Welcome to Vast Recipes! I'm Sarah Johnson.
Hi there! I'm Sarah, and honestly, I never thought I'd be running a recipe blog. It all started when my doctor suggested I cut back on refined sugar and wheat after some digestive issues a few years ago. I was devastated, baking was my stress relief, my way of showing love to my family. The thought of giving up my famous chocolate chip cookies or never being able to make weekend pancakes for my future family felt impossible. So I got stubborn. Really stubborn.
I spent months in my kitchen, making terrible oat flour disasters and rock-hard "healthy" muffins that even our dog wouldn't touch. My poor husband became my taste tester for so many failed experiments. But somewhere between my 47th attempt at banana bread and a particularly spectacular pancake flop, something clicked..
Why Vast Recipes? My Food Philosophy
I make everything in my own kitchen first. My husband gets stuck being my taste tester, and when my one-year-old sees me taking something out of the oven and starts bouncing in her high chair, I figure it's probably good enough to share.
Look, I'm not a chef or anything, just someone who got really stubborn about making healthy food that doesn't taste like punishment. Some of these recipes? I probably made them twenty times before they worked. Others happened because I was half-asleep and used the wrong measuring cup. But that's the fun part. I'll tell you exactly how each one came together, mess-ups and all.
A Little More About Me...
The real breakthrough came from my grandmother's old recipe cards. She never measured precisely, but her food always tasted like home because she cooked with intuition and love, not rules. Her simple, wholesome ingredients always seemed to know exactly what they wanted to become. That's when I started listening to what my ingredients wanted to become instead of following exact recipes.
" I made your oat flour muffins and my family devoured them! "
Jessica.P
Finding Balance Beyond the Kitchen
When I'm not making a mess with oat flour, I'm usually out hiking with my husband and baby, killing my poor herb garden despite my best efforts, or trying to read a few pages of whatever mystery novel I'm into while the baby naps.
My kitchen is chaos most of the time. I eyeball measurements, forget to set timers, and there's always flour somewhere weird like on the light switch. But you know what? My family still cleans their plates, so I must be doing something right.
Not sure where to start? Honestly, just make the banana pancakes. I've never seen anyone mess them up, and they taste exactly like lazy weekend mornings should. The double chocolate muffins are amazing too, my one year old gets so excited when she sees me pulling them from the oven that she starts clapping her little hands.
I love hearing how your baking adventures go! Email me at [email protected] or check out my Instagram stories where I document all my kitchen disasters (there are more than you'd think).
Talk soon, Sarah
P.S. Seriously, tell me about your failures too. Last week I somehow made oat flour cookies that could double as hockey pucks. We're all figuring this out together
