Say it with Sprinkles: A baking blog filled with recipes & photos of sweet treats & savory eats.

Happy New Year {2013}!

New year, new opportunities, a clean slate!  I’m super excited about the concept of new possibilities for 2013, and sprouts seem to me the perfect example of new life!

If you’re trying to get healthier this year (or try your green thumb on for size, maybe?)  sprouting your own alfalfa seeds for salads, smoothies, and even soups is a simple, healthy, and nutritious way to go!

Stay tuned for a how-to post on sprouting your own seeds next time!  For now, I’m taking the rest of the evening to do some relaxing after last night’s festivities, and then heading out to start the year off right with some gym time!

Make a plan to do good things for yourself this year! 🙂

xoxo

Man oh man, I’ve been busy lately!  Not only am I slowly working through molecular formulas and hours worth of organic chemistry labs, I’ve also got my share of to-the-grind work hours and a new internship that I’m super in love with taking lots of my time and energy!  A lot has changed for me in the past several weeks, and while I won’t delve into it that much, I can definitively say it’s really not much of a “loss” to “lose” someone who is unappreciative of who you are and not supportive of life ambitions and endeavors.  It’s so tough to be your true self with someone like that, and life is too short not to be your own, genuine, self with someone who really deserves it.  I believe that you can’t lose the ones who are worth the fight, because they’re the ones who never want to be lost.  Surround yourself with GOOD people, and the others will just sort of filter themselves right on out.  Done and done! 🙂

Now on to what’s REALLY important!  It’s THAT time!…it’s THAT season!…APPLE SEASON!!  I wait patiently for this all year long.  Be still my heart, apple season *flutter, flutter* <3

I know you can pretty much get an apple any time of year these days, but you have to admit, you can’t really GET an apple.  Maybe a mealy, lac-luster, whatever kind of apple, but not a good one.  Good apples can only be found this time of year, kissed gently by just enough cool air as it graces leaf-dusted hillsides.  Lucky for me, I happen to live just a hop, skip, and a jump away from just such a hillside-studded place – a veritable apple mecca…a town actually named after the delicious, crisp, refreshing apple; a charmingly sweet town that’s ready and willing to let everyone know just what time of year it is by offering up warm apple cider, hand-crafted pies, and of course, fresh apples.  It’s unmistakable.  Unapologetic.  Amazing.

Apple Hill is this wondrous, wondrous, magical place (especially if you’re into popcorn or kettle corn, but don’t even get me started on that!) in Northern California where fall has officially taken root.  It’s the town you read about in books because places like it are all but extinct.  If any place in the world could actually give you a hug and grab you by your sensibilities at the same time, it’d be Apple Hill!  Boxes, and crates, and bins of apples, as far as the eye can see, every size, every color, about a million different varieties and names I’d never even heard of!  An apple for every personality, every mood, every thought…every baking endeavor, and then some. (more…)

This is one of those days I promised you would happen…one of the days where I’m reminiscing yet again about summer vacation and hot weather, and sunshine; beaches, good food, and how I want none of those things to fade away with the end of the season!  I may be back at work, and school, and piling on more and more responsibilities, activities, and overflowing my to-do list (which I can’t complain about at all because I’m actually loving every one of those things!), but Labor Day weekend has been a nice little throw-back to summer freedom.

The day I left Los Angeles (my LAST day before re-entering reality, *TEAR!*), I went on a major citrus fruit harvesting spree in attempts to fill the trunk of my car with at least something that would bring me back to my days of lemonade sipping & lounging even just for a moment.  Bright lemons and tangy grapefruit are pretty much my favorite citrus fruits of all time, so it’s lucky for me that’s what I had access to.  The more the merrier, and I’ve been putting them to good use!

I Love Lemons! XOXO (more…)

This weekend has been great, although I have to say, it would be even greater if I were hangin’ at Stagecoach right now with friends (SHOUT OUT!) – and probably most of the Los Angeles population!

I’m not sure about the entire musical line-up, but from what I’ve seen, Keith Urban & Rascal Flatts aren’t there anyway, so I’d really be in it for Brad Paisley and fun times with fun people in this AMAZING weather!  I suppose since I already missed Coachella this year, I might as well call it a wash and make sure I hit up both of them next year!  I can get into that. =)

Moving right along, I guess it’s time to talk about bread!  The perfect lazy, eat out on your patio with a cup of tea, weekend morning bread!  Packed with yummy banana, coconut-y goodness, chia seeds for omegas, and juuuust enough pop from the molasses & honey to keep it sweet.

Gluten free.

Dairy free.

And almosssssst vegan.

SOLD!

Gluten Free Dairy Free Coconut Chia Seed Banana Bread

This bread would be vegan if it weren’t for the honey, which I know some have issues with it in terms of the treatment of bees, etc.  As far as I’m concerned (not strictly free from ALL animal byproducts), this is vegan, but for those of you who want something “truly” vegan, you can simply add in maple syrup or some more molasses in its place – easy peasy!

