09/02/2026
Do you know why Im so proud of all this cooking and baking? Because Im doing it at all from scratch at altitude and almost all of these recipes are my first time trying to make these dishes. When I first moved to Colorado, I couldn’t get so much as a standard box cake to cooperate and quickly became frustrated with baking. Nothing came out right. And then I started focusing in high altitude recipes and learning how moisture & cooking change over 3,0000 feet in elevation. And slowly but surely, I started making delicious things again.
So last night around midnight, I decided to make some oat cookies using protein oats, bananas, maple baking chips, AP flour, and brown sugar. Super simple and dairy free. I was trying to make them healthy-ish, so theres fiber and protein involved!
Look at how those maple chips exploded and caramelized!
Banana bread version 2.0. You know, ive been using maple extract and maple baking chips this whole time because it happens to be what i have in the house and they have NOT disappointed. Vanilla gets all the attention but god damn if this isn’t delicious without being too sweet. I deeply dislike things that are too sweet.
I used 4 ripe bananas in this batch. Look at that delicious banana goodness.
I make all my marinara sauce from scratch now. Frozen pizzas started giving me reflux and jarred sauces have been giving me a reaction. Idk if its the acidity or the fact that our food system is running off the rails right now, but either way, scratch made seems to be safest for my neurodivergent ass. Oh and the basil is fresh from my own garden, too. It’s actually stupid easy, whether i use fresh tomatoes or a can of crushed tomatoes, It comes together in half an hour and its fu***ng delicious.
Same great homemade marinara sauce but I will make non vegetarian versions for Adrienne so this includes some hot Italian sausages. In addition to the fresh basil, we Also grew beets in our garden this year and so, we harvested the beets and i sautéed the tender beet greens and chopped the
