Mini Tomato Frittatas with Dill

Sep18

A few weeks ago, Jack stopped by the farmstead and came home with a small haul of vegetables. As he walked in the house with bags of produce, he pulled out this bouquet of flowering dill and handed it to me. “I thought you would think this was pretty,” he said as my heart completely melted. He’s not usually one for on-the-fly romantic gestures, and I’m not the kind of girl that loves to be showered with roses and gifts… but, as you know, I LOVE a pretty vegetable so I was especially smitten by this herbaceous gesture.

When you’ve been together as long as we have, it’s the little moments, not fancy things, that are the most special. And speaking of being together for a long time – tomorrow is our wedding anniversary :). I’m realizing as I type this that I could have chosen a more romantic recipe to post for the occasion, but hey, this is real life and it’s not always fancy.

I love dill and eggs together so that’s how this recipe started. I thought these mini frittatas would be a great make-ahead breakfast, and in fact they are. They keep well in the fridge for a few days and are a great way to start the day if you like an eggy protein breakfast like I often do.

Of course, these vegetables can be mixed up and swapped out seasonally (I love a sweet potato frittata later in the fall), but these are super delicious with tomatoes, scallions, kale, a touch of dijon mustard, and of course fresh dill.

Oh, and you don’t actually need flowering dill to make the recipe, just regular fresh dill is fine!

Spinach Hummus Lunch Wraps

Sep11

vegan / lunch

This month, we have a ton of airplane travel coming up. Not to complain, but travel is one of those things where I LOVE the destination(s), but don’t love the journey… especially the food that’s often available during the journey – a.k.a airport food. It’s become my habit to bring my own food on the plane, and with 12+ hours to France(!) on Friday, here are some tasty to-go hummus wraps that I’m making. These wraps would be great for school lunch boxes as well!

This recipe is inspired by the hummus wraps that I picked up at Whole Foods in Union Square when we were flying home a few months ago from NYC. They were portable and tasty and I thought I’d enjoy recreating a version for our flight this week.

I start by making a very light, very green hummus. It’s made with chickpeas, tahini, some vegetable broth (which keeps these light because you can use a little less tahini), garlic, spices, handfuls of spinach and a bit of parsley.

Next – spread the hummus and layer the wraps! I put a layer of spinach, followed by strips of cucumbers and peppers. I picked up these peppers and cucumbers last weekend at the farmers market. Because I’ll be traveling with these, I stayed away from juicier vegetables, like, tomatoes, because I don’t want the tortillas to get soggy.

It’s like layering ingredients for a sushi roll, I’m just using whole grain wraps instead.

The hummus is the “glue” that holds these together. You could also use larger burrito-sized wraps if you wanted to.

Wrap them up in foil and they’re good to go! I’m going to pack these in my carry-on with a small ice pack to keep them fresh.

Peach Affogato & some link love

Sep09

dessert / summer / vegan

Remember way back in the day when blogs were new and everyone did “Follow Friday?” I’m thinking of bringing that back because sometimes I’m just so excited about what other talented folks are doing. Yes, I do realize that today Saturday… but regardless, here’s a list of things I’ve loved and drooled over this week. And P.S, if you need one darn simple way to enjoy peaches, scroll down for this pictured Peach Affogato.

This luscious Pecan Roasted Beet Dip with Sage makes me so excited for fall… mmm, sage.

These colorful tortillas! So creative!

Ten Lunch Ideas that Spark Joy.

Craving cozy Black Beans & Rice ever since I saw this post go up.

Speaking of simple things that I really want to eat, I love these non-recipe posts that Jessie of Faring Well has been writing lately.

Cotter Crunch is a new-ish-to-me (gluten free) blog that I’ve been loving lately and these Dirty Chai Dark Chocolate Brownies are calling my name!

I follow exactly 1 YouTube channel and it’s called Hot For Food – you have to check out this video of Lauren’s clever Vegan Back to School Bento Boxes. I love how she uses the leftovers from one recipe to make the next.