Ingredients:

* 1 cup gluten free flour blend (I used Bob’s Red mill)
* 1/2 cup coconut flour
* 1/3 cup brown rice flour
* 1/4 cup oat flour
* 1/4 cup tapioca starch
* 3 Tbsp chia seeds
* 2 Tbsp ground flax seed
* 2 tsp xanthan gum
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 3 large bananas, mashed
* 1/2 cup coconut-flavored almond yogurt (any non-dairy yogurt would work)
* 2/3 cup honey
* 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
* 1/4 cup coconut oil, warmed until liquid
* 1/4 cup rice milk (soy, almond, coconut, etc. would work)
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup coconut flakes for topping (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350* F.  Line a loaf pan with parchment paper, and grease with coconut oil on uncovered ends.

Sift together the flours, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the honey molasses, and coconut oil.  Add the bananas, yogurt, rice milk, and vanilla extract.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly, mixing between additions.

Add in the ground flax and chia seeds.  Once well combined, pour into prepared pan and sprinkle top with coconut flakes.

Bake about 45-50 minutes, checking at the 25 minute mark and covering with aluminum foil if browning too quickly.  Bread is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before lifting out and allowing to finish cooling on a cooling rack.

Chopped walnuts, almonds or pecans would be PERFECT added to the batter before baking, as would dried cherries, blueberries, or even cranberries!  Next time, next time!

Super cute banana bread hearts topped with banana slices, toasted coconut & sprinkled with chia seeds anyone?

Next time I’m dusting these with cinnamon.

Enjoyed with a yummy organic  iced soy chai tea latte <3 Lovvvveeeeeeee

And the company of this little rascal  <3 <3 Looooveee loveeee…

All up in my GRILL! ha!

Keepin’ it short & sweet so I can get back to enjoying my day!

Happy Weekending, y’all!

Come back with a slew of Stagecoach pics….;)

I spoke too soon and jinxed myself when I mentioned wanting the weather to stay sunny and awesome…so much for 70 degree t-shirt weather, now it’s rain, rain, rain!  We need it, but I’m still no ray of sunshine myself in the midst of all the gloom, if you know what I mean.  I took one look out my window today at the gray and drizzle and wanted to burrow under my blankets and cuddle the day away, only emerging for mug a few steamy mugs of coffee or hot chocolate.

Fall and winter before last, while I was still in school, I devised the most brilliant plan I’ve ever had to this very day.  One morning while untangling myself from the warm cozy depths of my 18 blanket-clad bed in search of the elusive coffee that feeds my spirit and brings my limp, sleepy body to life in the morning, I realized the absurdity of just what I’d been a slave to all these years.  No, the coffee is not the enemy here, if that’s where you think I’m going with this (it’s the giver of life).  Instead of going to the coffee, the coffee should be coming to me.  And so it happened- I promptly relocated my coffee pot to my bedside table.  The very next morning, I had coffee at the reach of an arm.  Done.

Now, I wish I could say this story was leading up to a declaration that I was able to accomplish the very same coffee situation with such ease on this particular dreary morning, but alas, I didn’t have the foresight.  Bedside coffee may be making a long-overdue return if the weather keeps up this way!  I realize this story has absolutely nothing to do with limes.  Coffee doesn’t even taste good at all with lime in it.  Also, at this moment all I can think about is chocolate, so there’s that.

Not only is there no coffee in this recipe, there is also no chocolate.  Ooof.

This weather is really doing a number on me!

 Chewy Lime Zest Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 cup non-dairy margarine
* 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1-2 Tbsp non-dairy milk
* Juice of 1 lime
* Zest from 1 lime
* 1/4 cup granulated sugar mixed with zest of 1 lime (for rolling)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*F. Line a cookie sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper.

Cream together the margarine and 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat in egg and vanilla, and then lime juice, 1 Tbsp non-dairy milk, and zest.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing on low speed between additions. If the dough seems too dry, add the second Tbsp of non-dairy milk, or a little more vanilla.

Scoop out 1-2 Tbsp size portions of dough and roll into balls. Roll in the sugar/lime zest mixture and place on baking sheet, about 1-2″ apart.

Bake 8-10 minutes, depending on your oven. Mine needed almost exactly 10 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the pan before transferring cookies to a cooling rack.

I can happily say, however, that these little cookies fit the bill for my green food-themed month perfectly!  What I really like about these cookies is that unlike most sugar cookies, they don’t require all of that rolling pin and cookie cutter drama.  Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place – Christmas cookies, heart-shaped Valentine’s day sugar cookies, my Noah’s Ark Frosted Animal Cookies *cough, cough*…

But this is not that time.  Nor that place.

This is the place of simple, yummy, chewy, lime-spiked sugar cookies that melt in your mouth and clear the clouds from the sky…

Ok, let’s not push it.  They’re just cookies, they can’t change the weather!

….But they will put a smile on your face! :))))