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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Breakfast Bars

Filed Under: Soap Queen Cuisine

Made with coconut flour, these Pumpkin Breakfast Bars are moist and taste just like pumpkin pie!

I love pumpkin treats during fall…I mean, who doesn’t? Pumpkin and spice is such a comforting flavor, and lends itself to so many applications. Pumpkin is also full of fiber, vitamin A and iron, making it a great option for healthy recipes. In particular I enjoy eating pumpkin spice dishes for breakfast. They satisfy my sweet tooth right at the beginning of the day!

These Pumpkin Breakfast Bars are light on sugar but heavy on pumpkin flavor. Made with coconut flour, they are firm yet moist and taste very similar to chewy and slightly-grainy pumpkin pie. I love enjoying these bars after they have cooled in the fridge overnight, but you can also eat them warm out of the oven. Chopped walnuts add a nice texture and crunch. If you prefer a different kind of nut (or no nuts at all) feel free to swap them with your personal preference.

Made with coconut flour, these Pumpkin Breakfast Bars are moist and taste just like pumpkin pie!

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Zucchini Noodle Bake with Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Filed Under: Soap Queen Cuisine

This Zucchini Noodle Bake uses zucchini noodles instead of pasta, and a creamy white sauce made from cauliflower. It's a delicious way to eat your veggies!

Recently, I bought a vegetable spiral slicer and have been spiraling as many veggies as I can get my hands on. I use this slicer and it works great. So far my favorite type of veggie “noodle” is zucchini. Their neutral flavor is great for a wide variety of sauces and toppings, and their texture is truly reminiscent of a real noodle. After baking them with standard tomato and pesto sauce, I began scouring the internet for another option. I came across Pinch of Yum’s recipe for Creamy Cauliflower Sauce and knew it was the perfect match for my veggie noodles.

The cauliflower sauce is rich and flavorful. If you aren’t a fan of cauliflower, it honestly doesn’t taste like it at all. Instead, the flavor of garlic and parmesan cheese shine through to create an amazing substitute for alfredo sauce. If you don’t have a noodle slicer, you can make this dish with standard cut zucchini. Spaghetti squash would also work well. I added tomatoes and capers for another layer of flavor. If you’re a meat eater, you could easily add chicken or meatballs. Yum!

This Zucchini Noodle Bake uses zucchini noodles instead of pasta, and a creamy white sauce made from cauliflower. It's a delicious way to eat your veggies!

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Spicy Thai Peanut Dressing Recipe

Filed Under: Soap Queen Cuisine

This Spicy Thai Peanut Dressing is super creamy, slightly spicy and easy to make!
I’m a zealot about eating healthy and fueling my body for the marathon of life (kids, business, friends, community work etc). When I eat healthier, I feel happier, more energetic and positive. I love love love my team at work; they are thhhhheeeee best and, sometimes, they don’t have time to grab a healthy meal so Bramble Berry offers 1-2 lunches a week. These lunches in the past have included sandwich bars, taco bars, soup, barbecues and salad bars. Basically, if there’s a way to sneak in veggies + healthy proteins, it’s a possible lunch option =)

This Spicy Thai Peanut Dressing is super creamy, slightly spicy and easy to make!My favorite work lunch so far is the salad bar. It includes plenty of veggies such as lettuce, tomatoes and carrots, as well as protein like  hard boiled eggs and chicken. The team does a great job of chopping all the veggies, preparing the eggs, and even making the dressing! Ryan, who works in production, creates amazing salad dressing concoctions, such as this Balsamic & Bacon Vinaigrette. This past Thursday during our salad bar, Ryan made a Spicy Thai Peanut Dressing that the whole office went crazy for! It’s slightly spicy, super creamy and incredibly delicious. I can’t wait to make fresh spring rolls and dip them in this dressing.
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Soap Queen Cuisine: Spicy Baked Plantain Chips with Garlic Cilantro Dip

Filed Under: Soap Queen Cuisine

I love food. Love. Food. I enjoy food from all over the world, and when I was in NY last year I came across a delightful little Cuban restaurant. What I learned is that Cuban foods tend to feature a mixture of flavors and spices that are savory and truly unique. I wanted to bring a little Cuban inspiration to a healthy snack, and these baked plantain chips with garlic cilantro dip did the trick. They won’t take all day to make, and the complexity of flavors in such a simple dish will delight and surprise everyone. Watch out! The chips in combination with the dip are highly addictive.

This Cuban-inspired snack is part of the Havana Classic series, which runs through March 26. This week, watch the Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Homepage and Soap Queen blog for coupon codes and discounts as part of the series.

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Soap Queen Cuisine: Brown Butter & Basil Shortbread

Filed Under: Soap Queen Cuisine

Back in December, the Bramble Berry Office celebrated the holidays with our annual cookie swap. Each person brought in a batch of cookies, and we filled small boxes with everybody’s cookies to take home. It was a fun, sugar-filled day. I crashed by about 2 p.m. after having cookies for breakfast and lunch. I finally had some “real food” around 3 that day and felt a little better! =)

While I’m as much a fan of fudge and gingerbread men as the next person (and for the record, hold the nuts in the fudge), I wanted to bake something a little different. The inclusion of basil in this Brown Butter & Basil Shortbread recipe from Joanne Eats Well With Others was ridiculously intriguing. I changed the recipe a teensy bit (brown sugar instead of traditional sugar) and the revised recipe did not disappoint; it was salty and not too sweet while still having the wonderfully dense mouth-feel of shortbread. Everybody at the cookie swap loved these buttery, basil-flavored cookies. They are not your average cookie and elevate simple shortbread to a foodie’s delight.

They’d be great to take to any upcoming Super Bowl parties! (Yes, the 12th Man lives here. Go Hawks!)

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Sunday Night Spotlight: Dark Rich Chocolate Fragrance Oil

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

If you’re a dark chocolate fanatic like I am, you know that it’s almost impossible to avoid it over the holidays (or for that matter, anytime). With our Dark Rich Chocolate Fragrance Oil, you can indulge as much as you want without any of the calories!

This sweet scent is as realistic as they come. In a review of the fragrance, one soaper’s teenage son thought she was actually baking a chocolate cake! Sugary top notes with deep mocha and cocoa bottom notes give this fragrance excellent staying power in cold process soap. Because it’s such a luscious fragrance, it does discolor to a deep ebony brown.

Edit: We asked for it and you delivered! You suggested so many blends with this wonderful fragrance that we’re listing them below. You can read through the original thread on Facebook here.

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