I decorated my daughter’s birthday cupcakes with purple M&Ms (which are not Paleo!) Of all of my cake recipes, this is my favorite so far.  The cake flavor and texture is fabulous and what better (or more classic) way to top a vanilla cake than with a light and fluffy dark chocolate frosting (you can also skip the whipping step for a more ganache-like texture).  You can definitely serve this cake to non-Paleo company (I just did at my daughter’s third birthday party and everyone loved it!). I have made this cake both as a layer cake and as cupcakes.  It works very well eithe ..read more

We’re having a quiet Christmas this year: no company, no travel, no big events, just the four of us enjoying some much needed downtime.  [insert sigh of relief]  It’s a very enjoyable change of pace.  The lack of people to entertain this year also gave me the opportunity to scale back the traditional holiday baking. When I was a kid, my mom would make 7 or 8 different types of special holiday cookies, often double, triple or quadruple batches of each.  We had a special platter, used only at Christmas, that the full variety of this baking would be served upon every time some ..read more

At the Farmer’s Market over the weekend, I got very excited about this one enormous zucchini grown by one of my favorite local farmers, Fry Farm.  It was a nostalgic moment because my mom used to grow these monster zucchinis in our garden growing up, easily ten times the size of the typical zucchini in the grocery store.  And, I vividly remember my mom making endless loaves of zucchini bread.  Not that that was the only way we ate the Godzilla zucchini–it made its way into just about every meal–but zucchini bread was one of Mom’s go-to recipes for welcome-to-the-neighborhood-ba ..read more

Ask and ye shall receive.  Well, if you’re my sister-in-law–who e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago with a plea for help.  She needed a granola bar recipe that was gluten-free, nut-free, and dairy-free to go to a nut-free school with her daughters and accommodate her daughters’ food sensitivities.  (Clearly, any recipe I come up with will be grain-free too.)  Oh, and her kids don’t like dates or raisins.  Did I have anything that would work?  Erm. So, I set to work and came up with this recipe.  Given how quickly each iteration of this recipe was devoured, the ..read more

I seem to be on a nut-free cut-out cookie kick these days.  Maybe it’s Valentine’s Day.  Or maybe it’s knowing that my mother-in-law, who is allergic to nuts, will be visiting this spring and I want to have yummy options for her.  Either way, here is another nut-free cut-out cookie recipe for you!  These cookies have a lovely flavor on their own and don’t really need the frosting (but boy, are they ever yummy with the frosting! and pretty too!).  Freeze-dried Strawberries are getting easier and easier to find in stores (I typically buy them at Trader Joes because it’s ..read more

The thought process behind these cookies:  let’s take two delicious, sweet Paleo cut-out cookies and make it ridiculously decadent by making a cinnamon white chocolate ganache to go in the middle!  It is Valentine’s Day after all!  The best part?  These cookies can go with your kid into a nut-free school! White chocolate chips are very difficult to find without at least some milk ingredients.  Two brands to look for are Lieber’s Decorating Chips and VeganSweets White Chocolate Chips .  Both of these are available relatively inexpensively online.  Another opti ..read more

When you first ditch junk food—refined and manufactured foods designed to be hyperpalatable, overiding your satiety signals to stimulate overeating, and full of unhealthy ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, food dyes, flavor enhancers and preservatives—it’s common to feel like you’re missing out during those food-centered holidays that feature seasonal and favorite childhood treats.  While your palate can adapt to dietary changes quite quickly (anywhere between 2 and 6 weeks), finding festive recipes that also meet the nutritious and healthy food criteria can take a lit ..read more

This quintessential Paleo snack turned edible craft has become a Halloween tradition in my home.   And, while the Paleo version of these Monster Mouths is incredibly versatile, it felt important to share this creative AIP version because it’s so fun-to-make, fun-to-eat, tasty and made with nutrient-dense, healthy ingredients! I guess that makes in win-win-win-win! Lol! For the marshmallow eyes, I recommend either using Sweet Apricity marshmallows cut in half, or making your own using my Halloween AIP Marshmallow Ghosts recipe.  You can also use grapes or dried fruit fo ..read more