My son turned ONE!! So of course I had to make a cake for his first birthday. I decided to go with the Mod Monkey theme and searched for a few cake decorating ideas online. I quickly found myself wanting to make a cake with a monkey face, and realized in order to make itContinue reading…
Baked Shell Pasta w/Cherry Tomatoes (gluten-free option, contains dairy)
My son and I just picked over 100 delicious cherry tomatoes from our backyard! Besides just popping them in our mouths, which we did plenty of, I decided to incorporate them into a baked pasta dish. This recipe was adapted from 365 Days of Pure Vegetarian. To enhance the flavor of the simple pasta sauce, IContinue reading…
Buttercream Frosting (vegan, gluten-free)
For those of you who dislike the creamy taste of butter in your buttercream frosting recipe, here’s another version that uses a high ratio shortening called Sweetex. I recently took a cake decorating class and came across this recipe which is very easy to make, colors well, tastes great, and is easy to work with.Continue reading…
Penne Arrabiata w/Feta (gluten-free option, vegan-option)
When it comes to Italian dishes, I’ve never been a huge fan of marinara sauce. I usually gravitate towards the creamy sauces or herb-based sauces. But on my last trip to Italy, I had the most amazing Penne Arrabiata, otherwise known as a spicy marinara sauce. In fact, it was so good that we foundContinue reading…
Garlic Pepper Tofu (vegan, gluten-free)
My husband had garlic pepper tofu at a Thai restaurant once and loved the dish. Not having tasted it myself, I tried to search for a recipe online to recreate it at home, but failed to find one which had all the ingredients I wanted to add. Therefore, I decided to try and create theContinue reading…
Tomatoes Stuffed w/Goat Cheese (contains dairy, gluten-free)
If you like goat cheese, you’ll love these simple stuffed tomatoes! You can serve them as a side dish or an appetizer. They are very easy to make, taste refreshing, and are perfect in size. I first had them at a friends potluck a few years back and re-created them at home. TOMATOES STUFFED w/GOATContinue reading…
Avocado Pesto (gluten-free, vegan option)
I’ve recently started loving the texture of avocado with many foods. When I came across this recipe on Chef Chloe’s website from Food Network, I had to give it a try. Avocado seemed like the perfect addition to pesto to give it that extra creamy flavor and texture. The only change I made to theContinue reading…
Banana Bread (update) – Gluten Free
I recently had a friend ask about making the banana bread recipe I have gluten-free. With the holidays around the corner, I decided to try and make gluten-free banana bread for my brother who has Celiac Disease. Without doing any optimizing on my original recipe, I simply substituted the all-purpose flour for Arrowhead Mills gluten-freeContinue reading…
Zucchini Brownies (vegan option, contains dairy)
I decided to give this recipe a try after reading all the great reviews from all recipes. I was also curious how they would turn out with the addition of zucchini, which I always have in my fridge. The outcome was very good! The zucchini added great moisture and texture without being able to pickContinue reading…
Orecchiette with Gorgonzola Sauce (gluten-free option, contains dairy)
The first time I heard of Gorgonzola sauce was at a local Italian restaurant in San Diego. Not sure if it would be overwhelming and strong due to the Gorgonzola, I decided to give it a try. Since then, I’ve been back at least 4 times craving that sauce! The taste was perfect – notContinue reading…
