Need a new search?

If you didn't find what you were looking for, try a new search!

Spiced Blueberry Cashew & Coconut Smoothie

You know how life is extremely unexpected?

Let me give you some examples.

Sometimes  you’re just trying to walk your dog. Maybe on this walk you see a shirtless stranger barreling towards you on their bicycle. He is smoking a cigarette. You can’t help but think how difficult it would be to smoke a cigarette WHILE biking the hills that surround this area. That is both cardiovascular-ly challenging and counter-intuitive. You also can’t help but wonder if he’s chilly. It’s sunny, but the wind is brisk. You yourself are in a jacket and pants. He is topless.  While you are pondering both his fashion and health decisions he yells out “Get off of the flapping sidewalk!” while narrowly missing your paws with his bike tires and puffing a thick of smoke in your face. Note: He totally didn’t say flapping. I’m just trying to keep this kid-friendly. This interaction is odd. Why do I have to get off the sidewalk? I am the one walking. I am the one wearing a top. Also, why are you yelling at me? Unexpected. […]

How To Make Coconut Butter

So, butter.

We have a history.

This weekend I was hanging out with my family, and these words were inevitably spoken to me:

“Hey, Gina! Remember how you used to sneak into the fridge and leave finger prints in the butter container?”

Yes. Yes I do. It went something like this…

I would wait until no one was in my grandparent’s kitchen. I would sneak over to the fridge and pray that the large tub of Country Crock was within my stubby-four-year-old-arm’s reach. If it was, I would sneakily remove it from its place in the fridge and bring it over to the kitchen table. Silently, I would remove the top off of the tub of butter. Eureka! I would dip my fat little fingers inside of the container and eat the butter off my hands. Carefully, I would put the top back on the container and make sure to place it back where I found it in the refrigerator. My four-year old self did not understand that I had left substantial evidence of my shenanigans behind. There were little finger divots and prints left in the butter tub. I was the only four-year-old that frequented that house. I was caught red-handed. Several times. I will also NEVER live this down. […]

Baking As Therapy | Cinnamon Raisin Pumpkin Bread {Gluten Free}

On Friday night the phone rang.
The voice on the other end of the line was shaky. My heart sank somewhere deep into my gut. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Grammie had a stroke.”
My brain stopped. My heart froze. My body went numb and I found my formerly-upright self, sitting on the floor, clutching the phone so hard my hand started to lose all feeling.
“Is she okay?” I managed to get out in a slightly tortured, high pitch squeak.
“She’s in the ICU. They are watching her very closely.” I could hear the heartbreak in my mother’s voice as she told me she had to get off the phone.  As broken as I was feeling after receiving this news, I reminded myself that this was her Mama. This was the woman who raised her and rocked her to sleep and put band-aids on her boo-boos and reminded her to be kind and taught her how to love everyone. All of the things that my Mama has done for me. […]

Salted Peanut Butter Cookies {Two Ways} | Gluten Free

Here are a few things that make me happy:
Peanut butter. Chocolate with peanut butter (so much so, that this was our wedding cake flavor combo). Peanut butter and bananas. Peanut butter cups. Giving my dog peanut butter and watching her try to lick the stickiness off of her palate for a full five minutes. It’s the simple things.

These cookies are TOTALLY simple. We’re talking five-ingredients-simple. Sure, they are a little sticky and you might get the batter all over your sleeves and maybe in your hair…but that’s just something that happens. You might not even realize that you still have peanut butter cookie batter all over your forearms before you go to answer e-mails and your arms stick firmly to the top of your desk. Peanut butter is sticky. That is a true story. I probably should have  titled my blog “Wait… Do I have food on my face?” to which the answer is almost always a firm YES. I write to you as if you have my same problems. I shouldn’t do this. You probably have way less food on your face and in your hair on a daily basis. I admire you. […]

