Well they called and said the trike was ready! Lightning fast turn-around time! Complete with a Bell and Streamers Skylar On Her Trike with her Swimsuit On Yesterday Afternoon. Today the temperature dropped 30 degrees, and it’s windy, cloudy and cold! Good thing we got some pool time in yesterday because it’s chillllly here again. But She’s So Happy About Her Trike and Truly Considers Herself a Big Girl since the purchase of this trike came after full potty learning occurred!...

Easy Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies These brownies are rich, decadent, and not as all cakey. If you like really rich brownies, you’re going to love these. They’re made with both melted chocolate and cocoa powder so they pack a definite chocolate punch. The cream cheese swirls add the perfect tanginess to cut through some of the richness of the brownies. It also helps to keep the brownies extra moist. These red velvet brownies are a perfect treat for Valentine’s Day, the Christmas season, or anytime you’re craving red velvet....

comment icon 138 more comments It’s just hard to go wrong with roasted vegetables – and I mean the type where they’re salted, oiled, and browned to such delicious perfection that you really actually GENUINELY enjoy eating them straight off the pan. But we don’t stop there. I like to plop a few hunks of avocado on the plate, maybe cut open a soft boiled egg, and waterfall the whole thing in green tahini sauce....

Like a popcorn maker A Cotton Candy Maker Pretzel Maker Pigs In a Blanket Makers. I really don’t think these are flying off the shelves but I could be wrong. The seasonal baking goodies were out in full force. Cupcake decorating supplies Cupcake-making toys And more toys and gadgets including multiple types of cookie, cake, and cupcake decorating tools Moving onto food processors I don’t own one. I use my Vita for everything but I think a food processor would be really helpful....

These bars are like carrot cake blondies because of how buttery and rich they are. I used my go-to blondies base recipe as the jumping off point. 30+ versions of blondies later, it’s proven to be the most highly adaptable dough or batter base I have. It’s an easy, no-mixer recipe and the bars are much faster than making a whole carrot cake, and don’t make nearly the quantity! I finished the bars with a cream cheese drizzle....

It’s no secret I love pumpkin recipes of any kind. But when pumpkin and chocolate get together, watch out. My kryptonite. If you’re looking for the best ever pumpkin chocolate chip cake, I’ve got you covered, but these bars aren’t cake. They’re super soft, moist, and full of robust pumpkin flavor. They’re dense like a blondie rather than cakey. These pumpkin chocolate bars are like biting into a piece of rich pumpkin fudge....

The Best Vanilla Sugar Cookies Recipe Although these cookies are simple and unassuming, they’re a new favorite. Sometimes the simplest things really are the best. They’re a chewy hybrid of a sugar cookie and a snickerdoodle. They have the buttery flavor of sugar cookies without any of the dryness. Too often sugar cookies are dry, bland, and horribly crumbly. We all know those dried out poor excuses for cookies that are typically found on holiday platters and that disintegrate into a million crumbs all over your lap as you’re trying to eat neatly from a paper plate at someone’s holiday party and not get crumbs all over their carpet and couch....

Soft Molasses Cookies Recipe I combined three favorite cookies into one — soft molasses cookies, chewy gingerbread cookies, and crinkly snickerdoodles. That way I didn’t have to choose among favorites because I love them all. And I loved these ginger molasses cookies more than I should have. I couldn’t keep myself away from them. I used my recipes for Soft Molasses Coconut Oil Crinkle Cookies and The Best Snickerdoodles as the jumping off point....

If you love Spanish food, don’t miss my other popular recipes like Torijas and Tortilla de Patatas. My goal with this paella recipe was to use the tutelage I received while living in Madrid to create a traditional Spanish paella that anyone can make (and without special equipment, like a paella pan). After lots of trial and error, I am so excited to share everything I know and have learned about making Paella, as authentically and practically for the home cook, as possible....

