Meet Monique
Girl behind the blog. Ambitious by nature. Passionate about pancakes, life, and laughter. Here to inspire you.
Food Photography
Popular Posts
Crunchy Cashew Thai Quinoa Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing {vegan & gluten-free} 
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies {flourless, no butter} 
Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies {my favorite cookie ever} 
Healthy Chicken Chickpea Chopped Salad 
Flourless Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies with Sea Salt {vegan, gluten-free & healthy} 
Brown Butter Snickerdoodle Cookies 
Kale, Edamame, and Quinoa Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette 
Best Ever Vegan Avocado Chocolate Birthday Cake with Vegan Chocolate Ganache 
Vegan Detox Green Monster Smoothie {with kale, strawberry, cucumber, & banana} 
Strawberry Coconut Chia Seed Banana Bread
Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchilada Skillet
Welcome to 2013! I hope you had a blast ringing in the New Year. I know I did!
Now that it’s January, I realize that most of us are now on some fitness or health mission. I really haven’t made any resolutions, other than to never let myself miss out on an experience that I find interesting or challenging. However, I do think that it’s finally time for me to get back into the swing of things health-wise. Today I finally made it to yoga after being sick for the past week; it felt wonderful to just be there. I’m also making an effort to get rid of all of the junk I ate last month — ugh, like enough with the cookies already! Yep, I just said that.
Even if I’m eating healthier, I just can’t find a reason why I would give up eating Mexican food. Why torture myself? We all know how that would end up — me with a plateful of nachos, a giant margarita, and a whole lot of guilt. Who gives up the things they love the most? Not this girl.
Instead throwing all Mexican food out the window in my quest to eat better, I try and find ways to make it healthier yet still delicious enough to make me daydream about it alllll day long.
Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladassssssssssssssssss. OMG. In a freaking skillet.
Let’s discuss this magical concoction that jumped out of my mind, into the skillet, and down my belly. …Or we could just stare at photos and drool?
Garlic White Bean Basil Hummus + Homemade Toasted Pita Chips
Welp, it’s Monday. I have a lot of things that I need to share with you. So let’s just get to it!
1. I got an iPhone. My life has officially changed… I don’t know if it’s for the better since I’m pretty obsessed. This weekend my godson downloaded like 5 ninja apps. He also read my texts. Yes, quite entertaining. Oh and obviously I now have Instagram. I basically just take photos of food, brown butter, and things that don’t matter. SO COOL, right? Wrong.
2. I’m headed to NYC this week! Eeeek! Can you believe that I’ve never been before? I am SO excited. I’ll only be there a few days, but trust me,you are going to want to see the recap. We’re staying in the Trump tower! I also really need some incredible restaurant recommendations so send them my way puhhhlease?
3. My birthday is in like, a month and 10 days… but who’s counting? ANYWAY due to this immediate holiday coming up, I have to start thinking about what I really want to do. I have concluded that I need an incredible meal, followed by a HOMEMADE pumpkin pie served with real whip cream. Really, it’s all I want. Or a trip to Greece. Either one would work.
4. That being said, Thanksgiving is soon. There will be epic desserts on this blog in the next coming weeks. Bear with me as we expand our waistlines… OR you could just make the recipes for other people and give them yoga pants for Christmas.
5. This HUMMUS needs to be made by you. Also bonus points if you make homemade pita chips and eat it for breakfast because you know that’s what I did. I have to thank the fabulous Giada for the inspiration. I have to thank myself for slathering it over everything in sight.
My basil plant is still producing huge leaves, so I decided that it was time to use them up. Holy italian-hummus-love this is GOOD. The basil, garlic, and white bean hummus makes the perfect appetizer and is pretty great on just about anything.
Hummus on sandwiches. Hummus for breakfast. Hummus snacking is totally good. I would know, I dipped carrots, snowpeas, and every veggie imaginable in it. At one point I contemplated putting it on a granola bar, but decided that was taking it too far. But I don’t know. It might still happen.
Oh and the whole making your own pita chips thing? Probably the easiest thing you could ever do. I usually buy the 100 calorie whole wheat pita bread. Western Bagel makes an amazing high-fiber, lower-carb pita bread, but feel free to use any you like!
Black Bean Avocado Chocolate Chip Fudge Brownies {gluten-free & low-fat}
I was planning on giving you a recipe for hummus today, but after making these brownies I knew that I had to share them with you immediately! In fact after I ate half of the pan for dinner, I’m quite certain that these brownies are some of the best I’ve ever had.
I don’t even feel guilty about getting chocolate wasted with these bad boys.
I had heard about black bean brownies before, so I’ve been experimenting for a few weeks with various recipes and came up with this to surprise and delight you.
After baking these, I stood there smiling with chocolate all over my face because I had finally perfected a recipe for fudgy healthy brownies that taste AMAZING. Yeah, okay I know you’re doubting me right now. You might even think I’m super weird (which I totally am).
But can you just trust me on this one?
Spicy Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas with Pumpkin Sour Cream Sauce
Hi! It’s been a while and I apologize for not blogging as frequent. My site has been having issues lately, but just know that we’re working hard to get all of the kinks fixed, so hopefully it will be running faster soon!
Besides that I think we should catch up. You know, just chat about life and such.
Lately I’ve been trying to get back into eating oatmeal for breakfast (I act like it takes effort to eat healthy?), working up to a faster mile, teaching myself new cooking techniques, baking fall goodies, and of course, organizing my life. I’ve been really wanting to get better at blogging more and I have a million recipes written down; it’s just that writing and editing tends to always take up more time then I expect it to.
Anyway this recipe has been just waiting for you, begging to be cooked. Like for an entire week! I mean, now that it’s October, I feel like I can really break out the pumpkin recipes, comfort food, and oh my goodness… all of the delicious treats involving brown butter just scribbled on my chocolate-stained notebook.
Last week I was craving comfort; warm; ooey-gooey goodness that would make me sink into a food coma in a very good way. But what was it going to be?
I searched around the kitchen. There was a roasted chicken in the fridge, canned pumpkin that was begging to be used, and those million dollar mexican spices (garlic, cumin, chili powder, etc).
It’s a bit obvious what happened, right?
I shredded the chicken to bits and pieces.
Kale, Edamame, and Quinoa Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
It’s coming to a point on my Facebook where everyone is becoming engaged. I don’t know what’s happening?
I mean, any time I even think about having a boyfriend I can’t help but laugh; all of the guys I go on dates with are either A) committed to work, B) completely awkward, or C) have questionable intentions. But I guess that’s what happens when you are 23.
So for now I think I’ll stick to single lady things until the man of my dreams (who might resemble Joshua Jackson aka Pacey from Dawson’s Creek) comes into my life. Plus if I had a boyfriend I probably couldn’t get away with making him eat quinoa and kale instead of manly beer battered onion rings and cups of BBQ sauce… or whatever Burger King is advertising this week.
What are your thoughts on that?
Blink.
Hmmm, got it.
Let’s move on discuss adult things. Like salads.
My mom used to make a big batch of raw kale salad with lemon, olive oil, garlic, and bell peppers. She would let it still a few hours until the lemon juice broke down the kale and the flavors became melded together; it was sensational.