Vegetarian Memorial Day Recipes

May22

Memorial Day is coming up next weekend! Whether you’re hosting a gathering or simply bringing a side dish (hi, I’m Jeanine – the family salad maker), here are a few veggie-ful party recipe ideas. Click on the links or directly on the photos to go to the recipes:

First up: Instead of meticulously assembling appetizers, you can set out a bunch of ingredients for this Mix & Match Crostini Bar so your guests can assemble their own toppings. Include some gluten free crackers and at least one vegan spread (like the vegan pesto shown above) and you’ll have all of your bases covered.

It’s not a summertime party without a margarita – this is my go to recipe for Spicy Jalapeño Margaritas (above). And of course, you can’t have a margarita without chips – let’s go with a super green Kiwi Avocado Salsa Verde. (below)

Every party needs a great salad that can sit out at room temperature without wilting, so this Tart Cherry Tabbouleh is a great option:

For the main course, skip the grill but get all of that smoky goodness with these Vegan Tempeh Club Sandwiches. I know tempeh sounds scary to some of you, but wait ’til you try it with this marinade!

Another main course option – Cauliflower Stuffed Poblano Peppers. Smother them with cheese or with cashew cream (see the recipe for more details) – vegetarians and meat eaters alike will love this one.

For dessert – Strawberry Pistachio Crumble. This is an easy recipe that’s great for parties because the crumble can be made ahead of time. Assemble and bake in skillets (or a baking dish) as you’re ready to serve.

Or skip the baking and make Boozy Root Beer Floats with homemade ice cream (or without homemade ice cream… I won’t tell).

Healthy Green Breakfast Tacos

May17

breakfast / vegetarian / gluten free

If you ask anyone in Austin where they get their favorite breakfast tacos, you’ll get a different answer from every person. Austinites have opinions about breakfast tacos like Chicagoans have opinions about pizza. Since I moved to Austin a number of years ago, I’ve eaten more breakfast tacos than I could ever begin to count – most I’ve loved (some I haven’t) but after all that, my favorite place to have them… is at home. For 2 reasons:

First, I like to eat breakfast right when I wake up, so I usually don’t have the patience to even run down the street to get tacos in the morning.

Second, I can make my version however I want – which means goodbye greasy tacos and hello tons of veggies. The base of these tacos is a very green egg scramble that’s filled with green peppers, scallions, arugula, and a scoop of fresh yellow tomato salsa. These tacos are fresh, healthy, and lighter than anything you’d find at a restaurant or truck.

And speaking of things that are green – this post is in collaboration with GreenPan and their Healthy Cooking starts with Healthy Cookware campaign. Years ago, long before this blog existed, I got rid of all of my scratchy teflon pans and switched to the non-toxic GreenPan. GreenPan was the first company to start making ceramic non-stick cookware (they’re celebrating their 10th anniversary this year!) and I think I was among the first to start buying them. I get tons and tons of use out of mine – especially for eggs, pancakes, and generally any foods that I don’t want sticking to the bottom of my pan. The slick ceramic surface also means that I can get away with using less oil in my cooking, so these chemical-free pans are a must-have in my opinion.

I have this set, which is super versatile and the white & blue color combo is just so pretty.

So the first step to this recipe is to make the salsa. This can be done the night before to make your morning cooking easier.

Next, cook the veggies. I like to do this in a separate pan from my eggs because I find it easier to judge the cooking times. Needless to say, GreenPan nonstick cookware is a breeze to clean up.

When the salsa and veggies are finished, I start cooking the eggs and stir the vegetables in halfway through. This might be a personal preference, but I like to take my eggs of the stovetop while they’re still a little bit runny to keep them from overcooking while I assemble the tacos.

Once off the heat, I stir in a big handful of chopped leafy greens. I often go for spinach, but this time I had some great looking arugula. I also tossed in some cilantro for good measure.

Assemble the tacos with more salsa, avocado and a dash of pepper. These are dairy free because I’m not a huge fan of cheese in my eggs. If you use corn tortillas, they’re also gluten free (check the label of your tortillas to make sure).

Kathryne’s Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

May15

dessert / gluten free / cookbooks

I often get asked “How did you start your blog?” and “Do you have any tips for me if I’m just getting started?” I’m not very good at answering these questions, particularly the second one because what worked for me in 2011 when I started my blog is probably outdated today.

