Grain-Free

SunButter Berry Spring Parfait

A creamy, crunchy, berry-packed parfait layered with SunButter, granola, and a touch of jam for the ultimate spring breakfast or snack.

It’s been a minute since I’ve sat down to write like this, so…

Hi, how are you?

I feel like I’m catching up with a friend over coffee, except it’s spring, my allergies are absolutely raging, and I’m clutching something cold and creamy instead.

Lately I’ve been feeling this quiet but steady pull to shift toward different rhythms, different priorities, and honestly, more of what lights me up.

After feeling kind of stuck for a while, I finally feel…unstuck.

Like things are moving again in a way that feels aligned and energizing.

A lot of that has been coming through yoga!

I’m co-hosting a Yoga Foundations workshop this April (which feels so me in this season of returning to basics).

I also started teaching a new class that’s been stretching me in the best way.

It’s like all things yoga are calling me back in, and not just the movement, but the intention, the curiosity, the slowing down.

Even outside of that, I’ve been leaning into more creative, grounding things at home.

I’m finally learning how to crochet after receiving the cutest little snake plant kit from a step-by-step guide.

Each pull of yarn through with the hook feels like a massive celebration and I shout out to M, “I did it! I did it!”

Also! We finally took down the baby gate so Flora now has full roam of the house which feels both freeing and slightly chaotic, but mostly just right.

It was one of those things where we needed to just rip off the bandaid; accepting loss of control so Flora can learn, grow, and chew a lot of shoes along the way.

And in the middle of all of that, I keep coming back to simple rituals that anchor my day, like this SunButter Berry Spring Parfait.

It’s easy, nourishing, a little layered (like life right now), and something I can throw together even when my brain feels full.

Creamy yogurt, juicy berries, crunchy granola, and ribbons of SunButter; it’s the kind of breakfast or snack that meets you where you are.

It does this whether you’re in a season of change or just trying to get through allergy season one spoonful at a time!

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Pink Coconut Cloud Smoothie

By Flora & Vino 1 Comment

Erewhon-inspired Pink Coconut Cloud Smoothie with a berry and pomegranate swirl that’s vegan, creamy, and perfect for a nutritious treat!

As the snow starts to melt outside my windows, I’m finally spotting little patches of grass peeking through.

It’s a quiet but hopeful sign that winter won’t last forever.

After weeks of cold, gray days and being cooped up indoors, I can feel my energy slowly starting to shift.

I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately, missing my daily walks and the simple joy of being outside in fresh air and sunlight.

There’s something about that first glimpse of green returning that makes me crave brightness in every area of life, especially in the kitchen.

This Pink Coconut Cloud Smoothie was my way of leaning into that feeling.

It’s vibrant, creamy, and uplifting; exactly the kind of colorful boost I needed this week.

The soft coconut “cloud” paired with bright berries feels playful and nourishing all at once, and the natural pink hue makes it perfect with Valentine’s Day this month.

Whether you’re celebrating with someone you love or simply making something beautiful for yourself, this smoothie is a sweet reminder that brighter days are on the way.

This Erewhon-inspired Pink Coconut Cloud Smoothie is made with a berry and pomegranate swirl that’s vegan, creamy, and perfect for a nutritious treat!

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Apple Butter Truffles

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

No-bake vegan apple butter truffles made with almond flour, warm spices, and dark chocolate. An easy gluten-free holiday dessert!

The house is slowly starting to feel like Christmas.

We’re in the middle of getting everything ready to host M’s parents and brothers visiting from Germany for the holidays, and I can already feel the anticipation building.

I’ve been deep-cleaning, arranging furniture, and making lists of everything I want to cook and share with them.

We don’t have our tree up just yet, but the stockings are already hanging, and I’m playing Christmas music every chance I get.

That means while cooking, cleaning, and recipe testing alike!

There’s something so special about sharing my American holiday traditions with M’s family for the first time, and it’s making this season feel even more magical.

In true holiday fashion, I’ve already started testing cozy, shareable treats for when everyone arrives, and these Apple Butter Truffles were one of the very first recipes I made.

