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Hi! I haven't forgotten or given up on this, I have just been SO BUSY lately. Well, that's only partly true. I have been doing a lot of extra painting classes at work, but today is the first unofficial day of my vacation! I'm not going to lie, taking a week off is not going to be easy on my wallet. But the extra shifts I've been taking will help a little, and everyone needs some down time, right? Well, now I'm swimming in it.

In addition to that I have been working hard on some paintings. If you have any interest in art, I highly recommend downloading an app called Sktchy. Yes, without the E. It's a wonderful, encouraging community full of pictures for you to choose from and create art of. I recently surpassed 1,000 on the app and have been showing my appreciation by doing a lot of portraits for people. If you'd like to see them, download the app and search for me, Ryan M. wink Or you can find me on Instagram at ryanm642.

So today I don't have a whole lot to say because I want to save a post for my vacation adventures. Toby is coming down from Chicago this weekend, and I'm so excited because I haven't seen him since the beginning of May. We have a lot of things to pack into the weekend, and afterwards I have to bring together a meal for my family dinner. I'm not close with my family in the slightest, but I'm actually pretty excited for this because I'm cooking an entire vegan dinner, of course, and they have to eat it. There will be a recipe post on that as well.

I'll cut to the chase and give you one of my favorite recipes ever. I was too lazy to look back and see if I've already shared it before, but I don't think I have. These pumpkin pecan "donut" balls are really easy to make and so good, of course. They don't even have to be called donuts, really. You could flatten them into cookies. You could shape it into a cake. You can even cut them into the shape of pumpkins if you feel like it. But I think they work best as round balls: you get more use out of the dough and they're just so cute. Here's what you'll need:

1 cup of raw pecans
2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/4 cup of brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 a teaspoon of ginger
1/4 teaspoon of each: nutmeg and allspice
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of solid coconut oil
3/4 cup of pumpkin purée
1/4 cup of almond milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

For the maple glaze:
1 cup of powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of melted coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1/3 cup of pure maple syrup, more if needed

Preheat oven to 425 and line a pan with parchment paper. Bake the nuts until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Then chop into fine pieces.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, 3/4 of the chopped nuts, baking powder, sugar, spices, and salt. Whisk together.
Cut the coconut oil into the dry ingredients with a fork
Stir in the pumpkin purée, almond milk, and vanilla extract. At first it will seem like there isn't enough liquid to form a dough, but use hands to mix if necessary. Add splashed of almond milk if needed.
Roll the dough into balls and bake for about 15 minutes.
Whisk together the glaze ingredients until smooth, adding maple syrup in increments until you reach the desired consistency/flavor. Dunk the donut balls into the glaze only when they have completely cooled, then top with the remainder of the chopped pecans while glaze is still wet.
Refrigerate for roughly 30 minutes.