Carrot cake is one of those things in life that you either hate or love. For those who identify with the latter (including myself), there is something so uniquely comforting about the warming spices, complex textures, and subtle earthy sweetness that make carrot cake the truly delectable dessert it is. The one downside to carrot cake is that although the addition of a vegetable may elude the impression of being healthy, it is still a cake after all. But what if you could harness all that beloved carrot cake goodness into a nourishing, satisfying, and convenient grab-and-go snack? Enter—carrot cake breakfast bars!

As we journey through life, our skin often reflects our inner well-being. With the skin being our largest bodily organ, it’s no wonder environmental and internal factors, such as pollution and stress, greatly influence the appearance of our skin. When counteracting the day-to-day wear and tear on our skin, it’s not often to find a self-care practice that offers an inside-out reset for the skin. Luckily, herbal facial steams are a luxurious, easy, and convenient exception to this. Herbal facial steams encompass an all-in-one aromatherapy, facial care, and sensory relaxation experience that works wonders to rejuvenate tired and dull skin.

The human memory can be a funny thing. Although I often struggle to remember the birthdays of my loved ones, I vividly remember the moment I found out that my most beloved childhood cake, red velvet, wasn’t anything more than chocolate cake with red food coloring. I still have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that red velvet cake isn’t quite the one-of-a-kind red carpet of the cake world I had once believed it to be. 

In this modern day and age, it can feel increasingly tricky to find a topic that all humans see eye to eye on. However, the timeless combination of peanut butter and chocolate seems to be something that nearly everyone can agree is an irresistible match made in dessert heaven. Something about smooth, nutty peanut butter intertwined with rich, decadent chocolate is a treat worth savoring for even the pickiest of tastebuds.

Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, enticingly aromatic, and bursting with earthy flavors–falafel is truly a rhythmic waltz for the tastebuds. In Egypt and Sudan, falafel is referred to as taʿmiya, which loosely translates to “small tasty thing,” and it’s safe to say that anyone who has tried falafel will concur that these fritters are indeed miniature yet mighty delicious bites of bliss. The unique flavor profile of falafel is attributed to a blend of chickpeas, herbs, lemon, garlic, onion, or shallot and a mouth-watering array of spices such as cumin, coriander, and cayenne.

When mineral-rich rocks, natural weathering, and the span of a few hundred years become intertwined, the Earth provides a fine-grained material known as natural clay. For millennia, cosmetic clays have been utilized throughout nearly all ancient and traditional beauty regimens for their beneficial properties and applications for many skin types. The earliest use of cosmetic clay, or “medicinal earth”, dates back to the Stone Age by the oldest known early humans, Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. Experts theorize the concept of using clay was sparked as our ancient ancestors witnessed animals instinctively bathing in mineral-rich mud. These early humans are believed to have mirrored the behavior with a natural clay earth pigment known as ochre to aid in wound healing and soothing irritations. Cosmetic clays have since evolved alongside humans and are a prevalent resource in traditional healing methods throughout Ayurveda, ancient Egyptians, and Indigenous American populations.

You may be familiar with castor oil for its long-standing reputation within the beauty industry as the secret weapon for maintaining luscious hair and providing deep moisture and protection for the skin. However, you likely aren’t as familiar with this precious oil’s fascinating history and countless additional applications. Along with being an effective humectant for scalp and hair, castor oil has been utilized throughout history in everything from cosmetics to leather tanning. Interestingly enough, castor oil has in recent years even been considered as a desirable substitute for petroleum resources used in the fuel production industry!

Blackberry season is upon us once again here in the Pacific Northwest, which is a season I have impatiently waited for every year since I was a young girl. Some of my fondest summertime memories as a child were spent under the scorching sun while cautiously reaching my tiny hands into overgrown thorny bushes to reach the ripest and juiciest berries that my limited reach could grasp. Although my childhood berry-picking excursions typically ended with purple-stained clothes, deep red drips down my hands and arms from smushed berries, and a sunburn, the feeling of walking home with buckets upon buckets of fresh blackberries always made each trip well worth the discomforts.

Ask anyone who knows me, and they will confirm my long-standing reputation for being experimental in the kitchen. Since I was old enough to hold a spatula and use my mom’s stand mixer, there aren’t many recipes I haven’t tried from the stacks of cookbooks scattered throughout my childhood home. One of the earliest culinary experiments I can recall was attempting to make gnocchi from scratch, and let's just say, the result was not the most palatable or even edible. The idea struck my developing brain when I forgot about a boiling pot of pasta on the stove, leaving me with mushy, unappetizing noodles. Scratching my head as I tried to think of an innovative way to salvage my overcooked pasta, I remembered a new food I had recently discovered on a grocery store trip with my family: gnocchi. At the time, my assumption of gnocchi was that they were oddly shaped pasta balls, so I decided to blend up the mushy pasta and shape the mixture into gnocchi balls. Fool-proof and ingenious, right? Wrong. My “gnocchi” turned out to be anything but gnocchi, and I nearly broke our cheap blender in the process. Unsurprisingly, my family and I wound up digging through the depths of our freezer for dinner that night.

For many of us, naptime can feel like a luxury reserved solely for responsibility-free toddlers. As adults, the complexities and pressures of everyday life (aka “adulting”) all too often drive a hard wedge between staying afloat and being well-rested. When we do find those rare moments of peace and quiet, the rambling chatter in our brains can make a power nap feel more like a worry session. With the seemingly endless obligations and expectations that arise from work, relationships, and life in general, it’s no wonder that restlessness is an all-too-familiar theme in the modern human experience.

During the initial brainstorming phase for this blog, I’ll admit that I felt a tad silly for attempting to emulate a mocktail of a gin fizz. After all, the first word in this classic cocktail’s name is the primary ingredient that I could not utilize in an alcohol-free version. As a big fan of gin's complex, piney flavor, I knew it would take some trial and error to recreate such a uniquely flavorful alcohol alternative. Along with the absence of the usual star ingredient in a gin fizz, I also wanted to make this mocktail vegan. With over a decade of being vegan under my belt, that was the easy part!