One of the things I love most about spending my summers in Oregon with my parents is my mother’s cooking *AND* her collection of cookbooks. She literally could open up a cookbook library. This past week, I came across a cookbook, The Forest Feast, given last year to my mother by my bestie. This cookbook is not only beautiful, but the vegetarian recipes are healthy, easy, and simple. Here is my first find: peanut butter – coconut – no bake balls! SO DELICIOUS!
Currently on a granola bar kick (as witnessed a couple weeks ago here), here is my latest granola bar obsession: Lola Bars. Yes, I am on a roll with granola bars!
5 flavors. Taste the rainbow.
HOLY COW, best granola bar ever and it is made with only healthy ingredients. They are grain-free, soy-free, paleo, gluten-free, dairy free, wheat-free, and oat-free. The Nola bar!
Nola
If you want a rich, decadent, chocolatey, vegan dessert*, then THIS IS IT. Vegan Peanut Butter Cups.
Every time I am at Whole Foods, I end up picking up a “Morning Glory” Muffin to snack on. Both my daughter and I love them: sweet, moist, and healthy. So I decided to bake a batch of them myself! After scouring the internet to find the recipe that suited my taste, here is the one I found on eatingwell.com. I modified them slightly and love the result! They are refined-sugar free, gluten-free (because I used gluten-free flour), and nutrient packed!
Best Granola Ever. I am addicted and obsessed with granola and this is HANDS DOWN MY FAVORITE brand. No other type of granola comes close to this heavenly bowl of goodness! For the past several years (at least 5 years, or even more!), my dear mother in Eugene, Oregon, has been sending me boxes of this granola from the bin in our local grocery store (which is ten times better than any Whole Foods) to New York City. I never knew that it was sold elsewhere! Until I found it in a random Korean Deli Store in Upper Manhattan. It was startling, exhilarating, and life changing! Grizzlie’s Granola — Aunt Maple’s Crunchy Granola — the best of the best.
Heaven in a bag
Even though I am done with marathon training (well, for NYC 2014…not forever….I am hooked), I still am hungry all the time. Especially for chocolates. Specifically, French chocolates. Recommended by a friend on our recent trip to Paris, we stopped by Jacques Genin, a well known French chocolate and caramel maker in the Marais. And let me tell you, it is worth the hype. At first, I thought that all high-end chocolate tastes the same — good, delicious, and decadent. But once I polished off the box of Jacques Genin’s, I realized that it was HIS chocolate that was oh-s0-flipping-good. He opened up his own chocolate store / tea house in the Marais neighborhood in 2008. It is beautiful and chic — an Hermes version of chocolate.
Damn straight
As the self proclaimed Granola Queen (both in terms of the noun “granola” and the verb “granola”), I have played around with making granola bars. This granola bar is a winner. It takes under 30 minutes, requires no baking, has no sugar (unless you count honey and/or dates as sugar), and is delicious (obviously). MAKE ‘EM!
Ingredients:
Nothing better than a QUICK and easy dessert to make and devour! 3 ingredients.
Ingredients:
Aloha! Dried Green Juice! Aloha!
I am hooked on this dried green juice. Not only do I love the packaging (so modern and cool) but the product itself is a winner. At first, I was terrified of drinking it — 14 healthy, natural, organic ingredients — so healthy that even I was a little worried. BUT I WAS WRONG. This powder is GOLD (well, it’s green, but you know….). What’s in it?
New nut butter obsession, thank you very much! Big Spoon Roasters is so good that you want to use a big spoon (get it?) and eat it all up. Big Spoon Roasters makes handcrafted nut butters from scratch in Durham, North Carolina. If anyone knows how to work with nuts, it is Southerners. They create the nut butters from nuts and honeys from local and like-minded farmers.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend….I ended up getting the stomach flu on Friday….and let me tell you it was SO
UNFUN. Beyond unfun. Horrible. Horrific. Nightmare. Barf. Gross. Gulp. NEVER AGAIN. Oh My Goodness. Luckily, I had a devoted and loving husband; understanding and caring children; and wonderful, supportive friends. And I was better in no time at all!
I woke up to these beautiful flowers, which of course put a smile on my face.
