Book Review: Sweet Designs by Amy Atlas

Good morning everyone! Thanks to Amy Atlas for this lovely book which came in the mail yesterday! 

I'm so delighted to finally receive Sweet Designs after hearing so much about it! Amy Atlas is a former lawyer who is now a sweets stylist - creating all kinds of gorgeous dessert tables displayed to perfection! Her dessert tables are always so colorful & eye-popping which make her a favorite in the dessert styling world! The tables are ideal for weddings, special events, baby showers & more! No matter what party you plan, this girl can get it together!

My favorite parts of the book are the 'custom candy bar wrappers' - fantastic idea.... which I'll be trying pretty soon! I also loved both the 'chipper chocolate cupcakes' & the 'chocolate beehive cupcakes' (all pictured below). 
 

Don't they all look tasty? 
 

Ahhh I'm such a sucker for sweets, if only my waistline wouldn't expand in the process! 

Get your copy of Amy's book here.

Thank you Amy!

-images by jen ramos

Food: Mango Relish

Hello there! It's Heather from The Lovely Cupboard. Any fans of mangoes out there? Today I'm sharing my recipe for mango relish. This side dish can be eaten with corn chips as a snack, used in a salad, or even added as a topping to fish. Mangoes have been one of my favorite fruits since I was a kid.


Growing up in Texas, we had mangoes many months of the year, but they are best during the spring and summer months. May is a great month to purchase them, since mangoes from Florida are starting to be sold in stores. Here's what else you'll need to pick up for the relish:

Cooking Instructions:

1. Cube one large mango. (See pic below.)

2. Peel a cucumber and dice 1/2 of it adding to the mango.

3. Dice 1/2 of a red onion and 1 small red pepper.

4. Finely chop one handful of cilantro and add to the vegetables.

5. Whisk together the juice of 1/2 of a lime, 1 teaspoon of honey, and a pinch of salt.

6. Add to the veggies and combine. Chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before serving.

How beautiful is this little side dish? It's such a healthy and colorful recipe to serve to friends and family this spring. I've even been known to grab a fork and eat it straight from the bowl...

-post by Heather Freeman

Food: Sun-Dried Tomato Socca

Hello everyone! It's the twins again from pure2raw. 

Today we are sharing one of our favorite gluten-free flatbread recipe. This flatbread is also good for someone eats grain free or vegan because it is only made up of 3 main ingredients. And once you have the base down you can easily add your own additions for flavor.

We are talking about socca (or farinata)! Socca is a quick flatbread made from garbanzo bean flour (chickpea flour), water, salt, and olive oil.

 

Socca is so easy to make, plus there are many different ways to make it. And we have a ton more recipes up our blog. Check out our socca tribute page. 

pure2raw recipe: sun-dried tomato socca Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups garbanzo bean flour
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 -1 tsp sea salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil

Add ins:

• 1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• 1/8 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the garbanzo bean flour, water, salt, rosemary and smoked paprika into a bowl. Whisk together. Then stir in sun-dried tomatoes.

 

Place the 3 tbsp olive oil into a circle 10 in pizza pan, and place in hot oven. Let oil get hot for about 2 minutes. Then carefully take hot oiled pan out of oven and pour socca batter into pan. Place back in oven and let back for 30 minutes.

 

The edges will become crispy, while the center stays soft. This socca flatbread is soft, moist, almost buttery bread that is great by itself! Socca will instantly become you go-to bread recipe!

-images and post by the pure2raw twins

Food: Fried Egg & Avocado Panini

Hello MBG friends! It's Heather from The Lovely Cupboard, and I'm bringing you one of my favorite panini recipes today! This is vegetarian approved, but the carnivores won't miss the meat at all. Promise. You start with sourdough bread, herbed mayo, and avocado. Add tomato, fresh sprouts, some Havarti cheese, and top it off with a fried egg. Oh, man. I can barely write about it without getting hungry. 

Here are the ingredients in picture form:

1. Start by prepping your mayo. Simply dice your favorite fresh herb (I used thyme) and add to the mayo. It's that easy and kicks the "wow factor" on your sandwich up about 50%. That a scientific fact, really.

 

 
2. Spread the mayo on the bread and layer thick slices of Havarti cheese on both sides (white cheddar would be fine too) . Add your avocado and fried egg to one side and tomato slices and sprouts to the other.
 
3. Since a panini is a "hot pressed" sandwich, typically you would use a sandwich press. I don't have one, so I use this little trick to add the pressure needed to make paninis.

4. Grill about 3-4 minutes on each side over medium heat.
 
5. I served with baby dill pickles and black bean chips.

 
My husband is adding a fried egg to almost everything he eats these days...pizza, stir fry, sandwiches, you name it. I think it makes him feel very French. Needless to say this sandwhich was a hit in our home. I'd love to hear your favorite panini recipes!



 
 
-All images & post by Heather Freeman

My Faves from Sweet Paul & Lonny

Two of my fave online mags launched their newest issues this past weekend & I have to say I was super inspired by both! Here are my favorite pages from each issue. 

