Elephant Smoothie Bowl + Homemade Salted Magic Shell

Hello, friends.

This is a smoothie bowl. 

You probably already know that.

But you're about to see a lot of pictures of it, anyway.

 I used to live on peanut butter banana smoothies. Sometimes I would have them for two or three meals, which illicited some concern from my parents, as any seemingly liquid diet probably should. But, seeing as it has plenty of carbs from bananas and fat and protein from peanut butter, I maintain it's basically a perfect meal, especially when you throw in some spinach. And, it tastes like dessert. I'm not even joking, it's like ice cream.

Trail Mix Cookies

    Today is all about procrastination. It is cold. The hot water pipes in my house, in their typical spirit of perverse defiance and tenacity in the face of opposition, have frozen despite being left trickling overnight. I was looking forward to a visit from some family members which was cancelled due to illness (one of the less-known hazards of going to church: tell your friends). I had taken the day off in anticipation of spending it with my visitors. Logically, I should use the day to catch up on school work.

    That’s silly talk.    

                      

Salted Caramel Mocha Frappe: Pt I

Around the time the other half and I were jaunting around the Boston area for my aunt’s wedding, Starbucks did their thing and released their usual fall flavors: pumpkin spice and salted caramel mocha. Many factors, such as its revolting, distinctly un-vegan ingredients and the fact that the barista/snob in me generally hates the sort of individuals who come in frothing at the mouth over the flavor, abbreviating it to PSL as if pumpkin spice latte crosses some obscure threshold of tolerance is just too much of a mouthful to actually say, rabidly snapping celebratory iPhone pics of their decidedly run-of-the-mill beverages fated to be over-sentimentally hashtagged and posted and reposted to the point of exhaustion, have made me refuse to order the ever-popular pumpkin spice. This is pure pigheaded- and meanspiritedness, because I actually love it.

    My one choice when abroad, therefore, was to suck down as many salted caramel mochas as possible before returning home. This left me with such a spoilt, salted caramel lust that I actually drove to a Starbucks after leaving my job—again, at a coffee shop—to get one of said drinks. It was pathetic, and I was in my uniform still and the Starbucks and I kept exchanging knowing but confused looks. So I staged an intervention. For myself. 

And yes, I know I'm just the salty cousin of all those pumpkin spice hags.

Mom's Banana Bread

 Blogging is a unique opportunity to craft the life you want the world to see, to make everything seem as neat and hip and filtered as Taylor Swift’s Instagram account. And while that’s cool and everything, I’m not so much about that. Mostly because the effort it takes to make things seem pristine and hipster-approved seems like a lot of work to me.

Chocolate Pie [vegan]

This Thursday, I'm thirsty for chocolate. Pie, to be specific.

That's code for "this isn't a drink recipe."

Cake is the accepted standard American birthday dessert of choice. But, as food blogging is increasingly drawing to my attention, I was a petulant, picky child. First I vehemently disliked frosting, then, in a vividly-remembered episode of cake-eating at my paternal grandparents’ house, I discovered that frosting is actually delicious and gave up cake eating in favor of its less healthy topping. Or maybe it was the other way around and I abandoned frosting-eating for cake, all I’m really sure of is that frosted cake in its entirety is something I have long viewed askance.

Cookie Crumble Frappe [vegan]

 

Oh, hello there, you gorgeous drinkable confection. Let me introduce you to my friends, Oreo cookies.

   Well, almost Oreo cookies. The cookies, like the drink, are really a one-off of someone else's brilliance (aren't we all), brilliance in this case being Starbucks' Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino.

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins [vegan]

   There has been an uncharacteristic dearth of chocolate recipes around here lately. Time to remedy that.

  

Canola Oil Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies [vegan]

    Even after cutting out dairy, baking didn’t become really tricky until the first time I ran out of coconut oil.

   I prefer to use coconut oil in most cases, and did so often even before I stopped eating dairy. But I always had butter to fall back on in emergencies, and the first time I found myself with no coconut oil and no prospect of getting any in the near future I felt rather hurt—one of the bigger perks of being an adult is never being denied access to cookies, and being robbed of this right felt like a betrayal by the universe in general.