I’m a guest judge for this Boos Cutting Board Photo Contest. They make the best cutting boards!

I’m getting totally excited for hot soup season, but I’m still enamored by this idea of Cold Summer Ramen.

For a good dose of wanderlust, scroll through Laura’s gorgeous photos in her Kyoto Travel Guide. Makes me want to jump on a plane to Japan!

And in non-food news, these corgis on a waterslide made my week 🙂

Overnight Oats with Blueberry Chia Jam

Sep07

vegan / breakfast

Before I tell you about this recipe, I wanted to make a quick announcement to our Chicago friends – this Saturday I’ll be attending the Renegade Craft Fair Chicago at the Quaker Oats booth. Stop by to say HI and enjoy a healthy snack of Overnight Oats. I’ll be doing the meet & greet from 11:30am – 12:30pm, hope to see you there! (click here for details)

Ok, back to the recipe! Last week, I was up to my ears in corn… this week, I’ve been eating blueberries until I’m blue in the face. They’re so good right now! Plus, they freeze well, so in my opinion there’s no such thing as too many blueberries.

The first thing I did with my market-load of blueberries was make this YUMMY blueberry chia jam that I scooped atop a few batches of overnight oats. I don’t know why I haven’t been making this breakfast combination all summer, it’s so delicious! We’ve been eating overnight oats with this blueberry jam all week.

If you’re new to overnight oats (hi, I am sort of too), they’re so easy to make because they don’t need to be cooked. The recipe I like comes straight from the Quaker Oats website. It’s a 1:1 mixture of oats to milk (I use vanilla almond milk). Overnight, they soften and they’re ready for you in the morning. Overnight oats are a great grab-and-go breakfast as well as a blank canvas for whatever toppings, fruits, etc, you like.

For my toppings, I made this Blueberry Lemon Overnight Oats recipe and used my fresh blueberry chia jam – the perfect use for all of my extra blueberries!

Once your jam is ready and has set (let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour), layer up your jars with oats, almond milk, chia jam, extra blueberries and lemon zest. Pop it in the fridge and enjoy your oats for breakfast the next morning!

I should add that I also like to top mine with some toasted sliced almonds (add a pinch of sea salt while you toast them). If I wake up with a sweet tooth, I drizzle on some extra maple syrup!

Zucchini Lasagna with Zucchini “Ricotta”

Sep05

main dish / vegan-option / gluten free

Well, hello September! How did that happen?

It’s back to school season and even though no one in our family is going back to school (although how cute would doggie lunchboxes be!?), I still wanted to share an easy recipe that would be great for a busy weeknight.

Everyone loves lasagna, so I put iton my “to make for September” list. My plan was to use the last-surviving summer vegetables, particularly zucchini since it’s still growing rampant. Instead of using regular ricotta as the filling, I would make a healthier non-dairy ricotta. Maybe I’d even blend a vegetable to make the ricotta filling. And then I realized – oh wait, I have this Zucchini Lasagna in THE COOKBOOK that is already my favorite zucchini lasagna. So instead of reinventing the wheel, here’s the wheel!

This is no ordinary lasagna recipe. What I love about this recipe is that it uses up a BUNCH of zucchini.

Planks of zucchini layer in to replace half of the noodles that you would normally need. That’s the obvious move. But there is also zucchini blended up INTO the “ricotta” filling itself. You’ll never notice it there, but the zucchini, along with blended walnuts, tofu, lemon juice, and spices creates a thick, creamy ricotta-like filling without using ricotta.

Yes, I put cheese on top of the lasagna, but I believe life is all about balance. Sub vegan cheese on top if you like!

And a shameless plug – check out The Love & Lemons Cookbook for more awesome veggie recipes 🙂

Love and Lemons

Healthy, Seasonal, Whole Food Recipes Blog

Mini Tomato Frittatas with Dill

Spinach Hummus Lunch Wraps

Peach Affogato & some link love

Overnight Oats with Blueberry Chia Jam

Zucchini Lasagna with Zucchini “Ricotta”