They feel like the perfect welcome dessert: simple, festive, warmly spiced, and made for sharing from a platter by the fire with mugs of hot cocoa or mulled wine in hand.

If fall coziness could be rolled into a bite-sized dessert, this would be it.

These truffles are rich, spiced, naturally sweetened, and coated in a glossy layer of dark chocolate for the ultimate no-bake treat.

They’re everything I love about the season wrapped into one simple recipe: warm cinnamon, subtle nutmeg, and the slow-simmered flavors of apple butter in every bite.

These truffles are perfect for holiday gatherings, edible gifting, or a little something sweet to keep in the fridge for the busy days ahead.

Best of all, they come together with just one bowl, require no baking, and can easily be made gluten-free and refined sugar-free depending on your chocolate choice!

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Rainbow Roasted Carrots with SunButter Sauce

By Flora & Vino 1 Comment

Rainbow Roasted Carrots meet a creamy SunButter Sauce in this easy vegan recipe. Perfect for weeknight dinners or healthy holiday sides.

As the days get shorter and the air turns crisp, I find myself slipping into full-on hibernation mode.

In mid-November.

Tell me, is it ever too soon for cozy sweaters, warm drinks, and anything roasted or comforting on our plates?

Speaking of soon, I do see a lot of people on social media already putting up Christmas trees, mistletoe, and stockings.

I’m not quite there yet.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I like to celebrate each holiday at a time.

After Halloween, I like to focus on Thanksgiving before we get to the Christmas decor!

But there’s something about this season that makes me crave simple, nourishing meals that feel like a hug from the inside out.

Rainbow roasted carrots feel equal parts cozy and celebratory.

You can bet that the day after Thanksgiving I’ll be rocking green and red, but until then, I’ll be roasting carrots.

Now that the weather is chilly, I love tossing a rainbow of carrots on a baking sheet and watching them caramelize to perfection in the oven.

Each hue, golden yellow, deep purple, and vibrant orange has its own natural sweetness and charm.

Drizzle them with a creamy Organic SunButter sauce, and suddenly your everyday side becomes something special.

These Rainbow Roasted Carrots with SunButter Sauce is simple enough for weeknights but beautiful enough for your holiday table!

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Coconut Curry Rice Bowl

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Coconut Curry Rice Bowl made with curried coconut Jasmine rice topped with charred vegetables and seared tofu in a chili garlic sauce.

This week we checked out a new coffee house in our area on a weekday morning before work.

It felt like a bit of a hassle at the time, because we (read:I), get into these routines that feel nonnegotiable.

Like, how am I supposed to brave the Maryland traffic without a coffee at 7 AM?!

The horror.

To be fair, I do have a successful morning routine at home which involves coffee, meditation, gratitude, movement, and planning my day.

Oh, and of course getting to at least level “Amazing” on the NY Times App Spelling Bee game, because Genius is just too much work.

Next I walk with M and Flora and then we eat breakfast and I set up for my day, either a photoshoot, recipe testing, or computer day.

It’s true, we have fine-toned our mornings to achieve the intersection of maximum productivity and enjoyment.

However, I think it’s important to remember that we’re actively *choosing* this routine, or otherwise everything just becomes a chore.

That’s why breaking the routine for something like a coffee date felt so disruptive, rebellious, and in the end, fun.

So, your assignment for the week from your friend Lauren is to disrupt your routine a little.

Because you create your routine, your routine doesn’t create you.

And you always have the authority to change it.

For example, perhaps this week we turn our rice a vibrant yellow.

You rebel, you!

This Coconut Curry Rice Bowl is made with curried coconut Jasmine rice topped with charred vegetables and seared tofu in a chili garlic sauce.

It’s delicious for a cozy dinner as the weather transitions from summer to fall!

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Vegan Apple Pie Pancakes

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

Super fluffy Vegan Apple Pie Pancakes with buckwheat flour and apple pie compote. Perfect for a weekend breakfast topped with SunButter!

This season has been all about healing for me.

Right now, I’m attending physical therapy two times a week to work on healing my chronic back pain.

It’s a commitment, right? In time, energy, and physicality.

Two days a week in my very adept physical therapist’s office releasing tension, increasing mobility, and building strength.

