coconut, oatmeal, and cherry jam thumbprints

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." -Maya Angelou

Something I've learned as of late is that creativity is not something that can be forced. It must come naturally. When we force ourselves into something, it becomes a chore, something we dread. When we learn to change our mindsets to enjoy the process of creating, there's something, I don't know what it is, that goes into our creation that makes it beautiful. WAIT. Eureka moment. That thing is love and passion. 

Good ideas don't necessarily come when you're expecting it. They come in the quiet of dark mornings with an equally dark mug of coffee. In the shower after a long, stressful day of your brain working overtime. On a walk, with your eyes glued to the beauty of your surroundings. They come when we are at peace, calm, and have a happy spirit about us. Nothing good comes from having a bad attitude, and that includes creativity. 

When we put our good ideas to work, with a happy attitude and a joyful heart, we create wonderful things. Keep a smile on your face through the process, accept your faults and failures, move on, and do whatever it is you do to the best of your abilities.

As you've probably gathered, the context for all this creative chat is about my blog. I've noticed that when I take a step back and stop forcing myself to bake, photograph, write, and post, the creativity just flows. It comes naturally when I let go of all the expectations I have of myself that are way too high. These cookies came out of the blue. Actually, I lied. I was scrolling through my blog feed, I found these cookies. I'd been having that itch to bake all day, not knowing really what it was I wanted to make. Until I saw those gorgeous photos and simple ingredients. DING DING DING. 

These cookies have a short ingredient list, are so simple, delicious, chewy, and lightly sweetened. The base of the cookies is amazing and I can just picture them going perfectly with a cup of coffee or tea.

coconut, oatmeal, and cherry jam thumbprints 

1/2 c. oats

1/3 c. desiccated coconut

4 tbsp. melted coconut oil

3 1/2 tbsp. maple syrup/honey

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tbsp. flour

dash of cinnamon

cherry jam (you can sub any other kind of jam if you'd like)

granola for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease or line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add coconut and oats into a blender and pulse until a flour forms. Pour into a bowl and add coconut oil, sweetener, vanilla, cinnamon, and flour. Stir until combined. Roll dough into balls, gently pressing your thumb into the centers. Place a small spoonful of jam (about a tsp. per cookie) in each imprint; sprinkle with granola if desired. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool completely before transferring to a jar or container. Yields 9 small cookies. 

PB&J crumb bars

These bars have been on my to-bake list for quite a long time. Isn't it the best feeling to check things off a list? Whether it be school assignments, miles to run, or things to make, it feels good to get things done. I'm definitely one of those people who gets high off of the a sense of productivity and accomplishment. 

Anyways, when we were out of town a few weeks ago, I found this cute, dinky little store that had a bunch of health food. I got some gluten-free flours I was excited {maybe a little tooooooo excited.} to try out. At first I was a little worried these flours would turn out gummy textures like some other GF flours. Um EW, you guys. In case you didn't know, gummy cookies and bars are not a good situation. 

Well those flours delivered! No gumminess and you'd never know they were gluten-free. I ended up making these bars both gluten-free AND vegan. I was feeling rather adventurous. Living on the edge. My family LOVED these bars and as we all know, they're the real stamp of approval. My brothers and my dad inhaled these and claimed they were the best bars I'd ever made. {I've kinda made a lot of bars in my day, so…} I said I'd keep my lips shut, but ended up blurting out that they were gluten-free and vegan. My dad's reply was "Oh don't tell me that bad stuff." It's not bad, it's good, believe it or not. But to each their own. 

These bars are simple, require only a few easy ingredients, are healthy, naturally sweetened, gluten-free, and vegan. They're chewy and crumbly {the good crumbly}, and taste like a peanut butter and jelly SANDWICH. It's been way too long since I've had one of those. But now I can have them in the form of these bars! They make great snacks or if we're being real here. BREAKFAST. Dewwwitttttt.

