Sweets & Treats

Dark Chocolate Coconut Butter Cups

2-ingredient coconut butter cups made with dark chocolate and coconut butter. Vegan and oil-free with no added sugar. Perfect for a sweet clean dessert!

You guys, I’ve had a major sweet tooth this week.

The kind of sweet tooth that finds me loitering around my chocolate drawer (yes, I have a chocolate drawer!) around 11 PM, just casually opening it, you know, to make sure everything is still there.

So it felt appropriate to share something sweet with you this week.

Like these Dark Chocolate Coconut Butter Cups.

You need a jar of coconut butter and my favorite dark chocolate to bring these to your house in under an hour!

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Double Chocolate Banana Bread

By Flora & Vino 5 Comments

Vegan and gluten-free double chocolate banana bread with almond flour, oats, bananas, tahini, and dark chocolate. Perfect for weekend baking!

“How are you doing being home alone?” my yoga friends asked me on our weekly Zoom date this past week.

I stopped and paused, carefully considering.

“I’m OK,” I finally said.

And I meant it.

It’s a little strange and kind of amazing how we humans can grow and adapt to the curveballs the universe pitches.

I’ve definitely settled into this new normal with a quarantine routine heavy on walks, work, and virtual connection.

I feel so lucky than I can keep F&V running and continue to share delicious eats with you during these unprecedented times.

So let’s make some good stay-at-home memories, shall we?

So word on the street is that the top googled recipes right now are for banana bread.

This Double Chocolate Banana Bread is gluten-free, oil-free, refined sugar-free, and made easy with just 1-bowl and a loaf pan!

And plenty of spotty bananas and dark chocolate, obviously…

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Cashew Butter Chickpea Snack Cookies

By Flora & Vino 14 Comments

5-ingredient snack cookies made with chickpeas and cashew butter sweetened with maple syrup and apple sauce. Perfect for a quick snack or dessert!

Happy Sunday, friends!

Does anyone else have major dish washing fatigue right about now?

As if it wasn’t enough to eat every stinking meal at home, we have to clean all those pots and pans, too?

I’ve set aside some time today to *actually* meal prep.

If you’re thinking, but Lauren, why meal prep during a quarantine?

Well, it occurred to me chatting with friends this week that it might be better to make larger portions in advance rather than making small meals on the spot.

We might have the time and space free to cook and bake at home constantly, but do we really want to?

As much as the kitchen is my happy place, I have other happy places that I’m missing.

Luckily, the recipe I recommend you meal prep today is made with just one blender and a cookie sheet!

These Cashew Butter Chickpea Snack Cookies require only 6 pantry-friendly staples to bring them to your kitchen.

Grab a can of chickpeas and a big spoonful of cashew butter and let’s get into it.

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No-Sugar-Added Black Bean Brownies

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

Easy and nutritious brownies made with black beans and SunButter that are oil-free, gluten-free, and naturally sweetened with only bananas and dates.

Who else has been baking up a quarantined storm lately?

Actually, it was literally thunder-storming as I recipe tested this recipe this past week.

April showers bring May brownies, that’s how it goes, right?

If you’ve been following me for a while you know that I’m not a *huge* dessert person.

I’m the kind of girl whose idea of dessert is haphazardly dunking dark chocolate chunks (the darker the better!) into tubs of SunButter when the mood strikes.

I know, I’m fancy.

But when I do DO dessert, I like to do it right!

Since we’re all home, I set out to create something chocolatey that is allergen-free, nutritious, and super tasty.

Can we talk about this epic No-Sugar-Added Black Bean Brownie stack?

Actually, forget the talk, let’s MAKE them.

You need a blender, a can of black beans, and some spotty bananas!

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Purple Sweet Potato Cashew Butter Eggs

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

Dessert eggs made with Stokes Purple® sweet potato purée, cashew butter, and dark chocolate. Perfect for an Easter treat or candy substitute.

Hey guys, it’s April.

And it’s my birthday!!!

This honestly might go down as the strangest birthday in my personal history.

I made a point to get up and get dressed today to carpe diem the sh** out of the big 3-2.

After being serenaded by my virtual yoga class via zoom, I dawned the blue polka dot dress that I originally had purchased for a vineyard celebration.

So I’ve been sashaying around the house all day, literally all dressed up with nowhere to go.

I figured since we’re all staying home, we could practice some easy recipes for Easter with pretty colors!

These Purple Sweet Potato Cashew Butter Eggs are pretty in purple, packed with Stokes Purple® sweet potato purée, cashew butter, and dark chocolate.

No baking required, these easy eggs are perfect to make to share both physically or virtually this Easter!

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Toasted Coconut Bird’s Nests

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

Vegan “bird’s nests” made with dark chocolate, toasted coconut, and your favorite oval shaped candy. Perfect for a sweet Easter treat!

Last night during a virtual game night with my friends, I recalled my career trajectory to where I am now.

From the time I was old enough to be asked, I told people that I wanted to be a writer.

After deciding that I wanted to be a writer, I couldn’t wait until I was older to have more life experiences.

I decided that I needed to do lots to be able to write lots and write it with authority, you know?