First, Sweet Paul. It's a mag filled photos of food mostly, you won't be disappointed if you like to eat! 

I absolutely LOVED the pages about eggs. Reminded me of this little treat I made for myself last week here.

image of tart above by Melina Hammer

Then we move onto Lonny Magazine. This is my favorite online home decor mag. Maybe because there's a bit of Domino Magazine with Michelle Adams as founder thrown in the mix! These were my fave pages from the issue!

This is my favorite Lonny cover so far....

What's currently your FAVORITE online magazine??

- images for Lonny by Patrick Cline

- images for sweet paul by Suzanne Blaavarg

Food: Brownie French Toast

Hello everyone it is Lori and Michelle from pure2raw. Ready for a new, fun and tasty recipe? 

 Who loves having a little chocolate for breakfast? Who loves french toast? Ever have them together?? Call us crazy, but we wanted something chocolate for breakfast, and had some frozen millet bread that needed to be used up. So after some thought, we decided on brownie french toast! Now this is a breakfast everyone in your family will sure to love. We made ours gluten free too!

 

 Pure2raw recipe:  

Brownie French Toast Ingredients:

• slices of your favorite bread (we used a gluten free millet bread)
• 1 brownie recipe (we used this one of ours - chewy gluten free brownies)
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 - 2/3 cup non-dairy milk or milk of choice (we used almond milk)

Directions: Make your cinnamon sugar mixture first. Take the 2 tbsp sugar and mix it with cinnamon in a bowl. Next whisk together your eggs and milk with the cinnamon and sugar. Then dip you bread into the egg mixture and place into 9x9 square baking dish. 

 

 Keep dipping bread slices till most of your egg mix is used up. Then you can just pour over the remaining egg mix if you want. Next in another bowl, combine all your gluten free brownie ingredients into a bowl and stir together. Pour brownie batter over bread slices. **you may use any brownie recipe of your liking.

   

Place into a pre-heated oven of 350 and bake for 30-35 minutes. Slice and enjoy.

  

 a healthy, little sweet FUN breakfast for you and your family to enjoy. 

  

We left our brownies a little undercooked. We like rich, fudgy brownies. Anyone else? 

 

Breakfast is served. Enjoy! This brownie french toast would also be great for a dessert. Recipe is very flexible. Just have a little fun with it.

-post by Lori & Michelle pure2raw twins

Food: Cookie Hearts

Hello Friends!!! It is Lori and Michelle from pure2raw. 


Today we have a super easy and super tasty Valentines Day inspired dessert!  It can be made ahead of time too! And another great part about this chocolate dessert is that there is no baking required, so whipping these cookie stacks can be done easily!

 

This dessert is made out of cashews for the cookies and is layered with a creamy banana cocoa mousse. Perfect for those chocolate lovers at heart like us. And any amount of chocolate screams Valentine's Day right? These may look difficult to do but promise they are not. An exquisite looking healthy dessert that anyone can do! Just our kind of recipe! We pulled out our Valentine day heart cookie cutters and decided to use 3 different sizes to make a cookie stack. 

We love desserts with layers. What about you? Recipe: Cashew Banana Cocoa Mousse Triple Cookie Heart Stacks prep-time: about 10 minutes the amount of cookies it makes varies depending on what size cookie cutter you use.  

Cashew Cookie Ingredients:

• 1 cup cashew pieces
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup agave nectar (maple syrup or honey would be fine, or even a few pitted dates)

Directions: Place all your ingredients into food processor and pulse till combined. You want the batter to be holding together but without being to wet. 

 

 

Place cashew cookie batter onto a cutting board and roll out. We used a rolling pin. You can use your hands (great for kids) 

 

Once the cookie dough is rolled out grab your cookie cutters and start cutting into the shapes.

 

Set aside the cookies. And the hard part now is trying not to eat them all.

   

Now time to make your banana cocoa mousse for the filling. Banana Cocoa Mousse Ingredients:

• 2 medium bananas
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• splash vanilla

Directions: Place bananas, cocoa powder, coconut oil, and vanilla into a blender and blend till smooth. Pour filling into a bowl and let sit in fridge for 5 minutes to set. This makes it easier to use on cookies for layering. Once you have everything ready time to begin building the stacks. We got three stacks with a few extra cookies. 

 

Place one cookie down on the bottom and top with some mousse. Repeat layers till you get a stack of 3 cookies. With our cookie stacks we did 3 different sizes of hearts so we started with the large cookie heart on bottom followed by the medium size heart and then topped with the smaller heart.

 

We feel with the 3 different sizes really helped give this dessert more personality and depth. But if you only have one size cookie cutter that is totally fine too. The stacks will still look amazing!

 

After building all our stacks we placed them in fridge and let them set for a few minutes. This makes them a little easier to eat. 

 

We hope you all enjoyed our Valentine Day inspired dessert! Making these cookie stacks are a perfect way to show that special someone how much you love them. 

 Enjoy! Lori and Michelle