Sift together 2 1/2 cups cake flour, 3 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Gently mix together.

In a mixer, beat 1 1/2 sticks of softened unsalted butter, 1 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup shredded coconut. Then add 3 large eggs, one at a time. With the mixer on low, gradually add 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk, and 1 vanilla bean (shown below). To get the batter looking a lovely red, add 2 tbsp of red food coloring.

Instead of vanilla extract, we scraped a vanilla bean instead. If you don't have this on hand, then use 1 tsp vanilla extract to be added to the wet ingredients.

We combined the dry ingredients with the red batter by hand instead of using the electric mixer. In a separate bowl, combine 1 tbsp white vinegar with 1 tsp baking soda and let it activate. Then add it to the batter.

Spray two 8-inch cake pans and divide the mixture into two. (Note: We didn't have two pans handy, so we just used one cake pan for the batter. This will have a longer baking time and we had to cut off the top of the cake after it baked to get it flat.) If you have the two cake pans, it should take about 25-30 minutes to bake or until toothpick comes out clean.

As you can see, we sliced off the top of our cake to give it a smooth texture to prepare for the icing.

We also cut the cake into 3 layers and added a thin layer of cream cheese frosting on each piece. Cream cheese frosting is prepared by mixing 1 package of softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup softened butter, 4 cups confectioner's sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. If the frosting is not as smooth, add 1 tsp of water to help the consistency be more spreadable.

Frost each layer of the cake and finish off with the entire outside of the cake. Don't worry if you get red velvet specks when you are icing because the coconut flakes will cover it.

Sprinkle about 1 cup of shredded coconut over the entire cake, making sure to cover all areas of the frosting. This was definitely the most enjoyable part! Maybe it's because we were at the finish line.

From the outside, it just looks like a white coconut cake, but once you slice into the cake, you get the beautiful red velvet color which is perfect to serve for a Valentine's Day dessert. So now you can have your cake... and eat it too!

The first thing I did was cook 1 lb. of ground beef in a skillet so that I can drain the fat. Yes, it's disgusting, so drain it!! Then set aside. (Optional: I seasoned the beef with salt and pepper).

I used 1 cup diced onions, 1 cup diced green bell peppers, 1/2 cup diced jalapeños, 1/2 cup diced celery, and 1 tbsp garlic. That's right - 1/2 cup of jalapeños, that is why it's so spicy! But it gives it a nice kick. If you can't handle the heat, then just reduce it to 1/4 cup.

Add the above ingredients in a pot and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You are sweating the veggies.

Now comes all of the flavor enhancers: 1 tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper. Then add the ground beef into this pot and mix everything together for a couple of minutes.

Finally, add 8 oz. tomato sauce, 8 oz. beef broth, and 1 can (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for about 10 minutes to let all the flavors incorporate. Taste to adjust seasonings.

Top your bowl of Spicy Chili with some grated cheese, minced red onion, and cilantro. Then dig in! We really liked the freshness of the toppings because it went really well with the hot and spicy chili. You can really taste the cumin and the other spices that gives it that hearty chili flavor! And don't worry - just because we are on a low-carb diet does not mean we won't be making carbolicious foods for the blog... we will still make it, but won't eat too much of it!

This is our organic French sorrel from the garden, which is still alive and strong throughout these cold months. These acidic leaves are high in Vitamins A and C, as well as fiber. Remember - greens are good for you!

To the food processor, we made the pesto by combining 2 cups of fresh sorrel with the ribs removed,(The ribs are the part of the stem that goes through the leaf. It's very tough so it should be discarded), 1/4 cup of pine nuts that we toasted in a pan, 1/3 cup parsley, 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped, 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 cup olive oil.

The mixture is pureed and should look like this. Taste and adjust for seasonings. You will find that it has a distinct lemon flavor.

You can use this pesto sauce in any pasta you want. We went with a bow tie pasta and cooked up some chicken to go along with the dish. The nuttiness from the pine nuts and the tartness of the sorrel definitely makes the meal interesting. And just for fun, we bundled some French sorrel into a bouquet.

As mentioned, we took the remaining sorrel pesto and made a pizza with the store-bought dough we had on hand. We docked and par-baked the dough first in the oven at 400F for 7-10 minutes because we like our dough crispy. Then we took it out to spread the pesto sauce on top.

Then came the rest of the toppings - a ton of mozarella cheese and pancetta that we crisped up in the pan. Pancetta is a cured meat, similar to bacon. We popped it back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so until the cheese was fully melted and the crust was browned.

We sprinkled a little bit of French sorrel chiffonade on top and this French sorrel pesto pizza was ready to be devoured. We really enjoyed utilizing the fresh sorrel from our garden to make these two simple meals, and we hope that you get a chance to try this lovely green herb if you ever come across it. Since we still have a bush of sorrel growing, our next meal will have to be the classic French sorrel soup! Stay tuned!

We love having a lemon tree in the backyard. It's such a useful fruit in so many dishes - from desserts (like this cupcake we're making) to savory dishes like lemon chicken. Of course, there's always the classic lemonade that you can make out of these wonderful lemons!

For the batter, combine 1/2 cup butter (at room temp) with 3 oz of cream cheese. Mmm, fatty.

