Say the words Averie Sunshine 3 times and I guarantee you will smile. Averie is a great friend of mine and I am thrilled to share her with you today as my guest! We have known each other since we started our blogs back in 2009. We hit it off online and are lucky enough to see each other for reals throughout the year.
I love watching my friends careers take off and Averie is one to watch. Through the past year she has transformed her blog to be her dream space. She recognized that she has a passion for baking decadent treats so that has become her focus. She does live a healthy & fit lifestyle with lots of veggies and yoga. However, baking is her happy place.
Take a peek at Averie’s blog today. I am guest posting for her too ~ with delicious chocolate recipes!
I’m Averie from Love Veggies and Yoga.
Marla and I have known each other for about three years and we love getting together for coffee where we catch up on each other’s lives, kids, husbands, and get in a good chit-chat session about once a month.
We both like to travel
And we are both passionate about our photography and I admire Marla’s work so much. The two of us could talk lenses, props, and food styling all day.
Marla is a sweetheart, full of energy, life, and if you read her blog, you know she comes up with such amazingly creative recipes, and of course, she photographs them beautifully,
We decided the last time we met for coffee that it would be neat to do a blog post swap on each other’s blogs. We know we have different readers and thought it would be fun to post on each other’s blogs today.
So, rather that getting Marla’s recipes today, here are a sampling of some of my recent faves that I made in January:
Avocado, Cream Cheese, and Salsa-Stuffed Puff Pastries – Easy and ready in less than a half hour. If you’ve never worked with puff pasty before, give it a shot. You can stuff just about anything into puff pastry, season it, and bake it off. I think it looks impressive but it’s easy, which are the best kind of recipes.
Caribbean Citrus Roasted Sweet Potatoes – My husband adores potatoes and these were right up his alley.
Sweet Potato Graham Cracker “French Toast” Sticks – Sometimes the strangest looking food tastes the best. If there’s a way to take potatoes and make them taste like French toast sticks, without using bread, this is it. They are best potatoes I’ve ever eaten, probably because they taste like French Toast and are sweet like dessert.
Although I cook savory food, I have a raging sweet tooth I have a passion for making desserts. I know Marla is nearly sugar-free, but I am not. I have an extensive arsenal of sweet treats and dessert recipes.
A few desserts I’ve recently made that have been hits in our house include:
Ritz Cracker Stuffed Peanut Butter Cups (No Bake) – Making homemade peanut butter cups is so easy and stuffing a Ritz Cracker slathered with a thick mound of peanut butter inside of them seemed like a good idea to me.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint Cookies (No Bake, Vegan, GF) – I made these when I wanted a PB & J sandwich but didn’t have any bread on hand. Who needs bread when you can satisfy your PB & J craving with cookies.
Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookies with PB Cups & PB M&M’s – I made these in a whoopie pie pan but you can make them in a muffin tin or bake them as regular cookies. My husband said these were the best chocolate chip cookies he’s ever eaten. I think the chunks of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Peanut Butter-filled M&M’s helped sway him.
Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting – Just in time for Valentine’s Day, spring bridal showers, engagement parties, tea parties, girly birthday parties, or anytime. These cookies use a box of strawberry cake mix and are as easy as dumping 3 ingredients into a bowl. If you’ve never made cake mix cookies you have to try cookies this way because they turn out so incredibly soft and chewy.
Thanks to Marla’s readers for humoring us with our blog post swap idea. In order to get your regularly scheduled dose of Marla, hop over to my site where Marla’s post is up.
What have you made recently that was oh-so-good?
Be sure to check in with Averie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest too!
Guest Posts on MarlaMeridith.com
*All of the photos in this post are ©Averie Sunshine Photography
I love the collage you made with my pictures at the top of my post. You’re so good at all this stuff! 🙂
Thanks for having me and your post is up on my site and thanks to all your readers for reading.
Have a great weekend!
xo
A lovely guest post and gorgeous recipes! Thanks to Marla for introducing us to Averie Sunshine. 🙂
Cheers,
Rosa
I love this! What a great way to share one another’s amazing blogs. I follow both of you amazing ladies…loving every post I read! 😀
I do love the name Averie Sunshine! Thanks for the intro, Marla, I’m loving her avocado puffs.
Sommer, I would love to try those puffs! My kids would adore them. Also those sweet potato french toast sticks are calling out my name 🙂
Consider me all over those avocado puffs!
Averie– I have plans to make your hot pepper jelly this weekend (with the addition of mango and I’ll scale back the hot peppers like you suggested). This will be my first attempt at canning so hopefully those jars will pop and seal for me. I’ll let you know!
Great post Averie – I have been following your blog for a while and have seen such growth in your photography – gorgeous shots!
Really great idea. I love learning more about my favorite bloggers!
These come straight off of my Love Veggies and Yogas favorites list! I pinned your avocado cream cheese and salsa puff pastries and they must have been repinned at least 300 times, so apparently I’m not alone! Yummy!
Hey, hey, heeeey!
You two girls are SUNSHINE!!!!!
I need to come to SUNNY California!
Averie’s creations are amazing!
Thanks for bringing so much LOVE and SUNSHINE my way up here in the Northwest!
Hugs to you both!
I gotta get that Lightroom photo editing program~
Averie’s pictures are so BRIGHT!
xo
Thanks ladies for such a wonderful idea! Loved seeing your guest posts 🙂
what a fun surprise to see the lovely Averie over here – love you & your blog!
I have been eying her Avocado, Cream Cheese, and Salsa-Stuffed Puff Pastries, so I’ll take this as a sign — I MUST make them soon! I can’t ignore a sign 🙂
Beautiful post and beautiful friendship! You both are very talented bloggers!
I just started reading Averie’s blog in the last month and I absolutely love it. She makes the most decadent food but it usually is so easy:-) I love learning more about other food bloggers. Thank you for sharing!!!
Cute post today! I love Averie and I look forward to reading her blog everyday and she does put a smile on your face!
What a great guest post, Marla and Averie! Seems like you two were destined to be friends with all your shared passions and talents! Thanks for sharing a great post, you two. Looking forward to more!
It looks like all that chit chat about food photography and props has really paid off for both of you! So beautiful!
This stuff looks so yummy! Thanks Marla for turning me on to yet another great blog to follow. Averie, your stuff looks amazing. I can’t wait to test some of your recipes on my kiddos.
So fun to see you here, Averie!
Love all these shots and recipes. So glad she honed in on her baking skills. Great guest post!
Mike, I believe it has been very liberating for her with the baking. Finding our true passions and reinventing ourselves along the way is such a gift!
What a fun post! I love seeing all of Averie’s amazing goodies!
Nice to meet you, Averie! I have read your blog more than a handful of times and I always enjoy it. It’s nice to see you here on Marla’s blog! Thanks for sharing your yummy recipes.
Beautiful images, recipes, and words. Thank you for sharing!
I love Averie and her decadent sweets and cheerful attitude. I’m crossing my fingers she’ll take me along to Aruba one of these days. 😉
Sylvie, that sounds like a great plan! I think we all need to travel to Aruba with Averie 🙂
I adore Averie! Thanks for sharing your space with her today!
Love it! Two of my fave girls 🙂