Healthy Flourless Dark Chocolate Brownies {Gluten & Dairy Free}

Healthy Flourless Dark Chocolate Brownies

{Gluten & Dairy Free}

Healhty Brownie 3You know those annoying “ads” on Facebook that are so misleading? Like the picture of a banana with the title “10 foods that are slowly killing you”. Yeah, you totally know the ones. They’re a buzzkill. Sometimes I’m deceived and click on them and read the craziest things and always wonder…what are these sites that only have that stuff? Who’s making money from this? How is this a real thing? Who writes that stuff? Do people believe this stuff? I probably spend too much time thinking about it to be honest.

What does that have to do with brownies? Ummmm not much.

I think I saw one one time about being addicted to sugar and how sugar is the devil. Totally agree…sort of. Too people people eat too much sugar and sugar is unnecessarily added to so many things. While I struggle um, try really hard um, attempt to keep processed sugars to a minimum in our diet, natural sugars are fair game! Honey, syrup, all fruits, molasses, rapadura, yes please, sign me up.

Inappropriate side note: if you love black and sweet coffee,  honey in coffee is delicious.

Focus. Back to the brownies!  These puppies are made with beans and nuts  (last time made dessert with beans it turned out great too) cocao powder and sweetness from maple syrup. They’re too good to be true! But it is true. +Plus+ if you add chocolate or carob chips you gets extra special gooey spots, which lets face it, just make the world a better place. Healthy Brownie 9Healthy Grain Free Brownie Recipe100% disclosure here…. I’m having a hard time not making these every day and eating them and rationalizing it as healthy for me. So far only the one batch of them, but I can feel another one coming on. I mean c’mon you guys….like, how could you not?Healthy Brownie 11Healthy Brownie 8Healthy Brownie 4Healthy Brownie 7Healthy Brownie 5You’re hungry for them now, right? Make them. You’ll love them. *pinkey swear promise*

xoxo

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Healthy Brownies Pinterest

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Butternut Squash & Spinach Lasagna

Butternut Squash & Spinach Lasagna

HeadersThe weather the past week or so around here has been out of this world! In Wisconsin, weather fluctuates pretty extremely. One day could be 70 degrees and then you get snow the next.  It’s a lot to handle sometimes.

You know what’s not hard to handle? This super duper easy and even more super duper delicious lasagna. It’s simple to make and a nice mix up from tomato sauce lasagnas.

I love to stock up on winter squashes and hoard save for use throughout the winter and spring. Some of them I chop and freeze (really just the butternut to have on hand for recipes) but mostly I just leave them in a cool, dark, dry place and I’ve never had one go bad before I get to use it.

These flavors will warm you from the inside out and the steps are simple. BONUS for you- in a rare chain of events, I actually documented the process (sort of). Feast your eyes and hopefully later your belly on this:

ONE: combine your butternut squash filling ingredients in food processor or high powered blender. Blend well until creamy. DSC_0639TWO: combine all of your spinach and cheese filling ingredients in a bowl. DSC_0653THREE: layer and assemble the lasagna. Follow those “layer instructions” below. DSC_0662FOUR: finish the layers and then top generously with cheese, because #Wisconsin.
DSC_0671FIVE: bake it, divvy up, and devour ❤DSC_0690Oh so delicious. I love nutmeg but some people are not big fans, you can omit if you would like, although I might judge your sanity because it’s so good. I could go on and on, but I’ll let these pictures speak for themselves. Hopefully you make this and love it too!DSC_0705DSC_0723DSC_0706DSC_0749If you’re not drooling now, something might be wrong with you. Here’s the recipe so you can make this for yourself. Recipe Cards

DSC_0762We’ve had a LOT of new views and new subscribers in the past few days because of the love from and a post by Madison Magazine. If you’re a new reader or just popping by, WELCOME! I hope you enjoy taking a peak around Eat Laugh Craft. Feel free to comment or send me messages, I love to connect with all my readers.

xoxo

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Báhn Mì Pizza

Báhn Mì Pizza

20151215_182330editI think I’ve found a new hobby, turning delicious foods into pizza. Like this incredibly, insanely delicious Bahn Mi pizza.

I am a big time menu planner and I usually try to plan at least a weeks’  worth of meals at a time, and sometimes more. I made this delicious carnitas recipe and knew I would have leftovers. That, on top of the fact I had this delicious aioli sitting in my cupboard just waiting to be used, randomly inspired this bomb a** pizza. 20151215_185919editThe first time I had Bahn Mi was several years ago at Saigon Sisters in Chicago and I think I just stopped drooling over it like… last week. Hands down one of my favorite flavor combos is south east asian flavors….scratch that, most asian flavors are my favorite.  But Thai, Vietnamese, Korean ❤ ❤ ❤ maybe it’s the rice, ginger, lemongrass, curry, cilantro…not sure but I love it all.