Along with that, add 1 tbsp grated lemon zest and 2/3 cup sugar. We beat this with a whisk instead of taking out our huge Kitchenaid mixer, but the mixer will be a lot easier. Next, beat in 2 eggs until smooth. Gradually add 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, and a pinch of salt.

Divide the batter evenly between 12 cupcake cups in your cupcake tin. Bake at 325F for about 25 minutes until firm.

Meanwhile, prepare the candied lemon zest. With a vegetable peeler, remove long strips of zest (without pith) from lemon. Then cut into julienne strips.

Place in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for 7 minutes and drain.

Return the lemon strips to the pan and add 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water. Return to a simmer and cook over low heat until the zest is translucent and the syrup is slightly thickened, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Transfer the candied lemon zest to wax paper and set aside. Maybe pop a few in your mouth - you'll love the taste! Sweet and tangy.

To make the cream cheese frosting, combine 3 oz of cream chees with 1.5 cups confectioner's sugar. Add 2 tsp lemon juice and 1 tbsp grated lemon zest. Beat together until smooth. (Oops, this is the wrong photo for this caption. Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the cream cheese frosting process. Let's pretend the flour pouring in is the powdered sugar, ok? Hehe)

When your cupcakes are done baking, let them cool for about 10 minutes before frosting. Top with the candied lemon zest for a nice finishing touch to the Meyer Lemon Cupcakes. Despite all the lemon flavors we added, the cupcakes didn't have a overwhelming lemon taste. It had a nice hint of lemon that worked well with the sweet cupcakes and frosting. Enjoy!

For this recipe, I used only half a package of Oreos because that's all I had left. So, put them inside a bag and start smashing it until it's in finely crumbled. This also works well with a food processor.

Put the oreos in a mixer along with 4 oz. of cream cheese (half a package). Mix together to combine.

To make the texture more gooey and moist, I added 4 tbsp of water to the mixture. This is entirely up to you based on how you want the texture of the oreo balls.

The mixture is placed in the freezer to harden for a bit before I rolled them into 1-inch balls. These are placed on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper for easy handling. I placed them in the freezer again after rolling so it stiffens up.

Take each ball and roll it around in cocoa powder so it's fully dusted and you can't see the blacks of the oreo underneath. This will yield about 24 oreo truffles.

Some people like to dip the oreo balls into melted chocolate or candy melt. But since the filling is already sweet, I didn't want to overpower the sweetness with a heavy coating. This is why I decided to use cocoa powder which is light and has a subtle chocolate flavor. It's also less mess! It's like biting into a brownie but flavored with Oreos. These are great as desserts for any party and people will think you spent a lot more time making it!

Have fun making your Oreo Truffles Dusted in Cocoa Powder! I sure did... just look at my pyramid of Oreo Truffles! I still have some leftovers which I put in the freezer. It's a great treat whenever you need something sweet to perk you up!

Tastefully Simple sent us a package of sauces (as shown): Pomegranate Chipotle Sauce, Bayou Bourbon Glaze, and Merlot Sauce.

This simple meatball mixture is composed of: 1/2 lb ground beef, 1/2 lb ground pork, 1 cup Italian breadcrumbs, 1 egg, 1/3 cup shredded carrots, 1/3 cup grated onion, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Mix it all up!

Now for the fun part--okay, more like the messy part. Shape the meatballs into 1 to 1.5-inch balls. We want them to be small enough so it's easy to pop in your mouth to eat.

What I like to do with my meatballs is brown them first in a skillet over medium heat. This helps brown up the sides and give it that nice texture. It should take about 3-5 minutes to brown up.

Transfer the meatballs to a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush on some Bayou Bourbon Glaze. If you don't have this, any other sauce or glaze that you like will work.

It looks nice and sticky! Now, place this tray into the oven at 425F for 8-10 minutes until cooked through. You can brush it again during the baking process.

Whether you pick up this meatball with a toothpick or a fork, you'll be sure to devour the bold flavors of the Bayou Boubon Glaze en-wrapped in a moist and tasty meatball. It's a great dish to serve as an appetizer for any event - especially "Game Day" parties! We all know how much the guys looove to eat meat!

In a large bowl, whisk together 4 large eggs with 2 cups sugar.

Next, add 15 oz pure pumpkin puree (1 can), 1/2 cup water, 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract and mix together with the egg/sugar mixture.

Now add 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup melted butter to the mixture. If you want to splurge, then just use 1 cup of butter instead of half oil/butter combo that we did to cut some fat.

Time to add the dry ingredients - which consists of 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg. Stir this just until the ingredients are combined - do not overmix or the bread will be tough.

For the final touch, add about 1 cup of golden raisins. If you prefer nuts, you can add pecans or walnuts instead.

The batter goes into a buttered and floured loaf pan and gets baked for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. This batter is good for 2 loaves of pumpkin bread using a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Leave the bread in the loaf pan for about 10 minutes to cool before trying to remove it from the pan. Once removed, it should look like this!

Hopefully through our step-by-step photos, you can see how visibly easy it is to make your own Raisin Pumpkin Bread at home to serve for the holidays. You can always get creative with the filling by adding other ingredients, like walnuts, pecans, or even cream cheese! Get in the kitchen and whip up something good to bring to the party - the host(s) will really appreciate it! Happy Holidays!!