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Almond Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars

Almond butter chocolate chunk cookie bars layered with a chocolate date topping. A fun vegan, gluten-free, and refined-sugar-free dessert!

How’s 2021 treating you so far, everyone?

It’s been really busy here.

Between creating blog content, working on a cookbook deal, and the day to day life stuff, I feel like the best visual representation of myself is somewhere between the exhausted and skeleton emoji.

But I really can’t complain because all of this; all of this awesome expansive busy-ness are dreams of my own creation.

I wrote “I published a cookbook” in my manifestation journal over and over and over.

Every single day in 2020 until in fall it finally came to fruition and I forwarded the acceptance email to M with big capital letters that read, “THIS IS SO EXCITING.”

I’m trying to access and harness that initial wonder and excitement in this busy season of overwhelm.

I don’t think you’ll have *any* trouble harnessing wonder and excitement when it comes to my latest recipe today.

It may be crunch time for me, but it’s munch time for you.

These Almond Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars are entirely n0-bake with TWO layers of vegan and gluten-free deliciousness.

Let’s make cookie bars!

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Cherry Chia Pudding

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

//#ad// This post is brought to you by Bare Snacks, but all words and eats are my own. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that keep me hungry!

Cherry chia pudding with protein that’s lightly sweetened with maple syrup. Top with fresh cherries, apple chips, and hemp hearts!

Hi, dear friends, and happy 2021.

Since we last spoke, we collectively said goodbye to the longest, hardest, weirdest year yet.

After I cheers-ed away 2020 with champagne and lots of cookies, I woke up on January first feeling a little forlorn.

Yeah, I was in a bit of a post-holiday funk, as is typical for me after New Years Eve.

I cried a little, almost bought a bunch of plants, decided against it (where to put them???), then watched a lot of feel good TV reruns.

Things started to shift after I hopped onto an impromptu video call with girlfriends to talk meal prep and workout goals for the coming week.

Making plans and getting back into a routine always does wonders for my morale.

It made my heart swell to see us all in our Brady brunch Zoom boxes, hurrying around our virtual spaces, cleaning, shopping, and doing respective Sunday tasks.

It’s those kinds of interactions that make this weird world feel normal and worth it.

So, maybe our 2020 feelings didn’t magically disappear come 2021.

But we can still plan for an amazing year, where literally anything is possible.

Get back into our back-to-work groove with this Cherry Chia Pudding that’s easy to mix up in advance for a sweet snack!

Because I’m cheering (cherrying?) you on this year.

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Thai Salad with SunButter Dressing

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Vegetable Thai salad with raw vegetables, baked tofu, cilantro, and an easy oil-free SunButter dressing. Perfect for an easy meal prep lunch!

Last week I impulsively decided to cut my bangs.

New year, new hair?

I haven’t done *true* bangs in almost 15 years, since I was obsessed with Anne Hathaway’s thick bang in the Devil Wears Prada.

Remember how chick she looked, guys!?

Well, I didn’t look like that at all.

The hacked locks stacked on my forehead like a massive mop, a hair helmet of sorts.

So yeah, I’ve been avoiding bangs for a bit.

But change is good, and I’m getting used to the feeling of movement across my forehead.

Aaand coming to terms with the fact that, if I actually want them to lay right, I need to style them.

Doh.

I’d much rather just style my salads…

I’m excited to share this Thai Salad with SunButter Dressing with you as a fresh option after post-holiday indulgences!

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Oil-Free Roasted Spiced Chickpeas

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Oil-free roasted spiced chickpeas for an easy protein-packed snack or addition to salads and bowls. Sub in your favorite seasoning!

And the countdown to the new year keeps marching on.

It’s the silent prayer on everyone’s lips…2021.

Last night I attended an intention setting and new year manifestation virtual yoga class.

The class was divided into three themed segments where we moved and breathed into our past, present, and future.

It was a beautiful 75 minutes, and looking backwards and forwards made me feel a lot more grounded in the here and now.

So, here we are, with days left in what many people are calling the hardest year of our lives.

In reflecting in an Instagram post this past week, I realized that while this year was so devastatingly hard in so many ways, it also inspired personal growth at an accelerated rate.

And most of it feels pretty good.

I’m also feeling pretty good about ending the year snacking on Oil-Free Roasted Spiced Chickpeas.

They’re baked with your favorite seasonings and zero added oils for an easy protein-packed snack and make the perfect addition to salads and bowls!

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Vegan & Gluten-Free Appetizer Round Up

By Flora & Vino 6 Comments

A collection of simple and delicious vegan and gluten-free appetizers that are perfect for at-home celebrations, dinner parties, and between meal munchies!

I can’t quite believe there is less than one week left in 2020.

It feels like the year simultaneously took *forever* and yet no time time at all, doesn’t it?

Half of me still feels frozen in March, hunkered down at home, canceling plans, hoarding frozen foods, and obsessively watching the news.

I’m starting to organize virtual plans for New Years Eve; maybe a game night or maybe just enjoying some bubbles and conversation with friends.

This time last year I was coordinating my dress, shoes, and hair for a girls night out with a group of fun gals in the city.

But just because the wild NYE parties are cancelled this year doesn’t mean the eats are.

This is the perfect opportunity to throw together a bunch of plant based apps to ring in the new year healthy and satisfied!

The *one* thing I always struggled with at parties or gatherings was a lack of vegan appetizers.

I love creating them for the blog to show how easy it is to make plants, well…appetizing!

