May 26, 2025

343 - 3 Guilt-Free Sweet Treats That Prove Healthy Can Be Heavenly

Send us a text Join Jarrod and his teenage daughter, Kate—the family’s plant-based baking prodigy—as they let you in on her TOP 3 mouthwatering, guilt-free desserts that align perfectly with a whole food plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle! From decadent chocolate delights to fruity crowd-pleasers, these gluten-free, nutrient-dense treats prove healthy eating doesn’t mean sacrificing flavor—or fun! Why You’ll LOVE This Episode: Teen-Approved WFPB Dessert ideas: Discover how Kate’s easy,...

Send us a text

Join Jarrod and his teenage daughter, Kate—the family’s plant-based baking prodigy—as they let you in on her TOP 3 mouthwatering, guilt-free desserts that align perfectly with a whole food plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle!

From decadent chocolate delights to fruity crowd-pleasers, these gluten-free, nutrient-dense treats prove healthy eating doesn’t mean sacrificing flavor—or fun!

Why You’ll LOVE This Episode :

Teen-Approved WFPB Dessert ideas : Discover how Kate’s easy, family-friendly vegan desserts win over even the pickiest eaters (yes, teens included!).
Sustainable Living Made DELICIOUS : This episode will help you escape the diet mentality as you hear how joyful and sustainable the WFPB Lifestyle can be—deprivation free—and packed with flavor!

Craving More? Whether you’re a vegan newbie, a health-conscious parent, or a genuine lover of sweet treats seeking sugar-free alternatives, let this episode be your inspiration that the right vegan desserts will make you forget they’re healthy ! 🎉

Tune in to discover Kate's top dessert picks and gain inspiration that healthy eating can be delicious and enjoyable for the whole family - even teens!

Click play now and join thousands of listeners transforming their health—one new whole food plant-based favorite at a time! 🌱💪

P.S. Ready to bake like Kate? Grab her family-approved recipes in our Original and Thrive Cookbooks .

💃🏻 Ready to learn how to actually enjoy eating whole plant foods so you can finally feel great and fully experience life ? Inside Accelerator, we'll take you by the hand & walk you step-by-step through our proven 5-Step WFPB Framework so you can heal naturally & actively live your God-given dreams. Join the Waitlist Here... the Doors are Opening Soon!

🎁 Not yet a member of our FREE plant-based community, PIE ? Once you're on the inside, every single podcast episode becomes searchable for you. 😲 Join the family to gain the plant-based encouragement, real health-changing ideas, and sustainable plant-based inspiration you've been praying for! 💕

🥣 Grab our Cookbook Bundles (and snag the incredible Bonuses today) to learn the simple way to make whole food plant-based eating quick, enjoyable, and sustainable.

🤔 Wondering what's in our new Thrive Cookbook? Click here for the inside scoop!

Please subscribe & give the show a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or other podcast providers. And don’t forget to share it with a friend for inspiration!

00:00 - Meet Guest Baker Kate Roussel

01:53 - Kate's Favorite: Simple Fruit Cobbler

03:45 - Chocolate Bliss Cupcakes Creation Story

05:44 - Decadent Brownies and College Memories

08:01 - Bonus: Gingerbread Snack Cake

09:06 - Kate's Baking Journey and Tips

WEBVTT

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Hey sister, welcome to the Power on Plants podcast.

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Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better?

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Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health?

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Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do?

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Hi, we're Jared and Anita Roussel, Christ followers, healthcare professionals, parents of four and big fans of great tasting food.

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We, too, tried exercising more, eating natural and clean foods, but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes, and we weren't finding answers to traditional routes.

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So we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon sustainable plant-based living.

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The truth is, you can eat more whole plant foods, and it's not hard.

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You just need the way.

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That's realistic and delicious so you never feel deprived.

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If you're ready to enjoy your meals, no longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life, then you're in the right place.

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So grab your favorite plant-based cup of happy pop in those earbuds and let's get started.

