Sunday Smorgasbord Vol. 4
Last Updated on February 14, 2021 by Annie
Happy Valentine’s Day and welcome back to the new and improved Sunday Smorgasbord series!
Upon reflection of the previous 3 Sunday Smorgishborgs (See Vol. 1 if this pronunciation concerns you) I felt it was time to streamline the post to prevent it from turning into a rant about my car…
I am planning to share with you what is new to the blog, what came out on My Life After Dairy a year ago- around this time, different recipes we whipped up this week, fun baking projects- this week includes a decadent birthday cake, and what I am reading (this is mostly to hold me accountable to finishing the books in a timely manner).
New Recipes on My Life After Dairy
Fresh on the blog this week, you can find:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Toffee– Swooooooooon!
Valentine’s Day Dessert Box– Loaded with all the delicious and dairy-free goodness you need in your life!
One Year Ago
Around this time last year I shared these Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Craisin Cookies.
Recipes I Made or Adapted This Week
I honestly did not do much cooking this week since I took on a little #mealprep at the beginning of the week. We made:
BBQ Pulled Chicken from Sugar Spun Run and legit ate it all week.
I converted these Oatmeal Pancakes into Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes by adding a cup of blueberries and I didn’t regret it for a second.
I made my Mom’s Hamburger Helper that we ate for dinners most evenings.
We adapted these Dinner Rolls from Life in the Loft House, which turned the BBQ chicken into sliders. I swapped the milk for oat milk and used unsalted, plant-based butter for the butter replacement.
And one lunch I whipped up some oven-baked sweet potato fries from I Heart Nap Time to go with the BBQ chicken.
Jenni’s Birthday Cake
When I wasn’t working on client projects, baking the goodies for the Valentine’s Day Boxes, or walking Millie for endless miles, I spent my free time preparing to make a Salted Caramel Crunch Cake for my friend Jenni’s birthday. Her husband had recruited my help a month ago and I could not wait to jump on this project.
The inspiration for the cake came from her favorite cake- Sweet Street’s Salted Caramel Vanilla Crunch Cake.
To make this cake I adapted a Vanilla Cake Recipe by using oat milk in place of whole milk and used plant-based butter. Then I split the batter and in 1/3 of the batter I added a Salted Caramel. In the cake pan I swirled the caramel batter into the vanilla batter and baked the cake. After baking I poked the cakes and spread caramel into the pokes.
I finished with a dairy-free frosting recipe from Simply Whisked. I pulled about a half cup of frosting and mixed it with caramel sauce for the frosting layer that went between the two cakes and frosted the remainder of the cake with the plain frosting.
What I am Reading
My morning reading routine includes a non-fiction, get-your-shit together kind of book + reading and journaling from The Daily Stoic and then I end my days with a fiction book before bed.
This week I finished Atomic Habits by James Clear and began Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis.
For my fiction book, I am reading The Historian by Michael Peron.