A Little Slice of Everything -- a boasting of my favorite pastry shop.

Life's been pretty busy -- from working five on campus jobs, being in 3 plus extracurricular activities, to taking 17 credit hours and graduating in 2 weeks (!!), I'm finding it hard to find time to make food. In that being said, however, I was able to go on a little adventure today to my favorite bakery in Lincoln and thought I'd share my love of it, Goldenrod Pastries with you.

The staff is always friendly, and the decor inside is what makes it even sweeter; pastels, warm smiles, and a homey feel, it's everything that reminds me of what a bakery should be.

From clock wise, above, we have a chocolate cupcake, cinnamon roll, peach coffee cake and a piece of chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. All are gluten free, and vegan -- which is why Goldenrod is one of my very favorite places to go.

If you'd like recipes to the sweets above, though I cannot promise that they be the same, but similar to them, click the links below.

For the chocolate cupcake, click here. For the frosting, click here.

For the cinnamon roll, click here. If you'd like to read about my attempt at vegan cinnamon rolls, click here. If you'd also like to read about my attempt at vegan frosting, click here.

For the peach coffee cake, click here.

For the chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, click here.

Please remember that just because it is vegan, it is not necessarily healthy. Recipes use coconut oil, a product high in saturated fat. Enjoy and stay tuned for my reviews on the recipes above!

How to Make Authentic Palestinian Hummus

In Palestinian households, there are a few staple foods that we make, and many foods that we are proud of. Some of them you may recognize or be familiar with, like falafel, chickpea nuggets. Some you may not recognize, like tabbouleh, a bulgur salad. An ever more popular item, hummus, is the one thing many know instantly.

A chickpea spread filled with lemon, tahini sauce and sometimes garlic, it's something that you won't want to miss out on!

For this dish, I didn't use a recipe as I've been making hummus for year. The way that I do it, is similar to this recipe. You soak garbanzo beans over night, then peel the skins off. Pulse them in a food processor and when they get to a pulsed consistency where everything is mixed, add tahini sauce (mixed previously with lemon).

Taste the mixture as you go and when you get it to you're liking -- plate it! We plate ours with olives (with pits), and Arabic pickles.

For a recipe similar to the one that my family uses, click here!

Three ingredient Ice Cream to Curve Your Cravings!

I love ice cream, but not the calories, as well as the fats that are packed into the soft serve that encompasses everyone's summertime memories.

In being on Facebook, I always saw ice cream being made out of bananas so I thought I'd give it a try.

The recipe is pretty simple and you can add a lot of things to the base to further the creation. The instructions are: freeze a cut up, medium sized banana, then blend the banana in a food processor until smooth. I added peanut butter from Fresh Thyme and cacao powder, because I love peanut butter and chocolate ice cream! The end results were healthy and creamy all while I got to enjoy my chocolate and peanut butter combination!

For the base of the ice cream (before you add other flavors) recipe, click here!