently I've been getting a sore and irritated throat constantly. It's been driving me nuts. I thought it might be food related at first but it came and went after no particular foods. Then I wondered...could it be my toothpaste?? Sodium laurel sulphate and other additives are found in most toothpastes ...

Monday is St. Patrick's Day so for most people that means dusting off that green fedora and apologizing in advance to your liver. But for someone like me that means a green coloured dessert at the most. I don't drink much. I can probably count the number of drinks I've had this past year on one hand. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy alcohol -- wine, beer, whiskey...it's all kind of wonderful. But I have NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) so even moderate drinking isn't recommended during recovery.  I found out about my NAFLD a year and a half ago when I went to the doctor with constant pain in my stomach. She did an ultrasound to see if I had gall stones but the only thing she could find was that my liver was fatty. I asked how I should proceed having never heard of this condition before. She said to keep on with my vegetarian/vegan diet and that she was stunned that I had developed the disease with my healthy diet as a healthy diet is generally the way to tur...