Dark Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars With Sea Salt {Grain-Free, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free}

Hey, friends! You’re in for a treat today. Get it? Puns. I’ve put dark chocolate all up in some pumpkin and we’re calling it dessert. Do you want to make these for Thanksgiving? Maybe, YES. Peter (the sweet-tooth-toting-husband of mine) is here to say nice things about my baking. Someone is trying to get some major brownie pumpkin-bar points. I just love him. Enjoy!

Failure is a subjective and lovely term. There have been several occasions where my lovely wife, who you all get to hang out with almost every day, claimed she failed — that she could do better. These pumpkin bars are one such lovely “failure.”

My wife is extremely thorough, and I daresay a perfectionist. The recipes she brings you are vetted with dedication, and anything not up to snuff gets tossed out like my daily recommendations to eat breakfast for every meal. I’m the number one fan of my ideas getting tossed out, because if you’ve spent any time around here — you’ll know the variety and quality of food that emerges from our kitchen is absolutely to die for and I wouldn’t have it any other way. […]

Shredded Brussels Sprout & Green Apple Salad With Avocado & Pomegranate Seeds

Ever have those moments in life where you realize your vegetable consumption is WAY too scanty?

I usually feel this way after a holiday full of cookies, a birthday full of cake, or a vacation where I’ve favored margaritas over food groups. Or, heck… sometimes there’s no explanation at all. A girl just needs a serious veggie-vention (like, intervention…but, with veggies. It’s a stretch. I know) from time to time.  It’s in these moments that I find myself with insatiable veggie cravings. Like, standing at the kitchen counter shoveling handfuls of plain spring mix into my mouth. Or, shotgunning carrots like a frat boy would do beers. So, I figure I might as well stop grazing like an uncontrollable fridge-savvy rabbit and get down with a giant salad instead.  […]

Lemon Roasted Salmon With Pepita Pesto Quinoa & Tomatoes

Lately I’ve felt like I’ve been stewing in some sort of creative rut.

The words aren’t flowing freely from my fingers. Perhaps this is why I’ve signed up to write an entire novel in the month of November. Clearly, I’m a glutton for punishment. The graph of my current word count tells me that I will most likely be finishing this “novel” (I use quotations since my “novel” has turned out to be  a collection of non-fiction stories about my very real, very awkward life) sometime around mid December. Nothing inspires a person more than being approximately sixteen days behind on a writing project when you’re already suffering from an intense bout of writer’s block. Can you see my sarcastic-smirk face right now? Because, that. Is hibernation an option for humans? I kind of want to sign up. Maybe they have a month dedicated to napping. Count this girl in.  […]

Kiwi + Matcha Green Smoothie

The weekend said “Let there be candy”, and there was candy. This was one of my better Halloween years as far as not gorging myself with peanut butter cups. However, I did go kind of mental on a bag of these Dark Chocolate Honey Mints (Only three benign ingredients–they are a revelation)!

I’m totally not bragging or saying that I’m better than you for not eating Snickers bars trough-style out of a pumpkin-shaped vat. In fact, I am currently doing an autoimmune protocol to heal my gut… so, I’m probably worse than you. Also, there was that time that I ate like two pieces of this awesomefunfetti cake for breakfast. I understand what it feels like to have a stomach full of sugar and regret.

This morning my body was like “Let there be smoothies”.  Okay, body. I get it. I’ll schlep my blender onto my counter top and make some green magic. Just you watch. I’ll put in a bunch of green things and liquefy them. It’s gonna feel real good. It might even give us an energy boost. I can always use one of those. I mean, Mondays are hard.  […]