PB& J crumb bars {vegan & GF}

3/4 c. peanut butter

1/3 c. honey/maple syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 c. tapioca flour

1/3 c. sorghum flour

3/4 c. oats, divided

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 c. jam {I used cherry}

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease or line a 9x13 in. pan. In a large bowl, whisk peanut butter, vanilla, and sweetener. Add flours, baking powder, and 1/2 c. of the oats. Press about 3/4 of the dough evenly into prepared pan. Spread jam in an even layer, keeping about an inch away from the sides. Add the rest of the oats to the remaining dough. Crumble on top of the bars and bake for 10-15 minutes. Let cool before slicing. Yields about 12 squares.

strawberry muffin bread

I've hardly had any time to EAT lately let alone bake something presentable, jot down recipes, take pictures, and post it on the interwebs. But hey! I did it. At first I thought this bread was gonna be a legit fail. At least looks-wise. I mean, I'm all for "Beauty is what's on the inside" and whatnot, but when it comes to food blogging, I don't care how it tastes, it's gotta look dang good. When I first looked into the oven, the batter was overflowing, forming weird little wrinkles and craters in the bread. Some would say it's ugly. I say to heck with ugly, I think it's attractive {in a I WANT TO EAT YOU kind of way.} It's now summer in these regions, and I've got jumbo, fresh, juicy strawberries up the wazoo!!! What is a wazoo anyway?? Well I got strawberries up it. And I loveeeeee it. Since finding strawberries at the grocery store isn't like finding bars of gold {or costing about that much.} anymore, I thought I'd start some berry bakin'. Fresh strawberry bread? Uh yes. The sweet, fruity, vanilla-y aromas that were lingering about like little berry fairies in the kitchen was enough to make me swoon. And salivate. Sure it looks ugly, but y'all. It tastes fresh and wonderful and just slightly sweet.

strawberry muffin bread

2 large eggs

1 c. plain yogurt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 c. maple syrup

6 tbsp. granulated sugar {1/4 c. + 2 tbsp.}

1/2 c. oat flour

1/4 c. gluten free oats

1 1/4 c. gluten free cake flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 c. roughly chopped strawberries {about 10-12 strawberries}

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease a loaf pan; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, yogurt, vanilla, maple syrup, and sugar. Add flours, oats, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir until smooth. Fold in strawberries and mix until evenly combined. Pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

strawberry shortcake smoothie {healthy, dairy-free, gluten-free}

Ok, confession time. I am the biggest, fattest emotional eater there ever was and is yet to come on this entire universe. When my friends left for the states a few weeks ago, I immediately turned to food. I mean, I made these healthy brownies and ate like a million {give err take… ya know.} but at least I satisfied my… issues with something somewhat nutritious. 

Needless to say, the last few weeks haven't been good food-wise. I'm starting to see my old habits of binging and snacking throughout the whole day sneaking back in. 

And it's honestly really making me depressed. I mean, not depressed depressed. But it is effecting my emotions and the way I view myself and I hate it. 

I'm reminding myself of how when I started my dairy, sugar, and gluten-free diet awhile back, my skin cleared up and I felt so much better about myself. Since stepping off the track, I feel like I'm back to where I started a few months ago. 

Now that I've eaten my fair share of cookies and other assorted carbs, I've decided to kick it up again and in full gear. 

I am super determined. And with determination, I can get there.

To get back to where I was and back into those healthy habits I'd worked so hard to gain, but not get so mad and guilt myself if I over do it at dinner or eat a little too much chocolate. {Dark chocolate isn't that healthy when you eat half the bar. Take note.}

You've heard it before and you'll hear it again… Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. 

If you skip breakfast, you're more likely to shove your face hole with all the things when hunger strikes later. 

If you eat a nutritionally unbalanced breakfast, you're energy level will crash and you'll be hungry in two hours flat. 

On the other hand, if you eat a GOOD breakfast, full of good things {protein, whole grains, fiber, fruits, etc.}, it'll fuel your body for the day and keep your full until lunch. 

As you can probably tell, I have quite the sweet tooth. I prefer to have sweet breakfasts {but still healthy!} like smoothies or overnight oats because they keep my sweet tooth and snacking at bay for the rest of the day. 

This smoothie? It tastes like cake. Like legit. 

I'm not just telling you this so a boring strawberry smoothie will get a million pins and bring in more traffic to my blog. {wouldn't that be nice?}

Nope, this is real life guys. 

Somehow adding oats, almonds, a bit of vanilla extract, and a dash of cinnamon switch up a basic smoothie and turn it into something FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC! 