Although I used this pre-made sauce for the base layer of the pizza, you could totally make your own. Just by mixing a little homemade mayo with chili sauce, lime juice, grated or powered ginger and tada! delicious creamy pizza base. 20151215_183408eeditSince national pizza day was this past Tuesday, I thought it was only fitting to share this recipe this week!ALWAYSSUMMERIngredients:

1 pizza crust of your choice
1/3 cup thai aioli or spicy mayo (see note above)
pork carnitas leftovers (around 1.5 cups)
1 cup mozzarella cheese
2 medium carrots, julienned
½ English cucumber, julienned
1/4 cup cilantro
Sriracha or thai chili sauce

Directions:

►Preheat oven to 400° or what your pizza package directions say
►Spread thai aioli over pizza crust and top with shredded pork, mozzarella cheese, and julienned carrots.
►Bake in oven for 14-17 minutes or until ingredients are heated through and starting to brown.
►Remove from oven, garnish with the julienned cucumber and cilantro.
►Drizzle with spicy hot sauce if desired and ENJOY!!

20151215_183103editSoooooo good. Pizza is like the chameleon of food. There are so many possibilities and any type is amazing! No, try me…. name one that isn’t good. Didn’t think so 🙂 20151215_185741edit

xoxo

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Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Butternut Squash

Curried Vegetables w/ Creamy Polenta

Curried Vegetables with Creamy Polenta

DSC_9858pmLately I’ve been feeling a little, blah.

It’s freezing outside, it’s the middle of January, I see approximately 7 minutes of sunlight a day, and the list of BLAH-ness goes on.

I still feel a little sluggish after the holidays and my body is still craving fresh and nutrient dense foods.

My favorite recipes are the ones that aren’t “recipes” at all. You can throw in any ingredients you want and really get creative. Some of my favorite examples of things you can do this with are stir fry’s and curries, although there are many more.

This was inspired by something I saw over at Naturally Ella and threw in whatever I had on hand. It turned out beautiful and delicious! DSC_9864pmI love polenta and really think we should eat it more. Especially when it’s creamy and made with really fresh and delicious pasture butter(my personal fav). It’s so simple to make and is the perfect base for a healthy dish.

There are so many delicious ideas I’ve seen recently. For starters this one, this one, and this one. Soooo good.  DSC_9881pmIt’s also really easy to make. Take a looksies, and make this this week when it’s freezing out and you need a little warming pick me up 🙂 ALWAYSSUMMERDon’t forget you can use any veggies or ingredients your heart desires!! Experiment and have fun, that’s what cooking is all about 🙂

Enjoy!DSC_9866pm

xoxo

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Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Butternut Squash

Roasted Cauliflower Beer & Cheese Soup

Roasted Cauliflower Beer & Cheese Soup

DSC_0330editWinter.is…..here. It’s snowy, it’s sleeting, it’s icy, it’s…..COLD.

But that’s nothing this delicious and *BURSTING* with flavor soup, can’t fix.

Jake helped me make this soup and when we got to the part where you put all the ingredients in the blender and puree into the freaking smoothest thing this side of, I don’t even know… he was a little concerned.

“Wait. What are you doing? You’re going to blend it all up? It looks good enough as it is. Are you sure?”

Truth is, he had a good point. The soup did look delicious and great as is, before blending. But seriously you guys….. don’t be tempted. The silky smooth creamy velvet texture that a Vitamix blender creates is out.of.this.world.20160106_171020editNow we were  fortunate enough to have received a Vitamix as a wedding gift, but any high powered blender will work well (I’m told). I’m still learning the ways of the Vitamix and all the amazing things we can do with it. This was the first soup we made and I am SERIOUSLY impressed. I’ve obviously had a regular blender for most of my life and I’ve tried to make blended soups, both in the regular blender and also with an immersion blender. But seriously while those other two methods obviously work to a degree and definitely have their place in my kitchen for other tasks, I’ll never, EVER use either one again for the purpose of creating a smooth blend of ANYTHING(smoothies, soups, dips, hummus, etc…).

Yummm. I’m actually eating leftovers of this for lunch today so these pictures are making me hungry already. DSC_0322editEven though the soup does have beer and cheese in it, because, why not? Oh and Bacon….we got a hearty 6 servings out of this batch of soup so for each serving you aren’t really indulging toooo much. But it will taste like you are. While eating this soup, it was like an EXPLOSION of flavor. So many of them. We both said aloud, “Wow, this is great. It’s like you can taste all the individual ingredients but yet they combine to make a kick a** combo!” Paraphrasing of course 🙂 And no lie, the leftovers were even better.

But it was really good, and overall pretty simple:
ALWAYSSUMMERWe used some pretty serious dark beer in ours, a dark ale from a local brewery, so our soup had some serious beer flavor, which we loved. But if you aren’t really into that, you could try a lighter brown ale (like Newcastle or something similar).

Additionally, you could make this vegetarian/vegan by omitting the bacon. If you did this, I would add an extra tbsp of oil when sauteing your veggies. I honestly still think it would be delicious even without bacon, so no fear of missing out on flavor!

Serve with some crusty bread or crunchy crackers and ENJOY!!!20160106_170921edit

xoxo

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Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Butternut Squash