Baking

If you're not a chocolate chip cookie purist, you should try these cookies. My Everything Cookies are addictive, indulgent, sweet and salty, soft chewy, crunchy, and anything but boring. Loaded with chocolate chunks, chocolate chips, coconut, potato chips (yes!), and corn flakes, these cookies are full of surprises. They're also vegan and gluten free - true story.  I made these cookies on a whim last weekend. I tend to bake chocolate chip cookies when I feel like a sweet treat without a lot of fuss. Its hard to screw up a chocolate chip cookie. Its hard to make an outstanding chocolate chip cookie too. These cookies take chocolate chip cookies to a whole new level. Full of texture and flavour contrast, these cookies are insanely addictive. The dough made quite a few little cookies and my husband and I polished them of in two days! I think that says it all...     It all started with a bag of coconut oil kettle cooked potato chips. These chips you guys, oh dear. To say I h...

I grew up eating lots of pancakes. LOTS. It was a Sunday tradition. My Dad makes (and always made) THE BEST pancakes. Fluffy, not too sweet, not over or under cooked. Perfect for ripping up by hand to dunk in syrup or to slather in butter and maple.  Although these Cosmic Blueberry Pancakes aren't the pancakes I grew up eating, they are pretty special. Though they don't look it, these pancakes are gluten free and vegan, which honestly for pancakes is a serious  challenge I have struggled with for years now. Up until this morning I'd all but given up on authentic-tasting vegan and gluten free pancakes without bad-for-you ingredients. My husband had too -- he has grown increasingly resistant to my healthy pancake attempts and almost never agrees to base his breakfast on them anymore. He's a pancake purist I guess, and all the healthy imposters I've come up with over the years have failed to fool him. In my many trials, the pancakes have tended to come out too dense, t...

With a New Year upon us I thought it would be a good idea to share some irresistable bite sized treat recipes for those who are trying to cut back on sweets but just can't quite refrain entirely. These two bite chocolate chip cookies are just the ticket -- and pretty healthy anyway so even if you nibble a few more than you planned, you don't need to worry about derailing your resolution to lead a healthier lifestyle this year. These little cookies pack rich chocolatey flavour into a tiny bite. They also happen to be vegan and gluten free. Virgin coconut oil stands in for butter making these a little healthier than your average cookies. Coconut oil is believed to be thermogenic -- meaning it actually helps your body to burn fat! The sweeteners in this cookie are unrefined and healthier than sugar too. Coconut sugar is a low-glycemic sweetener that stands in for brown sugar in this recipe. Liquid sweeteners are used as well including maple syrup and brown rice syrup or honey...

Let's start 2016 on a healthy but sweet note shall we? Continuing on with my New Year's theme of bite sized treats to crush your cravings for sweets, I present these irresistible two-bite jam thumbprint cookies... Sweet, fruity, buttery and rich, these tiny cookies are a new favourite. I should really start by saying I usually only enjoy jam on top of peanut butter. I tend to hate it by itself -- especially by itself on toast. So I was totally surprised when I had a weird craving for jam topped cookies, made them and fell totally in love with them.  The cookie dough is rich and crumbly like shortbread, but healthier as its made with wholegrain brown rice flour and digestion-friendly arrowroot starch . You'd never guess this recipe was gluten free and vegan ! The dough is sweetened with low glycemic coconut sugar and vitamin-rich maple syrup . Butter is left out altogether -- I went with a healthy vegan fat instead -- virgin coconut oil . The dough holds together well, wi...

Are you ready for 2016? 2015 was an up and down year for me. I run my own business now so the inherent unpredictability of THAT is enough to knock anyone on their ass. I also experienced numerous family health scares, turned 30, and faced a few big fears. To me life is never clear cut -- there is nothing you can do to ensure a particular and "safe" outcome. All you can do is learn to accept chaos, work on making yourself a better person, and use the limited time that you have on this planet the way that YOU want to. No one will make your dreams come true (that's on you) and the only person that will regret it if you don't live your life to the fullest is you. So what do you do when your dreams aren't clear cut? I personally struggled with this all year. It seems that I don't have the burning desire to do anything. There are things that I love to do but that doesn't make them viable careers or endeavors even. So, after coming face to face with me, I have de...