Cake + Smoothie + Healthy = MINDBLOOOOOWN

strawberry shortcake smoothie {healthy, dairy-free, gluten-free}

1 large banana
3/4 c. frozen strawberries
1/2 c. soy milk {or any other kind of milk}
3 tbsp. almonds
1/4 c. oats {use gluten-free for a GF option}
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp. organic maple syrup
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. ice cubes

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Add more milk or ice as needed. Pour into one large glass or two smaller glasses. Enjoy!

orange strawberry muffins

When I'm asked what I miss most about the US {I get asked this. A lot.}, my number one answer is almost always... the FOOD. I miss Starbucks the most, with Chipotle, McDonald's, Culver's, Subway, and IHOP up there on the list too. Sure, I've become quite the health nut in the last year and a half, but who doesn't love a big bowl of RICE with veggies {mmm carbs. my fave.} or a frappucino with a gallon of whip to top it off? When we were in Cape Town, South Africa with my grandparents in February, we heard there was a McDonald's there. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure that was our first stop when we arrived. I put all health aside and downed a chicken sandwich and fries. Oh my word, you guys. That crap mystery meat had never tasted so good in my LIFE. Last week at youth group, my friend told me there was going to be a McDonald's in Windhoek {the capital of Namibia}, just 3 hours away! Yes, you guys. In a couple months, I'll be 3 hours away from a McDonald's. Dangerous if you ask me. Anyways, when he told me this I freaked out, jumped up and down, squealed a little bit, and then put on a straight face and said "Boy. Don't lie to me. This is serious stuff." He wasn't lying. And I'm really excited. Seriously, all we need is a Target and Forever 21, and I am good. to. go.

Anyways, for the next week and a half {errrr something. I seriously have no idea.}, we're having a small group of some 'merrrricans staying in Otji with us! Yay! I love having visitors. I mean, we've only had one so far, but it was wonderful. Something about having people here that you already KNOW from the States is just kind of great. Familiar… Yah, that's probably it. It's so fun being the ones who know what's up and I love showing people what our life is like here. Pictures, words, and blog posts don't do our life in Africa any justice. Not to mention the fact that they bring with them loads of goodies {hello homemade maple syrup. reese's. new TOMS.} I also love having an excuse to bake and try out new recipes. Sometimes I'll make something and it's sitting around for days. But when there's a group of people, whatever I choose to whip up is gone in a matter of minutes. 

As we all know, the weekend is not complete without a good feast of a breakfast. Although breakfast for me is like that prooooobably almost every morning. I'm a freak, but breakfast is really important to me. Since our little team was on a plane for a million hours {weeeee-all. Like 24. Same dif.}, I'm pretty sure they were lacking good food in their bellies. Airplane food is ick. I made sure to have some good muffins made {because duh.} for their breakfast and we also had fruit, yogurt, granola, toast, and hardboiled eggs. I dig it. These muffins are really yummy and fresh and I actually made them gluten free {no one could tell. and I didn't tell anyone. Muahaha.} Oh, a quick little tip! I didn't chop up the strawberries at all and they got kinda… Weird. So just be sure to chop them up a little bit before adding them to the batter. You can use fresh strawberries if you have access to them {sadly, we don't. if only those could be sent with visitors. ha.}, but I used frozen ones. To thaw them, I filled a glass bowl with hot water, set the strawberries in a strainer, and placed the strainer over the hot water while I prepared the rest of the batter. It worked perfectly, just be sure to pat the strawberries dry. I had issues with that and they were slipping and sliding in the batter. Ok, I'm done talking now. I hope you have a happy, muffin-filled weekend!

orange strawberry muffins

2 c. stawberries {fresh or frozen and thawed}

3/4 c. sugar

1 1/2 tbsp. freshly grated orange zest

2 eggs

1 c. plain greek yogurt 

1/3 c. honey

1/2 c. freshly squeezed orange juice

2 tsp. baking powder

3 1/2 c. gluten-free flour

Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a small bowl, rub together the sugar and orange zest with your fingertips. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, orange sugar, honey, yogurt, and orange juice. Add flour and baking powder and stir until combined. Gently fold in strawberries. Scoop batter into a lined or greased baking tin. Bake for 15-25 minutes. 