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Welcome to the Power on Plants podcast.

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We are thrilled to have you here If you're a first-time listener.

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Normally Anita is my co-host, but we have a special guest Today.

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We have our daughter.

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A special guest Today we have our daughter, kate.

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Hey, so great to be here.

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Well, we thought today that we would have Kate share with us her favorite three desserts.

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Now Kate is the family baker and dessert maker.

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Now she makes other things, but this seems to be her specialty.

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So we thought how fitting that we would have Kate share with us three of her favorite desserts.

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Are you game for this, kate?

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Yes.

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Are you excited?

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Yes, excited to be here.

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All right, share with us your first favorite dessert.

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The top would probably have to be cobbler, because it's just so simple.

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All you do is just take frozen fruit, dump it in a casserole dish, and then I make some gluten-free crust to go on top, and then you just bake it.

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And it's just as simple as that About how long does it take to make it?

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I never time it.

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How long would you guess?

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Hour, hour and a half, at about 350 degrees.

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Now, is that how long you bake it, or is that how long it takes from start to finish, where people are enjoying it?

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To bake.

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So it bakes for an hour and a half.

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To just make it 15 minutes.

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Okay, so not long, but maybe a little bit of planning.

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Do you eat this cobbler plain?

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No, we put mom's vanilla ice cream on top.

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This ice cream is amazing.

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We have been making nice cream in our family for quite some time and we make it with frozen bananas and as great as it is, you can never really quite escape that banana flavor.

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It may not always be right for every situation.

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So because that homemade vanilla-flavored ice cream goes ideally with some of our dishes, but we didn't have a good recipe, we decided to make one up.

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Now, did you make it, Kate?

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No, mom did.

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She did.

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Okay, did you help her make it?

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Sort of, we made it for a long time before I actually got the recipe.

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Then she just decided to make the recipe because we never could remember how much she put, so it was always guesswork.

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Well, many of Anita's recipes start as just her putting stuff together.

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She's just always been naturally gifted at being able to put things together and have it taste absolutely amazing.

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Her parents were the exact same way.

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I never saw them follow a recipe.

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They just intuitively knew how to put ingredients together and taste amazing.

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So many times and we've talked about this before on the podcast where Anita will make something and then she has to hone it in, try to get the measurements so that way it could be reproduced by others.

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And unfortunately, I and some of the other family members have to play taste tester about a half dozen times before we actually get down to the exact measurements and then release the recipe.

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So got to play taste tester.

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It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

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I think you enjoy it.

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Well, I'm not going to let her know that, I'm going to let her just think it's a labor of love, like, okay, if I have to, all right, you've twisted my arm.

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But yes, secretly I do love it because it's always amazing, even whenever she thinks the proportions are out of sync, because she loves to make sure that it is perfect before she puts her name on it.

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It's always delicious, all right.

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Well, what is a second favorite dessert that you do?

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Second would be the chocolate bliss cupcakes.

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Mom asks for those a lot, so I make them quite a bit.

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Now you went over that fairly quickly.

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That was chocolate bliss cupcakes.

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Kate made this recipe up specifically for Anita and you're right, kate, your mother does ask for it quite a bit.

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Now, we don't eat dessert every day, but as far as desserts go, whenever it's time for one we've got just that little desire for something sweet.

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She will ask for this one.

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I actually.

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It started out I was trying to make a mug cake because we already had a recipe for just regular chocolate cake, so I thought I would make a mug cake that was gluten-free.

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But I tried it and it was super tough.

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So I just thought why don't I just throw this in the oven?

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So I did, and out came cupcakes.

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And after those come out of the oven and they've cooled a little bit, we will top it with a chocolate icing that we make.

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The Chocolate Bliss Cupcake recipe right now is available for our Accelerator and alumni members that has not made it into a for sale cookbook yet.

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All right, Kate, both of those are amazing recipes.

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What about number three?

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What is your third favorite dessert to make?

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Decadent brownies, the chocolate ones that mom came up with.