Best Ever Pumpkin Coffee Cake This glazed pumpkin streusel coffee cake makes me want to curl up on the couch with a cup of coffee and get into a total fall mood. It happened to be well over 90F when I made this cake, but that didn’t stop me from savoring it. It’s is such a fast and easy recipe, and you don’t even have to use a mixer. The coffee cake itself is incredibly soft, tender, and moist, while the crumb topping adds the perfect amount of delicate crunchy, crumbly texture....

comment icon 18 more comments Is it because it’s an excuse to load up half the plate with that gorgeous peach salad? Maybe. I love peaches. But also, the shrimp are delicious! I made this one more time this afternoon to make sure I had the spices all correct before we published this recipe, and I ended up just standing over the pan eating just one more. And then just one more....

comment icon 101 more comments Just THE BEST CHICKEN SANDWICH EVER. Should we keep talking? You guys, these sandwiches are the stuff of legends. I mean, I cannot count the number of group texts that have gone back and forth dissecting every last crumb and flavor of this sandwich. People have their opinions about chicken sandwiches, I know, and admittedly I don’t have Southern roots or anything so I … kind of don’t know what I’m doing....

comment icon 90 more comments And veg-friendly soups that are basic and flexible? They are in my zone. So today I introduce you to my current favorite summer soup, the massive bowl of highly decorated Chipotle Corn Chowder. Let’s start things off right with a close-up. Even though this recipe is gluten free and vegan, it’s bomb-diggity creamy. We have three, maybe four, things to thank for that: olive oil potatoes sweet corn almondmilk...

I purchased them at Forever 21-type store from the mall that’s no longer in business. The sunglasses lasted longer than that store. Today it was sunny and I had to get gas and when I was paying, noticed these. $9.99 from the Shell Gas Station. Classy store, eh? But the price was right. (Gas was up to $4.85 a gallon today. The price on that was not right on gas....

comment icon 219 more comments Ohhhk yuhssssss. It’s just, like, way too obvious, but my love for this is out of control. The feelings I have for this Super Easy One Pot Lasagna recipe — also known as Pot o’ Saucy Noodles with Cheese-Melted Goodness — are SO VERY BIG. And I’m pretty sure that I’m not even annoying with how much I love it right now. Me? Annoying with a love for food?...

Quick Thai Chickpea Pumpkin Coconut Curry I am the queen of Thai-inspired coconut curries. I have a whole slew of them on my site. Among the most popular are my Thai Chicken Coconut Curry, Green Thai Chicken Coconut Curry, and my Yellow Thai Chicken Coconut Curry. Once I realized how much you all loved the red one, I made green, and then yellow, too. Today’s pumpkin curry reminds me a lot of my Sweet Potato and Chickpea Coconut Curry....

Leftover Turkey-Stuffed Crescent Rolls The planning, assembling, and cooking I do during the lead up to Thanksgiving feels like a marathon most years. From ordering our holiday ham or turkey weeks in advance to assembling as many dishes as possible in the days before Thanksgiving as I possibly can — there just never seems an end to the cooking and meal prepping! As a food blogger, I literally start testing Thanksgiving recipes in the spring....

My husband is a mixologist, so he and I are major beverage fans, and we don’t mess around when it comes to properly storing our spirits and wine! That photo above is his Blueberry Champagne Cocktail which is so refreshing. If you’re a wine drinker, I recommend investing in one of the best dual-zone wine fridges out there. Keeping wine in the fridge, or even in a cooler part of your house, doesn’t cut it when it comes to preserving the wine and keeping the bottles at the right temperature, which is usually between 45 degrees F and 65 degrees F....

Though carrot cake can, AND SHOULD, be celebrated at all times of the year, it feels especially wonderful in the spring for some reason. The tender crumb, the super moist (sorry if you need us to be sorry 😬) texture, the hints of cinnamon spice. Also we’d be lying if we said we weren’t in it for the cream cheese frosting. Cuz we are. Always. With any occasion. If there’s smooth swoopy cream cheese frosting involved, we’re there....

Sunday I went to a Pumpkin Patch with my hubs and Skylar. She loved the horses, pumpkins, and the hay ride. It was 102 F so we only lasted about an hour, but here’s a few pics from our day. I love this one because her eyes are the color of the beads on the turquoise necklace she’s holding And if you missed My Highlights of the Week post where I recapped some raw vegan desserts from the past week, check that out, too!...