Chocolate & Honey Avocado Shake

I am going to be up front with you…
Every time I see someone post a picture of a green smoothie that contains avocado, I squirm. Avocados are for guacamole. You put them on top of your toast and sprinkle it with sea salt. You can totally sub them in for mayonnaise and make a Green Egg Salad. But, smoothies? Really? Is it a guacamole smoothie? I’m not sold. Why is this happening? I just can’t hang. I’ve been mistrusting of any and all humans that have muttered the words “avocado pudding” or claimed to make a great “vegan avocado brownie”. Shudder.
Like most of my food aversions, I decided to just dive right in. Challenge accepted. Guacamole smoothie, I’m coming for you.
My first avocado smoothie was horrifying. No joke. It was pretty much all veggies with half of a frozen banana. It tasted bitter. I spat it out. I felt sad. This smoothie was supposed to prove me wrong. It was supposed to be life-changing and wonderful and simply everything. Perhaps I put too much pressure there? Probably. No matter. As I spat out the evil green goo I had foolishly concocted in my Vitamix and watched it slink down the drain, it started a fire inside of me. A metaphorical fire. A smoothie-revenge-fire. An I-will-totally-win-you-fire. Avocado smoothie, you will be mine. MUAHAHAHAHA! (Dastardly avocado whispering evil laugh) […]

Double Dark Chocolate Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread

Sometimes you need chocolate, and you need that chocolate exactly NOW.
Yesterday, that chocolate monster was me. It was probably a red flag when I got onto Twitter in the afternoon and tweeted awkwardly about how badly I wanted a milkshake. Actually, I’m pretty sure I phrased it “The things I would do for a milkshake right about now…” or something to that effect. You shouldn’t tweet things like that. It invites people to send you weirdly inappropriate messages questioning just how far you really would go for that milkshake. It then makes you realize all of the things you WOULDN’T do for a milkshake. There are lots of things I absolutely WOULD NOT DO for a milkshake. Ever. That list is long! I mean, I really like milkshakes, but a girl has standards!
After deciding it would be the best of moves to get off of the internet promptly, I started to dream about a hunk of dark baking chocolate I had in my pantry. I walked over to the pantry and held it in my hands. I unwrapped the corners and thought seriously about just digging in. No one would know. I was alone. No. No, Gina. Have some self control. We will bake something. Get the corner of that pound of baking chocolate out of your mouth. Be a lady. My conscience can be a real downer.
After some consideration, I decided that we should take some zucchini bread and make it chocolate-y. Oh, and then throw some coarsely chopped dark chocolate in the batter to create pockets of melt-y pure-chocolate goodness. YES!!! […]

Giant Sunbutter & Chocolate Chunk Cookies {Gluten-Free & Paleo}

After a week of intense recipe failures one needs to bake cookies.

I think this is a rule. It feels like it should be a rule. Let’s call it a rule.

In between my lemon bar attempt and operation “OMG, is that supposed to be gnocchi!? “, I managed to get something right. I put some sunflower seeds into a food processor and  made some nut butter. I combined it with almond butter. The two did a happy dance. I added in large chunks of dark chocolate, and decided that these cookies should be GIANTS. Instead of making a recipe that would yield a sensible dozen, I decided to instead make you six cookies. Big cookies. Forget about your kitchen failures cookies. Are you surprised that I didn’t just make one big cookie and take a fork to it? Yeah, me too. […]

Homemade Nutella | Gluten & Dairy Free

Dear Nutella,

I want to put you on everything ever. You make me think that midnight snacks are a good idea. I’ve eaten too much toast in the past couple of days, mostly because it’s a vehicle to get you in my mouth. You also really shine paired with apples. Is it too forward to tell you that I actually ate a straight spoonful of you one afternoon? Forget it, I don’t care who knows it. I love you. Let’s make-out.

Faithfully yours,

Gina

Do you think I am coming on too strong? Maybe.

Well, Friends…HAPPY WORLD NUTELLA DAY! Yes, that’s a thing. I only learned about it this morning. If you want we can just ignore that this is purely dumb luck and high-five instead. […]