lemon raspberry yogurt cake with lemon honey glaze

First of all, thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. You people make me feel so supported and loved. It's insane, I only know about 10 out of 574 of you. Since you expressed so much concern and offered so much encouragement, I thought I'd let you know I've been feeling a lot better since last weekend's… uhh, meltdown of sorts. I'm working on contentment, and taking in the little things around me. Not looking to the next thing, but being in the moment and taking the time to appreciate the simple and beautiful, be it cute kids on their way to school, a perfectly ripe banana {I'm weird.}, my 120 pound dog sitting on me and thinking he's a poodle, 6 a.m. runs, my favorite song on the radio {which changes about weekly. But right now Stay by Rihanna.}, or a text message from my bestie. Also. Uhh, I finished 9th grade yesterday. YUP! I'm a sophomore now! Or as my dad called me a "sucky sophy". I feel so wonderful, so free. Seriously, I told my friend I feel like Superwoman. This year, I changed school curriculums and my word, to say it was challenging is an extreme understatement. It was more schoolwork than I have ever had in my life. But through lots of prayers, time, and cups of coffee, I finally conquered. To celebrate, last night I had friends over to watch a movie. I wanted something really funny because I felt like I hadn't laughed in awhile. Honestly, in a weird way, I kinda wanted to like… pee in my pants laughing so hard. AAAAAANYWAYS. We watched Grown Ups and ahhmahhgahh. I laughed. A lot. I didn't pee. But I did indeed laugh. I also managed to eat about half the bowl of popcorn and nearly choked at a couple points. "I wanna get chocolate wasted, daddy!" Also, the Canadian guy at the waterpark… I nearly died. 

So cake… I don't make cake often. It seems like we constantly have people over here, so it's no doubt someone will eat pretty much anything I make. It's just a little easier to give them cookies instead of having to dirty plates and forks for a slice of cake. The occasions that I actually make cake are few and far apart. Seriously, I don't even remember the last cake I made. But tonight, we're having our neighbors over for dinner {the first time we've ever done anything with them in the year and a half we've been here. Impressive.}, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to wow them with my mad skills. Just kiiiiiiiiding. This cake is oooogly mooogly, but dang, it tastes fantastic. I wanted to take a picture of a slice since the outside was so unappealing, but my mom freaked out and said it was bad manners to slice a cake before company comes… So there went that. This cake has a tender and moist {don'tkillmeiloveyou} crumb thanks to the yogurt in the batter. It's packed with the wonderful freshness of lemons and raspberries, which seriously… One of the best combos out there. I loved how the sugar and lemon zest are rubbed together. This process brings out the oils and flavor in the lemon and the sugar gets all pretty and fluffy. Also, the glaze… I may or may not have sipped it with a spoon… Have a happy weekend, my loves!

lemon raspberry yogurt cake with honey lemon glaze

cake//

1 c. butter, room temp

3 c. flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. lemon zest 

4 eggs

1 c. plain yogurt

1/4 c. lemon juice

2 c. raspberries

glaze// 

1/4 c. lemon juice

2 tbsp. honey

3 tbsp. milk

3 c. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease a bundt pan; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, using your fingertips, rub together the lemon zest and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the butter, eggs, lemon juice, and yogurt. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until smooth and combined. Fold in raspberries. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 60-70 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. While the cake is cooling, prepare the glaze. Once cake is cooled, flip onto a wire rack or cake plate. Top with glaze and extra lemon zest if desired. 

strawberry apple almond crisp {for one}

It's Saturday! And ya know what that means?

Sleep. 

TWO cups of coffee. {ima rebel.} 

Chillaxing. 

Food Network. 

Peace + quiet. 

BREAKFAST. 

Good breakfasts that are a little fancier than your typical mid-week morning meals. 

WEEEEELL… Maybe not. 

As I've mentioned before, I'm becoming more and more of a morning person. 

And breakfast is definitely my favorite time of the day. 

I love all the possibilities there are for wonderful, healthy, filling breakfasts. 

Oatmeal or eggs are my usual go to breakfasts- something that will keep me full and content until lunchtime. 

In the mornings, I don't really have time to sit over the stovetop flipping pancakes, but THIS. 

I can get behind this.

This breakfast SEEMS like a fancy weekend breakfast, but seriously. 

It's not. It could not be any easier!

All you do is grab a couple ingredients, throw together a simple almond crumble, dump that on a bowl of strawberries and apples, microwave it for a few minutes, and HELLO! 

Breakfast… is seeeeeeerved. 

You can bet your bottom dollar this crisp is going into the breakfast rotation. 

Not only is this crisp delicious and SO easy, BUT it makes a single serving just for YOU to savor, it's gluten-free, AND dairy-free! 

The bomb dot com right there. 

Sit outside on the porch with a cup of coffee, a good book, and your little strawberry almond crisp and your life just got awesome. 