Not to mention the homework exercises that I do religiously (because I’m a good student, y’all!).

It was humbling to realize after my the first evaluation that despite being highly active, I have areas that are *extremely* weak.

And of course that imbalance and weakness is a contributing factor to the pain I experience on a daily basis.

The other cause most likely being the strange and incorrect form I use to capture all of the delicious food that I share with you all.

Yes, food photography is probably ground zero for the back problems that started a few years back.

I ignored it for so long, thinking, “Eh, it’ll just get better on it’s own, it’s just from holding the camera in a weird way.”

Spoiler alert: it did not get better and in fact, got more and more pervasive to the point that day to day activities became painful and challenging to perform.

A lot of my healing has been self-awareness of certain body patterns and motions that I’m doing that will trigger the pain.

As a yoga teacher, I know how important balance and harmony are in the bodies, so it’s kind of ironic that I couldn’t see that dissonance in myself.

So, consider this your PSA, friends: if anything is bothering you, take the time, the energy, and the resources to get it looked at.

Our bodies are our one amazing vessel to carry us through this life, so let’s take care of them as such.

Which is part of the reason as to why I love a plant-based lifestyle, because it’s good for us and the planet.

No one can argue that these Vegan Apple Pie Pancakes that I’m sharing today aren’t healing from the inside out.

These super fluffy Vegan Apple Pie Pancakes are made with gluten-free flour and apple pie compote.

They’re perfect for a fall weekend breakfast topped with SunButter!

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Chocolate Chip Snack Cookies

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Chocolate Chip Snack Cookies packed with protein thanks to chickpeas and Organic SunButter. Don’t forget lots of dark chocolate chips!

This summer I temporarily became a solo dog mom with M gone for a week at a work conference.

I was *very* apprehensive how Flora would behave with “Dad” being MIA.

You might remember that it was me that initially begged M to get a dog, but now that we have one, she’s very much attached to him.

That’s always the way it happens, right?!

She’s attached to me too, of course, but it’s different because I’m the human that’s always around as opposed to the other human who leaves for work and returns.

While she did look for him every day (sniffing the door, poking her head in his favorite house haunts, watching out the window), we settled into a routine just us girls.

Honestly, it’s been a big confidence boost to know that I can keep her alive on my lonesome.

I don’t know about you, friends, but some days I feel like I struggle to keep myself alive and well, let alone another furry friend.

So we kept it *very* simple and doubled down on routines this week here at F&V.

Luckily, Flora seems to take after her momma in her love of routines, too.

We did the walks, play time, meal time, and all of the cuddle sessions my little velociraptor would allow before she gets mouthy.

(I’m determined to make the working breed also a lap dog, too!)

One thing I did to support my week ahead was do a massive meal prep on Sunday so I felt comforted with good food even while missing my man.

So, getting to today’s recipe, one of those things that I made was…Chocolate Chip Snack Cookies!

Don’t worry, you don’t need your partner to be out of town to enjoy them, but that might help ensure they’re all yours!

These Chocolate Chip Snack Cookies are packed with protein thanks to chickpeas and SunButter.

Don’t forget lots of dark chocolate chips; because, like I tell my yoga students before savasana;

You deserve it.

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Blackberry Chia Jam

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Easy blackberry chia seed jam to made on the stovetop with berries and chia seeds and naturally sweetened with lemon and maple syrup.

After the Fourth of July, it always feels like we’re entering the height of summer.

Many of my friends are out of town and colleagues have out of office messages notifying the world that they are unavailable.

During the dog days of summer, the pace of life feels slower, which can be hard for someone like me that is attached to moving quickly.

Summer also makes me nostalgic for being a carefree kid who only needed to hold space for finishing my latest library book and chilling at the neighborhood pool.

As adults, we are asked to keep the velocity of our lives moving forward while simultaneously pressing pause to make time to relax.

So, if summer feels like a tug of war between a packed social calendar and reluctant relaxation, I get it.

What I’m working on is being very intentional with my time off, and really being present and in alignment with what the day is asking of me.

If it feels like a “push” day, then I do all of the things; I shoot the recipe, I write the post, I edit the photos, I teach the yoga, I do it done.

