In a galaxy far, far away lives the version of myself that used to be fun.

There was a time when I was the life of the party!

That’s a lie, my social anxiety has always kept me from obtaining that title.

But I could hang! I mean, in WA, Garr and I used to start a Saturday with a fab brunch & spend the next 8 hours exploring & shopping & eating & listening to live music & doing photoshoots & stumbling upon random festivals & strolling by the water. Fast forward like 1.5 years & Garr and I go to Raleigh for the day, thinking it’ll be like our wild Seattle days. NAHT. We kick things off with brunch, old faithful. Turns out, this place makes all vegan desserts. Mmkay. So we order a peanut butter pie. At 11am. MISTAKE. We immediately need to be tucked in for a nap. But we must persevere! We decide to walk around downtown and find some coffee. This helps but only momentarily. We’re fading. It’s 12:30pm. We try to shop but nothing is catching our eye. We try to stop and grab a drink at this really hip restaurant but there are no seats at the bar. The world is conspiring against us! We’re at a crossroads, we can power through or we can embrace our aging, failing bodies and ditch the downtown scene, go to Trader Joe’s and go home for a siesta. 

Got to TJ’s in time to snag ALLLLL the cauliflower gnocchis. Holler.

 

 

Time: 3 hours (prep + baking) | Serves: 12 tarts

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of unsweetened, shredded cocount
• 1 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp. of coconut sugar
• 1 tbsp. of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of coconut oil
• 1 cup of raw almonds, soaked overnight or placed in a bowl + covered in boiling water, letting soak for 30 minutes-hour, drained
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 2 tbsp. of agave
• 1 tsp. of vanilla extract
• Pinch of turmeric
• 1/4 cup of coconut milk
• Pinch of S
• Blueberries + raspberries for serving

How to:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• In a food processor, combine coconut + flour + sugar + 2 tbsp. of the coconut oil + the S, pulse until well combined + sticks together
• Scoop a tbsp. of the crust mix in lined muffin tins + press flat
• Bake for 10 minutes
• Meanwhile, rinse out food processor
• Add remaining coconut oil + almonds + lemon juice + agave + vanilla extract + turmeric, process + slowly pour in coconut milk, process until smooth + creamy
• Scoop 1-2 tbsp. of lemon filling onto each crust + smooth it out
• Freeze for 2 hours
• Serve chilled with fruit on top
• Take a giant bite out of a tart + smile as wide as the dent you made in it + snap a selfie with your tart + make it your profile picture

 

Adapted from here!