Happy weekend, friends!

strawberry apple almond crisp {single serve, gluten-free, dairy-free}

1/2 large apple, chopped into chunks

3/4 c. strawberries {fresh or frozen; I used frozen and quickly thawed them by running them under some warm water}

4 1/2 tbsp. almond flour

small handful of almonds, roughly chopped

2 tbsp. quick cooking oats

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tbsp. dark brown sugar

1/2 tbsp. soymilk

1/2 tbsp. honey

In a small bowl, combine the oats, almond flour, almonds, cinnamon, and dark brown sugar. Add milk and honey and mix with a fork until a crumble forms. Place apples and strawberries in a microwave safe bowl and top with crumble mixture. Microwave on high heat for 2-3 minutes- time will vary for each microwave.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

In case you didn't know, pink is my favorite color. I'm even thinking about dying my hair pink at some point… Not. even. joking. Some people are able to pull off pink hair, some people can't. I'm sure I'm one of those people who can't… I'd probably look like a crazy person and get weird looks in town, because umm… how many people in Africa have pink hair? Not many. But whatever. Normal is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overrated. I honestly couldn't care less about what people think of me- the soon to be pink head.

So since I love pink so much, I knew it wouldn't be long until I would put my favorite color and my favorite food {uhh. chocolate.} into my absolute favorite baked goods… The muchos beloved muffin. I'm sure you know I love muffins. I almost feel kinda bad about how many muffin recipes I share… Do you share my love for muffins too? Good, let's be friends.

Maybe I should think about changing this blog to My Muffin Place.

Yup, muffins and pink hair… My life is obviously undergoing a huge change. 

Ok, so let's stop talking about ME and start talking about zeeeees moooofins. 

For the first time in quite a long time, I went into these muffins having NO intentions of making them healthy. Some things are just left untouched and unchanged… Like black coffee. I honestly don't understand how people put sugar and milk in there. Umm, eww.

In my last muffin recipe, I used a higher whole wheat to regular flour ratio. This time I switched it up, using more AP flour than whole wheat. I feel like sometimes wheat flour can weigh down the recipe and results in more of a chewy texture compared to the fluffy texture AP flour lends. 

For the raspberries, I used frozen since it's all that I can get my hands on here. I didn't thaw them out before putting them in the batter- straight from the bag to the muffins! That way they don't bleed AS much resulting in a purple-ish muffin. Yuck. 

I used two kinds of chocolate in this recipe- a dark chocolate bar, that tastes more like semi-sweet chocolate {I don't know the exact cocoa percentage} and an 85% cocoa dark chocolate bar. That stuff is pretty bitter and tastes like your biting into a cocoa bean… In the best way possible. 

These muffins are fluffy, tart, sweet, chocolatey, and PINK... Perfect for Valentine's!

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

1 c. plain yogurt

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 c. granulated sugar

3 c. flour {I used 2 c. AP flour and 1 c. wholewheat}

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 c. frozen raspberries {or fresh}

3/4 c. dark chocolate chunks

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Butter 12 muffins tins; set aside. 

2. In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, eggs, vanilla, and sugar. 

3. Add in the dry ingredients. Stir until everything is combined. 

4. Slowly fold in the raspberries and dark chocolate chunks. Do this slowly so that the juice doesn't bleed into the batter. 

5. Spoon batter into each muffin tin, filling about 3/4. 

6. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool before moving to a wire rack.  

Oozey muffins for the win!

Blueberry, Pineapple & Spinach Detox Smoothie

So this is definitely not the most photogenic recipe I've ever posted… Let's just go with that. While I was in the office editing these pictures {I physically cannot make them look pretty.}, my dad walked in and asked if my dog puked in a cup. Nope. This is indeed a smoothie I drank for breakfast thankyouverymuch. Thanks, dad. 

While it may not be the most, umm… appealing thing to make for breakfast, I promise you it tastes great! Let me warn you, there are veggies in it. Yes, veggies for breakfast. What is this world coming to! There's cucumber, spinach, and celery in there. But the green taste is covered up pretty great from the blueberries and pineapple. 

Blueberry, Pineapple & Spinach Detox Smoothie

Serves 2

1 c. blueberries {fresh or frozen}

1 1/2 c. pineapple {fresh or canned and drained}

1/3 cucumber 

3 celery stocks

3 large spinach leaves

2 c. ice

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add 100% fruit juice if it's too thick.

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

The last couple of mornings, I've kicked myself in the BUTT on my runs. Not literally, just figuratively speaking, here. I usually go about 2-2.5 mi., but the last few, I've gone an extra 2 or so. That just translates to sore legs and a whoooooooooooooole lotta sweat. 

Yuck.

Of course, 4 mile runs is a good idea around the holidays. Running off all those cookies. and pie. and bread. and all that good stuff…It's kinda necessary if you don't want to blow up like a balloon. Just sayin'.

