Mary’s Famous Vegan Banana Pudding

As I scramble through my last month living in San Diego, I was lucky enough to take part in one last Healthy Dining Office Potluck. When you work with a team of Culinary Dietitians and other foodie health professionals, potluck celebrations are serious business. Looking back on the 2.5 years that I’ve worked with this team, I’m pleasantly surprised that I had a chance to document several of my contributions online here: there have been polenta-crusted quiches, gluten-free peach cobbler scones, worksgiving goat cheese mashed potatoes, and platters of avocado toast slathered with chimichurri sauce. But to date, my crowning achievement was at a banana-themed bash we held last October, so this week I had go out with a bang and recreate my biggest hit.

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Dark Chocolate Cake with Berries & Coconut Cream

Are you looking for a way to express your gratitude to whoever invited you to this weekend’s barbeque?

Are you staring down too many pounds of fresh berries that you couldn’t resist at the farmer’s market?

Are you sick of your vegan friends getting in the way of your desire to top everything with whipped cream?

This cake is the answer to all of these questions.

This time of year, fruit pies and cobblers get all of the attention. And sure, summer fruits are worth celebrating, but why not invite chocolate to the party? Personally, I think fresh berries and dark chocolate are really complimentary flavors – antioxidants on top of antioxidants, naturally! And of course berries & cream are a classic combo (and a personal weakness of mine), so getting swept up by the whipped coconut cream sensation taking over the internet solidified the vision of my perfect mid-summer dessert. I mean, any topping that can unite the vegan and paleo communities has got to be some powerful stuff, right?

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Vegan Horchata Sorbet

Happy Friday people! I’m a little preoccupied with the prospect of the glorious spring weekend ahead, so today’s post is going to be as fast as today’s recipe (hint: pretty dang fast). As promised, this is an effortless, make-ahead dessert perfect for Cinco de Mayo, or any occasion that calls for creamy, surprisingly vegan deliciousness. Sweet and simple!

If you’re not familiar with horchata, it’s a sweet and creamy rice-based beverage, flavored with cinnamon and served in abundance in any worthwhile taco shop. And now, we can eat a bowl of it frozen for dessert!

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Morning Glory Muffins

So, I started working at a new job last week. A really dreamy job. The kind of job that makes all the years of college and grad school feel worthwhile, like life is finally coming together, and it just feels so good to be there! Over the weekend I channeled my excitement and set out to charm my new co-workers the best way I know: with baked goods. The thing is, most of my co-workers are dietitians… so I really had to bring my “A” game!

I wasn’t really familiar with Morning Glory muffins until recently, but I like the idea of a really busy treat loaded with a variety of healthy ingredients to keep things interesting. There are a million variations for add-ins; you could really use whatever nuts and dried fruit you have in the pantry, but I thought the traditional carrot shreds would be complimented nicely by dates, pecans and coconut. Some recipes include grated apple, which sounds good too, but I decided to replace it with crushed pineapple to further play on the carrot-cake flavors.

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