It’s a perfect recipe, really: simple and easy to adjust, and yet with a flavour twist that many people will find unusual. Balsamic vinegar on strawberries is probably more common – in fact, I’m looking forward to trying out the People’s Pops recipe for popsicles of that flavour. Black pepper, though, is less so. As you can tell from the comments on the site, this flavour combination is a love-hate thing. I’m on the love side of the spectrum.

It’s easy – make the cookie dough, then freeze some into little chunks, about the size you would want them in your ice cream. Then when you make banana soft serve or your favourite other ice cream, toss the chunks in right at the end, so they get chopped in a little – or just stir them in.

Next up? I’ll have to figure out a new version of dulce de leche ice cream.

This time, I tossed in half an avocado, and I’m glad I did – it upped the creaminess factor while adding in some healthy fat and fibre. Here’s the recipe, though forgive me – the amounts are just rough guidelines.

• 1 banana
• 1 cup frozen cranberries
• 1/2 avocado
• 3 dates
• 1-2 tbsp each almond butter, hempseeds, coconut oil, protein powder (I like Vega)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 cup water, or as needed

Blend and enjoy!

In need of a chocolate fix (and it’s “feels like minus 10 outside”, as in I don’t want to leave the house anymore today), I was searching for some emergency chocolate recipes, and figured I’m not the only one. But some of the recipes I found that were labelled emergency included chocolate (not cocoa) as an ingredient, which confuses me: if it’s a chocolate emergency, wouldn’t you just eat the chocolate instead of baking with it, if you had any?

My usual is banana with quick chocolate sauce. The sauce, easily adaptable, is a blend of coconut oil, cocoa powder and maple syrup in near-equal amounts, with a touch of vanilla and salt if you like. Whisk together and pour over the banana, either freshly sliced or – if you’re feeling fancy – sliced lengthwise and fried in some coconut oil until gooey and delicious. (Use butter if you want.)

But here are a few other options, some of which I’ve made and some I’ve just pinned:

• Chocolate Frosting Shots
This genius recipe is super simple and only requires that you have thick coconut milk hanging around. In my more ambitious states, I keep a can or two in the back of the fridge to use for emergency faux whipped cream, too, and those will do just fine. It doesn’t matter in terms of flavour if your coconut milk is a little runny, it’s more a texture thing, and chilled is nice. I jazzed mine up tonight with a touch of espresso powder.

• Frozen Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Bites
Uses chocolate chips, which isn’t something I keep in my house due to eating them, but the peanut butter part is genius, and I bet you could adapt my sauce recipe above for this. If you try it, let me know.

• Raw Cacao Pudding
Uses irish moss gel, which means it only counts as an emergency recipe if you happen to have any in your fridge. But I’m dying to try this.

• Chocolate Chia Pudding
Delicious. She says to let it sit for one to ten hours but honestly, I’m sure I’ve eaten it after 15 minutes or so.

I’ve never had tons of luck with the cake-in-a-mug recipes I’ve found, and I’m still hunting for a recipe for a single chocolate cookie. Do you have any others to add?

Yesterday while shopping at Karma I noticed some interesting nuts in the corner, next to in-shell walnuts and hazelnuts: heartnuts, they were called. Michael, the produce manager, happened to be in the store so I asked him about them. He said they were similar to a walnut but without the astringency – and that they required a hammer to open. Sounded interesting, so we packed a few up to take home and tried them today.

Michael was right. You do need a hammer, and like all nuts, some will be easy to open and some end up in crumbs.

According to information on the interwebs, heartnuts are a variety of Japanese walnut. The tree apparently doesn’t grow true to seed, so certain varieties have been developed for grafting. According to this website, a variety called Imshu is grown in the Niagara region – perhaps this is the one I tried?

In any case, they do taste like a non-bitter walnuts, and bonus: they didn’t make my mouth itchy, like walnuts tend to do (although I eat them so rarely that they don’t do it as bad as they once did). And perhaps most important: how gorgeous are the shells? I can’t bear to throw them in the green bin.

Black bread with carrots in it, from this recipe from 101 Cookbooks. Delicious. It makes a huge loaf, you could easily split it into two. Good with chili.

101 Cookbooks is one of my favourite blogs, and this super-easy egg quesadilla recipe (like many of her posts) is one of those things you wish you’d made up yourself. Instead, I made it local with some awesome ingredients.

First, ox-eye daisy capers I picked up in Quebec:

An egg from Hope Eco-Farm, picked up at Karma Co-op, with a corn tortilla and sprinkled with Monforte hard sheep cheese.

Folded up deliciousness.

Served with a dollop of yogurt.

Today my dear former coworker Sonya of Frost Cake Co. was kind enough to come over and teach me the art of macaron-making. I can’t say I’ll be able to reproduce today’s efforts (for one thing, I don’t have enough Silpats or baking trays) but it was fun to get the experience and now I have a starting point to play around on my own.

Ready to go in the oven:

Peeking through the oven door:

Freshly baked:

Matcha filling:

Matcha macarons:

And blackcurrant filling (we also did chocolate and salted caramel):

Thanks, Sonya!

1 banana
1 cup frozen mango
3 oranges, peeled and cut at least in half
3 tablespoons hemp seeds
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/4 avocado
1/2 cup water
protein powder and other add-ins to taste (this time of year, drops of vitamin D go in all my smoothies)