Now that all that heavy eating is over, I'm going healthy for the month of January. Partly because I just want to be a healthy person. The other part, is we're going on vacation to Cape Town, South Africa at the end of January and umm……… I'll be on the beach. in a swimsuit. a lot.

That being said, I'll be making lots of healthy recipes in the coming month. Cookies, muffins, granola, energy bars… All that good stuff :)

Today's muffins are soft and tender thanks to the buttermilk I used. Of course, if you don't have buttermilk in your fridge {we never do.} just use regular milk with a teaspoon or so of vinegar. TA-DA! Buttermilk. 

I also used whole wheat for 2/3 of the flour needed. I still wanted them to be a little fluffy, because I've noticed whole wheat flour tends to weigh my baked goods down, creating something dense and almost chewy. Play around with the ratio of flour. I'm sure you could use ALL AP flour or all whole wheat. It's totally up to you!

Although these muffins aren't super healthy {I still used part AP flour and a little sugar}, they're still free of butter and make for great breakfasts on the go! Plus… they have blueberries. Blueberries are fruit, duh! Nothing to be guilty about here!

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

yields 12 medium-sized muffins 

3/4 c. low-fat vanilla yogurt

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. buttermilk 

3/4 c. granulated sugar {plus more for sprinkling}

2 c. wholewheat flour

1 c. AP flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 c. blueberries {fresh or frozen}

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Butter 12 muffins tins; set aside. 

2. In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, eggs, vanilla, buttermilk, and sugar. 

3. Add in the dry ingredients. Stir until everything is combined. 

4. Slowly fold in the blueberries. Do this slowly so that the juice doesn't bleed into the batter. 

5. Spoon batter into each muffin tin, filling about 3/4. Sprinkle with sugar.

6. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool before moving to a wire rack.  

Oh yah, and don't forget to sip your morning cup of coffee when you're whipping up the muffins!

Strawberry Almond Layered Cake with Almond Buttercream

 Alright peoples. This is THE surprise. In'it purty? I think so too. I've gotten better at making layered cakes so I feel more confident baking one… There's WAY a lot of good recipes out there and ideas that I'm so excited to try out!

THIS cake is amazing. Pretty, delicious, {pretty delicious.} moist, and fluffy. My mom said it tasted like her grandma's cake! Which is an awesome comment from what I hear. AAAANNNNDDDDDDDD! the best part? It's tinted pink. I'm sure you ALL know I'm obsessed with the color pink. Have you seen the new design? ha. It smells pretty dang delicious too. {the cake not the design} When it was baking in the oven, my house smelled like what I imagine Strawberry Shortcake's cute little strawberry house would smell like. YUM.

Since being in Africa, we've had trouble finding fresh berries. Part of it could be that we're actually in WINTER here {although it's totally getting Africanly hot now. YUCK}, so they're technically not in season. I'm REALLY hoping that when summer rolls around, there will be a better selection of berry-liciousness gracing the shelves. The strawberries at the store of gotten cheaper, bigger, and better lately. So when we were grocery shopping, I grabbed a container having nothing specific in mind.

I told you all last weekend, when we reached 300 followers {YEAH!}, I would umm… reward you I guess? I had a cake in mind. So it was no doubt I would man up and brave the layered cake this week. My mom said we had company coming today, so I would have someone to EAT it all up. WIN!

Today's been one of those days… One of those days where I didn't get dressed, shower, brush my teeth, ya da ya da ya da, until like 2:00. If company wasn't coming over, I probably wouldn't at all. Gross, I know. Forgive me! We're friends right? 

Good. Then go run to your kitchen. Make this. And thank me later. 

Strawberry Almond Layered Cake with Almond Buttercream 

Strawberry Almond Cake


1 cup {2 sticks} butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for pans
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 cup low-fat strawberry yogurt
2 c. fresh strawberries, washed, hulled, and chopped

Almond Buttercream

1/2 c. butter, softened
6 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. almond extract
a drop of red food coloring {optional}

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour two 8-by-2-inch cake pans, tapping out excess flour. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time and add in the almond extract. Mix in the strawberry yogurt until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir until combined.Divide batter between pans; smooth tops. Bake until cakes pull away from sides of pans, 32 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pans 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto a wire rack. Let cool completely. Place one cake, bottom side up, on a cake stand. Tuck strips of parchment paper underneath. Prepare the frosting by mixing all of the ingredients together until smooth. Add more powdered sugar or milk as needed. Spread around the frosting on the first layer of cake. Repeat the same process with the next layer.

P.S.
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