Soft-baked SunButter oatmeal cookies made with rolled oats, dried cranberries, and chocolate chips. Perfect for an easy snack or lunchbox treat!

As we soak up the last few weeks of summer and start looking ahead to fall, I have some news that I’ve been holding close for a while.

If you’ve noticed that things have been a little quieter or different around here lately, there’s a very good reason: I’m pregnant!

Yes, M and I are expecting a baby boy this winter, and Flora is about the be a big sister. 

It feels right that I share this information with you, first, my readers who have been with me for a decade of life changes and plant-y recipes. 

So, I’ll be honest with you.

The past few months have been some of the happiest and most humbling of my life, and food has looked very different along the way.

For someone who has spent so many years creating recipes and thinking about food for a living, pregnancy has been a forced exercise in letting go of expectations.

There were weeks when my usual favorites sounded completely impossible and dinner was whatever simple, comforting food I could manage.

I couldn’t look at vegetables and the thought of tofu was the most repulsive of all, which is strange because tofu is so…innocuous, right?

So I ate a lot of toast with butter, bagels with cream cheese, and plain pasta with parm.

I was rocking the brown and beige diet to a tee.

My appetite, cravings, aversions, and even the way I think about nourishing myself have shifted from week to week.

I pulled away from Instagram and my recipes to focus on nourishing myself and future baby. 

Much to my demise, I also became a napper.

A daily nap was about the only way to make it through the day in my first trimester, and I despise naps!

For me, it took until month 4/5 (I’m 5 months now), to be a functioning human again, when I was sure I’d wake up the first day of the second trimester as superwoman. 

Now, as summer winds down and I’m feeling more like myself again, it feels especially sweet to be back in the kitchen creating and sharing recipes with you.

I don’t know what the future holds for Flora & Vino, but I’m very grateful to have you in my community and my village as my family grows. 

But before I start crying…let’s make cookies, OK?!

These Soft-Baked SunButter Oatmeal Cookies feel perfect for this season of life: cozy but not quite fall, easy to make, and packed with familiar ingredients.

It’s also the kind of snack I’m very happy to have waiting for me when hunger strikes. 

The kind of snack I hope to one day pack in my son’s lunchbox. 

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