design a life you love
The temperature has yet to dip below 65 degrees in Los Angeles, but I’m still trying to get into the autumn spirit any and every way I can. The best way to infuse a bit of fall into my life? By creating a recipe for gluten free pumpkin spiced cookies, of course!
Have I ever mentioned that summer camp was a huge part of my life throughout my middle school and high school years? I both attended and later worked at camps in Washington State as a camper and then as a counselor. In fact, my first real job was at Camp Don Bosco in Carnation, Washington as a dishwasher! To this day it was one of the hardest yet most rewarding jobs I have had.
To me camp was an escape from reality; an escape from being bullied in school, an escape from feeling out of place and awkward every day. At camp I was given the acceptance and support to really discover who I was and who I wanted to be. It was working at camp where I met one of the best friends I will ever have and it was camp I turned to when I lost him unexpectedly seven years later. Camp was life, camp was love, camp was the smell of crackling embers, the sound of water lapping against the shore, the sight of hundreds of stars against the pitch black night sky. Camp was…s’mores.
I always adored s’mores and the fact that I got to make them with my campers on our weekly campouts in the woods was something I always looked forward to, as did my campers. The whole lot of us equated s’mores to a complete camping adventure and, even when our camp outs were occasionally rained out, I always made sure to still give the kids that part of their summer camp experience.
It has been years since I slept beneath the stars and even longer since I successfully built and started a campfire on my own. I’m not sure I could flip a canoe these days to save my life and the words to some of the camp songs I once loved are long since gone from my head. What remains are fleeting memories of being blissfully happy and free, memories of the sound of my best friend’s voice and laughter, sounds I will never hear again, and memories of roasting marshmallows around a campfire. Camp may be gone from my daily life but every time I bite into a s’more I’m taken back to a less complicated time and place where I fell asleep to the stars and woke to the sunrise, where I’d surprise myself by discovering tan lines on my cheeks from smiling so much, where I fell in love for the first time, where I grew up.
Today, in honor of the warming weather, in honor of the days getting longer, in honor of it almost being time for summer camp once again, and in honor of my best friend, I’m sharing a piece of myself I don’t normally share along with a recipe for s’more cookies.
The struggle is real when it comes to finding delicious desserts that I can eat. Not only am I pretty strictly gluten free, I have also cut back on eating sweets as of late. You see, I have a bit of a sweet tooth and fall into the bad habit of consuming excess amounts of cookies and candy during the holiday season. This past year was no exception and with everything going on in my body right now I made the decision to cut out unnecessary desserts. Smart plan, right? Sure, until I’m hit with a major craving and give in to it.
Knowing that I would inevitably cave to the urge to eat sugar at some point, I began searching for ways to satisfy my cravings in a healthier way. I initially tried replacing cookies with fruit but that didn’t quite do the trick. Enter chickpea blondies. Yes, you read that right. Chickpea blondies.
I have a secret. I have been selfishly withholding what is possibly the yummiest breakfast dish EVER from you. I didn’t mean to keep this gem to myself; I have actually been planning on sharing it for months now. But then June turned into September which turned into December and in the blink of an eye I found myself smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, still clutching this recipe close to my chest. Ultimately I don’t think the timing could have worked out better because it just so happens that this berry crumble is the perfect breakfast to whip up when you need to dazzle a houseful of guests.