Orange & Ginger Creamsicle Smoothie

When you are a kid, there’s pretty much no vehicle more awesome than an ice cream truck. It’s sugar on wheels. I remember the ice cream truck targeting our neighborhood since it was filled with kids. My brother and I would perk up, then in a joint effort run to our parents. “Can we PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE get some ice cream?!” It was as if nothing else mattered and maybe we could possibly die if ice-creamy goodness did not hit our lips in the next two minutes. Sometimes the ice cream truck would travel to our house close to dinner time, and the answer would be no. In these cases I remember the world ending a little bit. There was some light pouting, maybe some foot stomping. My brother, who is six years younger than myself, would either follow my pout-y lead, or in a true act of excellence THROW himself on the floor. We were dramatic. Mom ignored it. Good move, mom. Imagine what we could do if we had an audience! […]

Lime And Coconut Green Smoothie

 It’s been cold and damp outside  for a long time now.

Our backyard is in a perpetual state of wetness. The earth is cold and crumbly. The rain stopped a while back, but the mud just hasn’t recovered.

I’m painfully aware of the state of my backyard because I have a puppy and a white carpet.

Perhaps it was after this morning’s shenanigans where my muddy dog came tearing past me into the house, running laps and dodging my attempted side tackles, leaving a trail of her dirty feet like a horrifying dance-step diagram, that I really started longing for warmer and drier days.  She is currently on time out. She seems pleased with herself as usual.

It was at 8:30 this morning, on my hands and knees, cleaning up a trail of muddy paw prints, I started fantasizing about luxuriating out in the sunshine and sipping on mojitos and  piña coladas. […]

Spinach, Chocolate & Peanut Butter Smoothie

I woke up this morning determined to move my body.

Yesterday, I made biscuits. I ate three of them. No big deal. No regrets. They were buttery and warm and delicious, but today I need to move.

I put on my stretchy pants, my sneakers, and a nice long sleeve shirt and headed out the door.

I then headed right back in the door. IT’S SOOOO COLD.

I checked my phone. It said that it was 27 degrees. Yikes. I live in California. I am not prepared for this. I looked at our front steps. They were completely iced over. Glimmering at me as if to say: “I dare you to try not to break your neck on me, Klutz.” Geez, my front steps have a really bad attitude in the morning. They are totally not morning steps.

Obviously we needed to modify. I opened our coat closet and got out the biggest, puffiest coat I could find. […]

Honey Baked Grapefruit

 

Something magical happens to fruit when you heat it up.

Think about it…Grilled peaches. Apple crisp. Fried bananas. Wine-poached pears. *Drool*

Grapefruit is no exception. Heat it up and it’s a whole other animal.

Most people either love or despise grapefruit. I get it. For years Up until my twenty sixth year on this earth, I was a big time grapefruit hater. I vividly remember my mom disliking them when I was growing up. This was the lady that told me I had to eat my lima beans. If she thought grapefruit was gross, who was I to argue with her. I put it in the must-taste-worse-than-lima-beans category  I never really tried one myself. In fact, I openly feared them. […]

Dark Chocolate & Coconut Milk Tart | Gluten Free | Dairy Free

 

Everyone has a food-allergy-friend.

You might not know it yet, but you do.  It will just happen one day.

This  person will come to your dinner party and exclaim that they cannot eat anything with wheat, dairy, peanuts, or that previously had a face.  You wish they would have told you ahead of time. You look suspiciously at the veal shanks that you have been slow cooking for four hours and feel like you’ve made a huge mistake.  You panic.

I get it.

However, if you’re making veal in a slow cooker, I would like to be your friend. Call me. I bet you like to eat steak for breakfast too. Gosh, we could probably be best friends.

I confess that I’ve totally been that allergy friend. I have whipped out a banana from my purse and eaten it at a work function. There tends to be a lot of gluten at work functions. I like to be prepared. I have the purse of a girl scout. […]

Good Things Come In Small Packages…

 Shetland ponies.  Case and point.
Also, have you ever seen a pygmy marmoset?  Yup.
This doodle came to play after a particularly upsetting visit to the Dr.   I got to do the dreaded height and weight.  I stood up nice and tall, hoping that they might measure me at the top of my bun. Turns out I […]