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So your mother made those.

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Yes.

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Now, how long have we been eating those?

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It's been for a couple of years now, hasn't it?

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One to two maybe.

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I know it's a more recent one that your mother has developed, but that has become quickly another favorite here.

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So if you've ever had those fudgy brownies and Anita has talked about how many years ago when she and I were in college back in Memphis there was this restaurant we would go to, kind of almost more like a dive.

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It was called the North End Cafe and we would get the hot fudge pie.

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That was a favorite when we had a date night, but maybe not a lot of money we would go out and buy one of these and share.

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It was just so rich and fudgy and we hadn't had anything like that in years, especially nothing that we would consider as even close to being healthy.

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So when Anita developed this it had such a fudginess and just that delicious chocolate flavor and she kind of tweaked it until she got it to that consistency of the hot fudge pie and we just absolutely love it.

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It takes us back to those days back in college, many, many years ago.

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Well, when we do the hot fudge pie and put the ice cream on top, we actually bake it five minutes less, so that it's more fudgy, I guess.

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Yeah, it has more of that Gooeyness.

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Exactly, it has more of kind, of that gooey fudgy texture.

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If you cook a little bit longer, it's less so.

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It's more like a typical brownie.

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So you can tailor it to however you want and we just absolutely love it.

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Now this recipe is actually found in our cookbook Thrive, so that is available where you can go to wwwpoweronplantscom slash cookbook.

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Listen, if you love fudge, you love chocolate, you love brownies, this recipe will not disappoint you.

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All right, kate, you shared three.

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Is there a bonus?

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Is there maybe a fourth dessert you can give us?

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That also is a favorite that maybe we make with a certain amount of regularity.

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Ginger bread.

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Yes, the ginger bread snack cake.

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That is a definite favorite, especially whenever it gets into the fall season, as the weather gets a little bit cooler.

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That ginger spice in there is kind of warming.

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We absolutely love it and it tastes just like the original non-plant-based version.

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You would not be able to tell the difference.

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We've even taken this to gatherings before.

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People couldn't tell the difference.

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They absolutely loved it.

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Nobody shied away from it because it wasn't the real one.

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I'm using air quotes here because what we make is absolutely real, but it's a gingerbread snack cake that actually loves your body back.

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That recipe is also found in Thrive.

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So both of those desserts if they sound enticing and I know that they do because we absolutely love it you can find both of those in the Thrive cookbook and that can be found at wwwpoweronplantscom slash cookbook.

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Kate, since you are our baker slash dessert maker, is there something that particularly appeals to you about baking, because you do make a lot of other dishes as well, but you seem like you enjoy that the most.

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Is there something about it that you like?

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There are probably two main reasons.

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Number one I like desserts, and most desserts are made in the oven.

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And number two, whenever I was younger, I did not like using a gas stove, so I like the oven better.

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That's right.

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For a long time we did not have an electric stove, we just had gas, so it kind of limited you if you wanted to avoid that.

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So that makes sense.

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Kate is definitely a pro at making desserts and she's been doing this now for a good solid six years.

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In that time, since you have that much experience, what is one bit of advice you'd share?

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Make sure to watch it closely so it does not burn.

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Excellent advice.

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Excellent advice.

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You don't want to go through all that time of preparation and cooking it only to overshoot it a little bit and come out with a burned product.

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Kate, thank you so much for being here.

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It has been an absolute pleasure.

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We need to have you on the podcast more frequently and, like I said before, we don't eat dessert every day, but sometimes you just want a little something sweet, or maybe there's a special occasion.

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You can still have desserts, you can still have those little treats that align with your health goals and you can still love the things that love your body back.

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You can get two of these recipes in our Thrive Cookbook, the other one available immediately when you join Accelerator, which will be opening up soon.

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If you are not on the wait list, go to wwwpoweronplantscom.

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Slash accelerator.

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It has been an absolute thrill having you with us and we'll see you next time on Power on Plants.

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Thank you.