This pretty-much-no-bake cheese tart featuring egg-free lemon curd and sweet berries from our friends at BC Blueberries is a refreshing dessert to serve at all your summer soirees!

You might have noticed that the blog has been d.e.d. for most of summer… where have we been? I told myself I’d take it easy and have a chill summer but about 80% of the squares on my calendar remain filled. Since I returned from my grad trip, I’ve been busy scooping ice cream at my new job, moving 5 years of life out of my apartment, spending time with visiting relatives, squeezing in outdoor adventures with friends, and (eep!) planning for my next vacation. Just like that, half of summer whizzed by and it’s already mid-July. Not complaining though because it’s peak blueberry season and I needed to replenish my frozen berry stash!

Never in a million years would I have predicted that I’d be driving a food truck this summer and work late night shifts (remember, I’m a grandma with an early bedtime). Nor would I have predicted the amount of stuff I moved out of my 500 square foot studio. I definitely felt like I lived like a minimalist but it still took 3 full carloads to haul all of it back. The amount of paper that needed to be recycled was unfathomable.

With work (or in my case, also recovery from sleep deprivation) taking up the majority of our hours of daylight, and spending time with our friends being the priority for our days off, we’re left with inadequate time, energy, and inspiration for the blog. We’ve definitely hit creative roadblocks before, but this one was looooooong and couldn’t be conquered even after flipping through 3 quality cookbooks. So what was the problem? First let me tell you a seemingly-random story.

Winners shenanigans, Martha is dead, and eating out of mixing bowls

Just a few days ago, Chew’s car refused to start for the third time in a week. She called me for help and I drove to her house to help jump start her engine. Once Martha (yes, Chew’s mighty Fiat has a name) was running again, we went for a drive to the Winners two towns away in hopes that her battery would recharge during those 30 minutes. After Superstore, Winners is our favourite store to wander at. We went straight to the home section and browsed through the adorable patterned notebooks, found a book on partner compatibility and sat ourselves down at a sample dining table to do the entire quiz, another book on ‘things to do before you turn 30’ (first priority is to try all the flavours of cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory, duh), the most #extra metallic moon-shaped sippy cup, a unicorn head cake stand, and fluffy towels we’d want to fill our future homes with. We were surprised we emerged from Winners empty handed (it’s the store full of stuff you didn’t know you needed!), not at all surprised that we came out of Superstore (it was next door, and we somehow always end up at Superstore) with more items than we intended to buy (couldn’t resist the ripe peaches, and Chew almost accidentally stole a package of tofu because she was clamping it under her armpit with her wallet which was the same size), but the most surprised when we returned to find Martha refusing to start up again. We definitely startled a guy on the phone when we popped out of both car doors like slices of toast yelling “HI EXCUSE ME CAN YOU HELP US JUMP START OUR CAR??” She needed to be jump-started by 2 different cars before she was able to hit the road again. Hang in there Martha.

We made it home in time to cook cashew alfredo bowtie pasta with mushrooms and spinach and eat it at a reasonable dinner time. When Chew has one of her ultra-specific cravings, that’s what we usually make. Otherwise, we just compile random ingredients from both of our fridges and figure out a way to make them edible. Earlier in the week we made peanut tofu and curry roasted cauliflower over zoodles and rice noodles. Ate alfredo sauce out of the blender, noodles out of a mixing bowl, and vegetables off the baking tray but hey, that’s real life.

Why am I telling you about our drive to Winners and the mish-mash dinners we made? One, it’s far more interesting that just saying “we have a new recipe out. it’s yummy and you should make it.” And two, because it’s real life. Real life for us isn’t picturesque picnic spreads with strewn fresh flowers and artfully adorned pies served on wooden platters. It isn’t smoothies topped with letters cut out of melon and pasta served in perfect twirls.

Real life is random adventures at Winners with no make up on and really messy hair. Real life is showing up to a Canada Day picnic with several types of potato salad and sauteed green beans (!?) because not all potlucks are perfectly coordinated.

Radiant Rachels is evolving

At our recent lunch date over pizza (very excellent wood-fired pizza from 33 Acres Brewing), we discussed how Radiant Rachels would fit into our lives now that we are exiting/have exited university. It was a conversation that was long overdue but ultimately yielded the clarity and assurance I personally needed. When we first started this blog, we dreamed of being full-time food bloggers. Making a living by making food in the comfort of your own kitchen still sounds dandy, but isn’t realistic anymore. Then we thought about starting a bakery; there was a point we were super pumped about it. Like let’s-drop-out-of-school-tomorrow-and-start-a-business pumped. After working in the food service industry and getting a taste of the commercial kitchen life, we’d rather keep baking as a hobby.

We’re 5 years older now and not the inexperienced and wide-eyed high schoolers we once were. We’re still dreamers, still peas in a pod, still have the desire to share our love for healthy food. Radiant Rachels is a reflection of who we are and will evolve as we evolve. We realized that the image we were putting out there made preparing our recipes appear complicated and unattainable. Even our friends would just comment “make this for me!” instead of trying it themselves.

We’re becoming vloggers?!

Moving forward, our goal is to show you the reality behind these artsy fartsy, perfectly styled photos and our life beyond the aesthetically pleasing food we make. That doesn’t mean I’ll cease food photography because I absolutely love it. While creating these images (and these) for BC Blueberries, I realized how much I enjoy the process of photography. Planning the set up, curating the items from the farmers market, capturing the best angles, and transforming the images into art, I’m in my happy place throughout the process. This website will remain the main hub for easy access to all our written recipes but we will be adding *drumroll* videos!

Yepyep, we will be dabbling in the area of videography and showing ya’ll what The Rachels are like in real life because, well, we think we’re pretty funny 😛 But no really, many of you have reached out to tell us how much you enjoy the cook-a-long stories we post on Instagram and are keen to see more of our adventures. Vlogs will be a fun way for you to learn more about us, see what vegetarians actually eat on a regular day, and for us to have discussions about topics that interest you! I feel like we just opened the door to an entire world of opportunities and the video ideas are already piling up in my brain. We’re stoked to bring you along on our upcoming vacations, showcase our favourite spots in Vancouver, do live recipe tests and funny questionnaire games and more. If you’ve got any videos you really really want to see from us first, do leave a comment or send us a DM!

Now that you’re all up to speed about the new direction Radiant Rachels is going, please enjoy this zesty lemon blueberry cheese tart we made with our friends at BC Blueberries. It’s an insanely simple recipe that just requires a baked pie shell, whipping up some cream cheese, and a bit of lemon curd. When cheesecake and pie collide, you know it’s gonna be good!

Recipe for lemon blueberry cheese tart

Find it on BC Blueberries’ website HERE