Mondays. It’s always pretty brutal waking up after a few days of sleeping in, but this one is particularly brutal because I had Friday off, as well.  Three days of sleeping and doing whatever I wanted abruptly ended and it’s back to the real world.  At least I had a great weekend, some fun with my family, and a pile of sweet treats from a local Greek festival.  Good thing I made up this Nutella striped banana bread to enjoy for breakfast or I wouldn’t stand a chance against the workweek. I make banana bread allll the time, but for some reason have never posted about it.  Unless you count banana bread cookies. Which you totally should, because they’re amazing.  I brought them to work and had no fewer than...

Only a few more days left to enter the Bob’s Red Mill giveaway!  This is the last item, date sugar, that they sent over and I’m pretty much in love with it.  I’ve included the Rafflecopter at the bottom — get in on the action to win! I’ve been throwing date sugar into pretty much everything since it arrived.  I love the caramelly flavor that dates have, and it carries through into the sugar.  It doesn’t “melt” like normal sugar does, so when I used it to make cinnamon rolls, for example, the cinnamon and sugar mixture didn’t get ooey gooey.  They were still delicious and amazing, especially with that caramel flavor, but they didn’t have the texture I crave in a cinnamon roll.  I’ve also added it to icing and...

When I went to Chicago in March, I had a amazing polenta experience at Heaven on Seven.  When I saw the organic polenta on the Bob’s Red Mill site, I knew that I needed it so I could recreate this magical food experience.  The restaurant actually posts the recipe, but it was way too indulgent for me to be able to justify making it at home.  So I made some healthy swaps and veganed up the recipe so I could eat a huge pile of it!  Be sure to enter the giveaway that’s been running (I’ve included the Rafflecopter again, just in case :)) to win the polenta I used today, along with hazelnut flour, TVP, and date sugar (recipe coming Friday!). Normally, I can’t condone carb on carb action...

Have you entered the Bob’s Red Mill giveaway yet?  If not, don’t worry – I’ve included the Rafflecopter below.  Don’t forget you can tweet about the giveaway everyday for an additional entry!  On Friday, I reviewed the hazelnut flour and today I have textured vegetable protein.  It’s a little unfair to review something I already know I love, but I feel like TVP tends to get a bad reputation and I wanted to tell you all how great it can be. As far as meat substitutes go, this one is the most versatile.  Beans and lentils will always taste like beans and lentils, but TVP tastes like whatever you want it to.  You can hydrate it in vegetable, no-beef, or no-chicken broth and have a great meat-substitute in minutes.  I...

Happy Friday, everyone!  I don’t know about you, but it’s been a looooong week for me and I’m ready for the weekend.  I say long week, but it wasn’t bad.  In fact, the sweet people over at Bob’s Red Mill were kind enough to send over some products for me to try and giveaway to a lucky reader.  The next four blog posts are each going to feature one of these items and the contest will end shortly after the last post.  Though all of the recipes may not be gluten free and vegan, all of the items in the giveaway are! Enter in the Rafflecopter below, open to residents of the United States. The first item I dove into was hazelnut flour.  I’ve been obsessed with hazelnuts for a...

Last chance to enter the Theo Chocolate giveaway!  And because I like to spoil you all, there’s another giveaway coming up starting Friday.  Great way to start off the summer, right?  My favorite part about summer (and pretty much any other time of year) is the seasonal foods.  Top of my list?  Strawberry shortcake!  It’s so fresh and tasty – the quality of summer strawberries really shines through! Josh and I rarely have heated debates, but we definitely get into a yelling match whenever I make strawberry shortcake.  In his mind, strawberry shortcake should be served over angel food cake.  I always thought that was the less-good, cheater version and other than loving each component, I hate the combination.  My favorite way is a slightly dry biscuit with extra, extra...