I love this time of year; going to the farmers market to see all of the bright and fresh produce and of course using it in my cooking.

Spring also brings a sense of freshness and inspiration to me, so here are my favourite things from this past month including cookbooks, recipes and florals to brighten up your day!

March went by in a flash but I’ve definitely spent some time enjoying two new books from the library. First, I’ve been thoroughly loving Modern Lunch by Allison Day. The recipes totally shake-up what you ‘think’ lunch should be with some seriously delicious flavour combinations. What I really enjoy about the book is the ‘mix and match’ sections that give you a ton of ideas for using different recipes together for delicious lunches!

The second book I cannot get enough of is The Cook’s Atelier. Simply put, you are transported a French cooking school and culinary boutique in a town in France. With beautiful photos, recipes and stories from their cooking school, it’s absolutely a divine read!

And, I always like trying out other bloggers’ recipes, like these Baked Teriyaki Meatballs with Roasted Broccoli from The Modern Proper. I made this as a ‘build your own bowl’ kind of dinner for family and they absolutely LOVED it!

So, what are we cooking as we head into April? Here’s some inspiration for you!

Almonds – Almond Butter Squares

Grapefruit – Grapefruit Lavender Spring Blossom Cocktail

Leeks – Leek & Pancetta Pasta

Peas – Easy Pea Soup

Radishes – Spring Toasts with Radishes, Pea Shoots & Feta

Spinach – Bacon, Mushroom & Spinach Quiche

So, what’s your favourite Spring ingredient!? Is there a recipe you’d love to see on the blog?? I’d love to hear from you!

I’m also making a list of DIY projects because I am in the mood to create! I’m going to try my hand at these DIY Watercolour Cloth Napkins to use in an upcoming photoshoot so stay tuned to see how those turn out.

And, I’ll have some highlights from a trip to Arizona to share with you too!

Until the next cooking adventure,
Jess

The post What’s In Season – Monthly Favourites appeared first on Cooking in my Genes.

Sam from Sugar & Sam Blog and I collaborated in the kitchen for this recipe and we had a ton of fun baking together!

We only knew each other from Instagram and ended up meeting in person at a YYC Blogger Babes Meet-up. Realizing we had a lot in common, we decided to collaborate on two recipes and were lucky to have Rogers Foods partner with us to create two recipes that reflect some of our favourite things – desserts and oats! As a blogger we are often in the kitchen by ourselves so it was such a nice treat to get to create something delicious in the kitchen with Sam.

First we went to the grocery store and picked up a bunch of baking ingredients courtesy of Rogers Foods plus a couple of other items we needed and then headed back to my house for an afternoon of baking and taking photos.

This is the first recipe we created together where we substituted in a few of our favourite ingredients including almond butter and toasted coconut to a Rogers Foods recipe. Plus we got to try out Rogers Foods Wheat Germ in this recipe which gives the bars a wonderful nutty flavour.

Total time: 1 hour
Servings: 24-30
Equipment:  square cake pan (8×8 or 9×9), baking sheet

Ingredients:

Bars:

1/2 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup almond butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 ¼ cup Rogers Whole Grain Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup Rogers Wheat Germ
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup unsalted cashews, chopped
1 cup sweetened coconut, toasted

Frosting:

1 ¾ cup icing sugar
½ cup almond butter
4 tbsp almond milk

Instructions:

Pre-heat your oven to 350F.

Cream together margarine and brown sugar.  Add eggs in one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Then, stir in almond butter and vanilla.

Next, in a separate bowl combine the flour, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cashews.  Then, stir this dry ingredient mixture into the creamed mixture.

Pour your batter into a buttered square cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

While your bars are baking, make your icing by combining the icing sugar, almond butter and almond milk and set aside.

When your bars are done, turn your oven to a low broil, spread the 1 cup of coconut onto a baking sheet and toast for about 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.

You can frost the bars while they are still warm and then top with the toasted coconut (pressing the coconut down gently into the icing).

These bars are best shared with a friend over coffee and conversation, which is pretty much what Sam and I did after these delicious Almond Butter Squares were done!

And stay tuned for our other baking collaboration coming in the next few weeks!

Until the next baking adventure,
Jess

Disclaimer: Thank you to Rogers Foods for sponsoring this post.  Thank you for supporting the brands that I support. All opinions are my own.

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