the thrill of baking from the garden

last fall i planted carrots - 

and to tell the truth, 

i pretty much forgot about them. 

until now and my big springtime plans

to clean up all the garden beds

and ready them for planting. 

so surprise, surprise - 

those carrots grew! 

i ended up with a bowlful and decided to make 

vegan carrot muffins, 

using the recipe from the fat free vegan blog. 

they are so good! 

the two guys in the house called the texture "spongy"

and by that they meant - not really heavy like

lots of muffins. 

i was especially proud of them because 

i used honey from our bees, 

and applesauce made from apples in our friend's garden. 

honey from our bees, we left plenty of honey for them.

it's funny how extra proud i was of the muffins, 

knowing that we had sourced some of the 

ingredients ourselves. 

now i'm watching the small blossoms on our 

boysenberry vines and wondering

what the summer berries may inspire. 

cinnamon rolls

today i did something i've wanted to do for a long time - 

bake cinnamon rolls from scratch. 

last fall my sweet honey man gave me 

the cookbook vegan brunch by isa chandra moskowitz. 

this week i am getting reacquainted with my home life after being gone 

for almost 6 weeks, and i dove into this cookbook. 

her recipe for cinnamon rolls is straightforward, 

and made it relatively easy and downright painless to get these going. 

the yeast foamed, the dough rose, it rolled out easily. 

it made 12, we've already eaten 9. 

who wants the last three? 

favorite banana nut chocolate chip muffins

last week it was cold (for us in LA), and one afternoon we decided we needed a tasty warm-up. banana nut chocolate chip muffins were exactly what we needed!

these muffins were one of the first things i learned to bake when i became vegan. i love these because they are easy, and there is no added refined sugar (except for whatever is in the vegan chocolate chips).

3-4 bananas, mashed

5 dates, chopped

.5 cup canola oil (or other neutral tasting oil - or be crazy and use applesauce)

1.5 cups all purpose unbleached flour

.5 cup wheat germ

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

.5 cup vegan chocolate chips

.5 cup pecans

pre-heat oven to 350. 

mix oil, dates, bananas. mix dry ingredients. stir everything together, adding the chocolate chips and nuts. 

scoop into a muffin tin, and bake until they are golden brown on top, 20-25 minutes. 

enjoy!