If it feels like a “pause” day, then I pull back on work and lean into other tasks, maybe even taking some time off.

They key for me is to not think about work when I’m relaxing and not think about relaxing when I’m working.

You know what I mean?

It’s all about presence.

With that said, I highly encourage you to give your full attention to the recipe I’m sharing today.

It’s super easy to make and the perfect way to use up extra blackberries in the refrigerator.

This Vegan Blackberry Chia Jam is made with just 5 ingredients on the stovetop for a sweet summer spread!

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Viral Tiramisu Chia Pudding

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

Viral Tiramisu Chia Pudding made with Organic Chia Seeds and espresso topped with cacao. Perfect to meal prep for breakfast or a snack!

This year, we got our hands on our first espresso maker.

We purchased it second hand so there was no pressing urgency to use it religiously.

While I have used it bagel (0!) times, M has already gotten our money’s worth and then some with all of the espresso he has experimented with.

The addition of the espresso maker inspired a kitchen reorg with the creation of “coffee corner”.

We now have a whole corner of our precious counter space dedicated to coffee related things, including but not limited to:

Our coffee grinder, bags of beans, the coffee scale, the new espresso maker, and all of it’s accoutrements.

With the new workspace, he’s tried pretty much every bean from our favorite local roaster to dial in the best ‘spresso.

So, naturally, he was delighted when I requested that he make me espresso shots for today’s recipe.

Tiramisu has been a long time favorite dessert of mine, but one that I’ve yet to make vegan.

So I’m excited to share my version of the Viral Tiramisu Chia Pudding.

This chia pudding incorporates all of the layers and flavors of tiramisu, without all of the hard work.

It’s Tiramisu in pudding form!

My version of the Viral Tiramisu Chia Pudding is made with Organic Chia Seeds and espresso topped with cacao.

It’s perfect to meal prep for an energizing breakfast or a snack!

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Vegan Refried Bean Tacos

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Vegan Refried Bean Tacos with pinto beans and seasonings in 1-pan on the stovetop. Serve in hard shell tacos with your favorite toppings!

Last weekend I taught yoga outside at one of my favorite local gluten-free breweries.

Between you and me, I was grateful to finish class without a coughing fit or a sneeze attack.

Yes, this time of year I have special kind of jealousy reserved for all of the people I see outside, enjoying the beautiful weather, and doing it allergy free.

Sure, they could all be heavily medicated, but I have at least a few friends who claim that the thick yellow dust that coats my car every day doesn’t bother them.

Blasphemy, right?!

So I’ve been hiding indoors in self pity and self preservation, until I realized that Flora is bringing the outdoors indoors via her double coated fur.

One shake from her is all it takes to make my throat scratchy, my eyes watering, and my nose stuffy.

There’s only so much cleaning I can do, and let me tell you, my robot vacuum is heavily employed right now.

It’s an all hands on deck situation as I fight a never ending battle against nature.

This past week was also cinco de mayo, and whenever I think of cinco de mayo I remember a trip I took with my sister at the beginning of May to New York.

Now, I think my allergies are bad here, but they’re *nothing* compared to what I experienced in NYC 5+ years ago.

I remember walking through Times Square, the wind whipping between the sky scrapers, bringing with it lots of…whatever it is I’m heavily allergic too (I think oaks!)

My respiratory system was NOT happy.

I sneezed through every crosswalk, tears streaming down my face, my pockets full of soggy used tissues.

My sister looked over and asked repeatedly, “Are you OK?!” to which of course I responded, “Yes, I’m fine, it’s just allergies.”

I hadn’t thought to pack allergy meds and was too stubborn to buy them, so I suffered through the trip half-seeing and half-crying all the time we were outdoors.

Telling this story always makes me feel better, because whatever Flora is dragging inside, it’s nowhere near what NYC on the 5th of May has to offer.

So here’s what I have to offer this first week of May.

My favorite Vegan Refried Bean Tacos that we’ve been eating on repeat here for taco Tuesday.

I wanted to get this recipe out before Cinco de Mayo, but, it’s always a good day to eat tacos, right?

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