These are just as delicious as they are adorable.

Put a little love in your heart and your belly with these lil' cute-sters.

Plus raspberry preserves. Nothing can go wrong when you've got raspberry preserves in a recipe.

I don't care how you felt about Valentine's Day before this... now you've got a reason to love it.

Yerm!

Recipea:

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoons ground flaxseed        
3 tablespoons water
3/4 cup vegan butter
3/4 cups white sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons powdered sugar
6 tablespoons raspberry preserves


Preheat oven to 180C.

In a small bowl, mix together the flax seeds and water and set aside to thicken.

In a medium bowl mix together all the dry ingredients.

In another medium bowl beat the vegan butter and sugar together until creamy.

Add the remaining wet ingredients including the flax mixture, and mix well to combine. Add the dry mixture into the wet in two batches and combine until a dough is formed.

Put the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out to about 1/4 inch thick. Place it on a baking tray and chill for 15 mins in the freezer or 30 mins in the fridge.

Once chilled, use a heart cookie cutter to make as many heart cookies as possible. Leave half of the heart cookies whole, and use a smaller heart cookie cutter to cut out the center of the other half.

Continue until all the dough has been used up (you may need to stick it in the fridge between baking to keep the dough cold.

Lay the cookies on the parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 7 - 11 minutes, until they are just a little bit golden on the bottom.

Let the cookies cool completely. Place all of the cut-out heart cookies on a piece of parchment paper or plate. Use a fine strainer or sifter (I always use one of those clamp loose leaf tea holders - does the job perfect!) to sprinkle the powdered sugar over top.

Take the whole cookies and spread about 1 teaspoon of the jam over the top, keeping most of it in the middle of the cookie. Top with the sugar-coated cut-out cookie. Repeat with all the remaining cookies.

NOM.

Have you ever wanted to make something that's similar to an apple crumble, only savory?

Just me?

Alright then.

Well, be glad I had that weird craving because I've invented something BOMB.

It has delicious, filling ingredients and it's super simple to make.

Let's get comfort fooding, people!

Recipea:
Prep time: 20 mins | Bake time: 30 mins
Makes one casserole (9x13)
Serves 6

1 small white onion
2 cups chopped mushrooms
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp herbs de provence
1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup almond milk
2 teaspoons corn flour

1 medium swede
3 carrots
2 parsnips
1 medium potato
1 vegetable stock cube

1 box sage and onion stuffing mix (or use homemade - or leftovers!)
2-3 tbsp walnuts (optional)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Peel and chop all of the veggies.

Place swede, carrots, parsnips, potato and stock cube into a medium pot over medium high heat and cover with boiling water. Try to cover just above the veg. Don't leave too much room, so as much of the good stock flavor goes into the veggies as possible. Leave to simmer.

While that's cooking, in a medium pan over medium heat, sauté the onion with garlic and oil. When translucent, add mushrooms and herbs.

In a small bowl or mug, whisk together the milk and corn flour. When the mushrooms have wilted a bit, turn off the heat and add the milk mixture to the saucepan and stir consistently until a thick sauce has formed.

In another medium bowl, mix the contents of the stuffing mix with water (according to the package instructions), erring on the side of less water, rather than more. You don't want the stuffing to be soggy - better to be a bit more crunchy. Stir in the walnuts if that's your thang - or whatever else you like in your stuffing.

By this time, the root veggies should be just about fork tender (less tender is better than more for these guys - don't want them to be too mushy - they still have cooking to do in the oven...). Once they are, using a slotted spoon, scoop out the veggies into a 9x13 baking dish (keep the water they were boiling in - that's yummy veggie stock just asking to be made into a soup later!).

Stir the mushroom mixture through the root veg until combined.

Sprinkle the stuffing mixture evenly over the top and pat down to fully cover the veg.

Brush the top with the olive oil and add ground salt and pepper.

Bake in a 180 degree celcius oven for 20-30 mins or until the top has browned.

Enjoy the comfort food bonanza that is about to be your dinner.