Lightened-Up Walnut Apple Crisp for Two

I’m always completely giddy this time of year. It probably has to do with wearing sweaters and boots all the time, walking through parks that are sprinkled with colourful, falling leaves and eating lots of apples, squash, and pumpkins. This season is so short (at least in my opinion), so I try to make the most of it and soak up everything all at once.

Reese Chocolate Spread and Almond Biscotti

Trevor and I have a real addiction for peanut butter. We make our own on a semi-regular basis and if you check out my blog archives, you may notice that I have over a dozen peanut butter recipes. There wasn’t a lot of PB goodness in the kitchen when I was a growing up, so I’d like to think that this is just me making up for lost time. So when Food Blogger’s of Canada and Hershey’s Canada were looking for bloggers to take part in the #DoYouSpoon campaign promoting Reese Chocolate Spread, I jumped at the chance. Peanut butter and chocolate? Count me in!

Sea Salt Milk Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Normally after baking and shooting a recipe, I have to restrain myself from sharing it right away. I tend to bake things in batches, so sometimes I’ll be sitting on two or three draft posts before I hit publish. I don’t recommend working this way, though, unless you like driving yourself crazy trying to edit photos without any leftovers to snack on.

I made these sea salt milk chocolate chip pecan cookies earlier this month when I helped my parents move my sister into her college residence (yes, she’s in the big city now). My mom always comes prepared on road trips, so while our hotel room was filled snacks, I still wanted to pitch in and share some baking. Especially because my parents live so far away and while they do follow this blog (hi Mom, hi Dad!) the only real time I get to bake for them is when I’m home for the holidays. Well, it’s safe so that despite all the snacks we had on hand, these cookies were a huge hit and didn’t survive two days in our hotel room. Even my Dad couldn’t stop raving about them. He jokingly called them “breakfast cookies” because he would sneak a few early in the morning while having his morning coffee.

Ginger Peach Baked Oatmeal

To say that August was an interesting month would be a complete understatement.

I had every intention to get back into the blogging swing of things when we returned from our summer vacation in mid-August, but when I stepped back into my kitchen, things felt different. I fully expected to be refreshed and inspired, but instead, the opposite happened. I was thrown very quickly into the “catch up” part of work and soon fell into the trap of making weird, lazy suppers of deli meat sandwiches and packaged mashed potatoes. We experienced a bit of a cold spell and instead of my usual BAKE ALL THE THINGS mantra, I would come home from work and watch episode after episode of mindless TV on Netflix.

Protein Powered Carrot Mango Smoothie

Common signs that you are a habit smoothie maker:

1. Grocery store clerks catch you regularly stalking the discount produce section of the grocery store for overripe fruit.
2. You clean, polish and chat to your high-speed blender even on days where you don’t use it (just kidding – you use it practically every day).
3. When handing him his daily smoothie, your husband stops asking “what’s in it?” and just drinks it.
4. Instead of storing real meals, your freezer has become a placeholder for frozen bananas.
5. You start looking at all fruits and vegetables and secretly wondering how well it will blend and what combinations will taste good.