For the most part, this tended to be true.

Doing new things always inspired me to go home and scribble about them in my composition notebook journal.

Lately, though, being forced to stay in, I’m going inward to grab stories instead instead of going out.

And looking inward at my cabinets for pantry items to make sweet things with!

Luckily, you don’t need a lot of experience OR a lot of ingredients to make these Toasted Coconut Bird’s Nests.

They require just 3-ingredients for a simple sweet Easter treat!

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2-Ingredient Vegan Jello Cups (No-Sugar-Added!)

By Flora & Vino 3 Comments

Easy vegan jello made with unsweetened fruit juice and agar agar seaweed gelatin flakes. Perfect for a fun snack or light dessert!

Did you guys grow up eating jello?

My mom made it for us sometimes in a large baking dish that I pulled from the fridge and cut giant squares of.

Cherry as my favorite flavor.

The cafeteria at my school sold jello too, a questionable jiggly block that no one ever really grabbed.

I definitely didn’t.

Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve had a cup of jello.

Honestly, I thought my jello days were over after going plant-based vegan.

Can you make jello with gelatin?

I’m so glad you asked.

Why, yes. Yes, you can!

These 2-Ingredient Vegan Jello Cups (No-Sugar-Added!) are made with real fruit, no added sugar, and agar agar seaweed flakes!

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Homemade Vegan Chocolate Bunnies & Eggs

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

,Vegan dark chocolate bunnies and eggs made with fun silicone molds for an easy 1-ingredient refined sugar-free Easter treat!

How is everyone doing?

I ask this a lot now, and I know I asked it before, too.

But now I ask it with more urgency, because I think we all need to ask and be asked that simple question right now.

I’ve been keeping myself busy making plans to see faces even when I can’t give hugs.

My Skype and Zoom calendar is booming with virtual yoga classes, virtual girls night, virtual game night, and even virtual happy hours.

It’s such a weird time to navigate, feeling simultaneously extremely isolated yet connected to everyone around the globe.

I’m definitely making more of an effort to show up in different ways for my friends, family, and community.

Today I went live on Instagram for the first time in years to talk pantry staples and getting back to the basics with plant-based cooking.

And it doesn’t get any more basic than the Easter dessert idea I’m sharing today.

Luckily, social distancing doesn’t require me to stay away from dark chocolate.

These Homemade Vegan Chocolate Bunnies & Eggs are the perfect quick and easy Easter treat you can make from home!

All you need is some seriously delicious dark chocolate and your favorite silicone molds.

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No-Bake S’mores Cups

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

No-bake s’mores cups with an oat-date crust, dark chocolate center, and cashew marshmallow top. A vegan and gluten-free dessert with no campfire necessary!

This week has been weird.

A lot happened and yet nothing happened.

My trip to the west coast was canceled, so I stayed home and caught up on work, life, and sleep.

I felt a weird internal conflict between wanting to spring-clean my entire home top to bottom and wanting to lie in bed all day.

To be honest, I did neither.

I binge-watched Love Is Blind (have you watched???). in an embarrassingly small number of days by night and continued to show up in my studio and work during the day.

I did start a new habit of walking outside for 15 minutes every day; one that I hope will stick as we continue into spring.

Also, I made s’mores indoors in compact edible cups for serving and I think you’re going to want to make them too.

These No-Bake S’mores Cups come together with just 6 ingredients for a decadent refined sugar-free treat without the campfire or the oven!

Please sir, I want s’more.

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Chocolate Molten Lava Cake

By Flora & Vino 4 Comments

Vegan and gluten-free chocolate molten lava cake for two! Made with an almond-flour base and plenty of oozing dark chocolate. Perfect for a date night in!

I’ll never forget that time on Instagram when I was reporting back on my time on the West Coast, fondly referring to California as “Cali”.

Which I thought was totally cool and hip, ya know?

Like Cali was my bestie and we referred to each other on a nickname basis and such.

“Just so you know, only people who don’t live in California call California “Cali”, the text popped up in my DMs.

“Just to help you out,” they said.

My relationship with “Cali” instantly felt a little less special and intimate.

Since then I’m very careful to say Cal-i-for-nia, in all it’s five syllable glory, just so you won’t know I’m secretly *that* wanna be beach babe.

But I am.

I’m excited to be spending some time in good ‘ole Cali, soon, though.

I have an upcoming business trip there at the beginning of March– one I’m taking with my little sister.

She’s never been to California so I’m really excited to show her my favorite spots on the West Coast.

Also, it’ll be the first *real* sister trip we’ve taken as adults.

Sure, we went to New York together a few years back but we did the trip in 24 hours so it was a blur of grabbing Ubers and Times Square chaos and SO MUCH pollen (it was May– allergy season!).

So I’m excited to take a full week with her and fully settle into PST before getting back to EST.

We’re already planning our meals and restaurant stops.

I can only hope we have a dessert as delicious as this Chocolate Molten Lava Cake for two.

It’s made easily with an almond-flour base, Frieda’s Stokes Purple® sweet potatoes (also from California!), and plenty of oozing dark chocolate for a delicious dessert to share!

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Sweets & Treats

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