I’ve divided this listing into four categories: Dip & Spreads, Finger Food, Munchies, Small Plates, & Sweet Snacks so there’s something for everyone and ever occasion.

Many of the recipes are also oil-free, grain-free, and refined-sugar-free.

In this Vegan & Gluten-Free Appetizer Round Up you’ll find a listing of creative plant-based bites that you can snack on while socializing!

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Pumpkin Apple Bake

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

//#ad// This post is brought to you by Bare Snacks, but all words and eats are my own. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that keep me hungry!

Pumpkin apple bake made with pumpkin puree and apples naturally sweetened with banana. Perfect for a breakfast or holiday side dish!

My laptop has about the same birthday as Flora & Vino, the blog, circa January 2017.

Which means they’re both just on the verge of their fourth birthday.

So it’s actually kind of a miracle that the glowing lettered squares on my keyboard *just* started sticking this week.

Since last weekend the “y” and “l” keys require aggressive tap-tap-tapping with my index finger before they grace the cursor with their appearance.

Which, naturally, led to a whole heck of a lot of typos this week.

Guys, do you know just how many words contain a “y” and an “l”???

Too many.

You’d think with all of the food I photograph that a sticky spill might be the culprit, but I can’t pinpoint any instance of spillage.

Hm. I guess I need to make a visit to the tech store sometime soon.

Well, you know what else is sticky but a lot sweeter?

This Pumpkin Apple Bake that’s made with pumpkin puree and apples, sweetened with banana.

It’s excellent to whip up for a unique cold weather breakfast or holiday side!

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Savory “Sausage” Breakfast Bowl

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Start your day with this savory breakfast bowl featuring plant-based sausage, sautéed mushrooms and greens, sweet potato, avocado, and hummus.

Happy Christmas Eve, friends!

It’s raining here today and it looks like we might have a wet Christmas instead of a white one.

It’s OK, because I have a whole day planned around baking and cooking.

Usually on Christmas morning growing up we enjoyed a big savory breakfast to fuel for an epic gift opening session.

There’s something about a big savory brekky that feels so cozy and wonderfully wintry.

My favorite way to do it plant-based is to throw all of the savory stuff in a bowl.

This Savory “Sausage” Breakfast Bowl is packed with all of your favorite vegetables to kick start the day.

Add my favorite Hilary’s Eat Well Spicy Veggie Sausage and it’s a party!

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Cumin Roasted Carrots

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Roasted carrots simply seasoned with ground cumin, garlic, and fresh herbs. Enjoy as a colorful side on your plant-based plate!

Yesterday I completed a socially distant gift drop off at my parents’ house.

I piled brown paper bags to their full capacity with wrapped presents and managed to corral them into the car with only one red bow jumping ship.

Huzzah.

I felt a bit like Santa Claus, humming to classic Christmas music with gifts in tow, driving down highways to where I used to live.

I dropped their gifts perched on my old front porch and scooped up gifts addressed “To: Lauren” in their stead.

I inwardly laughed, because they had used the same Whole Foods brown paper bags to transport the gifts as I had.

It was a bit strange, waving at my parents behind a mask and a storm door, but I know they could tell I was grinning.

When I got home, M said that the mini tree was too small; the sea of new gifts dwarfed its green needled stature.

It’s going to be a good Christmas, friends.

Do you typically have your big Christmas meal on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

Typically, we’ve always done the “nicer” dinner on Christmas Eve and saved leftovers for Christmas Day.

This year, let’s try roasting carrots as a colorful side!

These Cumin Roasted Carrots are so easy to roast and serve with your plant-based main.

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Pistachio Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookies

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Vegan and gluten-free sugar cookies dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with pistachios and sea salt. Perfect for healthy holiday baking!

The Christmas countdown is officially on, with only *three* more sleeps until Christmas Day.

Do you have any creative Christmas plans?

Most of my social plans this year are virtual, aside from spending time with M on Christmas Day.

But the one thing I refuse to do any differently is the holiday baking.

With that in mind, I have *one* more Christmas cookie post for you to add to your holiday baking list.

These Pistachio Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookies are the cutest cut outs you’ve seen all year!

Vegan and gluten-free sugar cookies dunked in dark chocolate and sprinkled with pistachios and sea salt.

They’re basically all I want for Christmas!

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20 Vegan & Gluten-Free Holiday Cookies

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

20 delicious vegan and gluten-free cookies to bake this holiday season. Perfect for a cookie exchange or to leave out with almond milk for Santa!

Do you have any holiday baking traditions?

Growing up, we made sugar cookies carefully cut into bells, snowflakes, stockings, and angels dusted in red and green sprinkles.

After leaving home, my “go to” cookie became the Peanut Butter Kiss Cookie; infamous in my circle of friends and family for their peanut-buttery base and soft chocolate center.

Last year my girlfriends invited me over to bake Christmas cookies.

It warmed my heart to shuffle around my friend’s kitchen, happy to pass measuring spoons and chocolate chips and vanilla extract.

There’s something about baking together in a warm, sweet smelling kitchen that makes pre-holiday days truly feel like the most wonderful time of the year.

Which leads me to this round up post of my favorite cookies that I *know* both you and Santa will adore.

Bake one of these 20 Vegan & Gluten-Free Holiday Cookies with you and yours this holiday season.

If you can’t be physically together in person, swap these recipes via text, or schedule a virtual bake-date, or bake and personally deliver to doorsteps.

They’re all vegan, gluten-free, and refined-sugar-free with plenty of oil-free and grain-free options.

Happy Christmas and happy baking!!!

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