But I do have one tip that will stand the test of time: Make good blog friends.

I’ll never forget the week I started my blog (waaaay back in 2011). Jack and I had worked really hard to choose recipes, learn to take flattering pictures of food (harder than you think!), and design/program a good looking website. We made the website live and I wondered if my mom would be our only reader.

One day, while Jack was trying to explain to me how Twitter works, there was a sudden “BLEEP” from my computer… someone had tagged me in a tweet that said “Love and Lemons is love at first sight,” and it was from an account called Cookie and Kate. 30 seconds later, “bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep”… re-tweets and messages started flashing in and I squealed with both Tweety confusion and excitement that this blog thing was going to work. Of course, there would be years and mountains of (mostly free) work ahead of me before I could call this labor of love a job… but it had to start somewhere, little by little. In my case, this start was initiated by one kind soul who was the first to share a slice of her readership with me.

Fast forward to now… Cookie and Kate has become one of my favorite vegetarian blogs to read and Kathryne has become one of my very best blog friends. If you aren’t following her blog, you should – she makes delicious, attainable vegetarian food and her first cookbook, Love Real Food, is a real stunner. I’ve read it cover to cover and I have one tip for you: don’t read it while you’re hungry! I drooled over recipes like Roasted Eggplant Lasagna, Chickpea Tikka Masala, and Fresh Greek Nachos before stopping at her gorgeous peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

These cookies are so delicious and SO quick to make. It’s a one bowl recipe that results in decadent, soft pillowy cookies that are lightly crisp on the outside. These little guys contain no flour (so they’re naturally gluten and grain free) and they’re sweetened with coconut sugar. I made my cookies with eggs as the recipe states, but Kathryne also gives a vegan option in the footer of the recipe which I’ll include here as well.

I’ll be making these Greek Nachos with Herbed Tahini this week – yum!

Her book is not only gorgeous, but there are also the cutest pictures of her dog Cookie 🙂

Love Real Food comes out tomorrow – go get yourself a copy!

Blueberry Fennel Flatbread w/ Whipped Feta

May09

spring / vegetarian / Favorites

If you caught last week’s post about my CSA box tips, you might recognize some of those ingredients here in this recipe. What I love most about my “surprise” Farmhouse box is that it inspires me to come up with flavor combinations that I would not have thought of otherwise. Blueberries and fennel?? Yes, it works!

The saying is true – what grows together goes together. These were the first blueberries of the season and I knew I wanted to make a simple recipe to really highlight them.

Blueberry Fennel Flatbread w/ Whipped Feta

This flatbread is so easy to make and I think it’d be such an unexpected appetizer or side dish for Mother’s Day brunch this weekend.

I used store-bought naan to make things easy on myself. The spread is a tangy mix of ricotta, feta cheese, garlic and lemon juice (if you’re vegan, use the sunflower spread from this post, minus the dill). The whipped feta can be made at least a day in advance which makes this such an easy recipe to entertain with.

I baked the flatbread just long enough for the fennel to soften and for the blueberries to become juicy. For color and a little crunch, I topped these with thinly sliced red radishes which were hiding in the bottom of my Farmhouse box. If you don’t love radishes, don’t be scared – the flavor does not overwhelm and they add a wonderful freshness to the recipe.

Coconut Mango Muffins

May04

vegan / spring / breakfast

Muffins have such a special place in my heart. Growing up, my family ate muffins for breakfast nearly every day and it was awesome. My sister and I would *think* we wanted the colorful cereals that the other kids had. We’d beg my mom to buy them and when she would, they’d end up going stale on the top shelf in the pantry. Nothing beat a warm muffin and a big glass of milk first thing in the morning. Of course, I’ve since nixed the milk part, but my love for muffins continues.

These muffins, made with Almond Breeze Almondmilk Coconutmilk, are my new favorite morning treat.

Now, these are not your giant bakery muffins – huge and over the top – these are the lightly sweet, small, everyday sort of muffins. They’re studded with chopped mango and topped with toasted coconut flakes. The lime juice helps them rise and a mixture of flax binds them together – although these can also be made with an egg if you do not have flax, see the recipe below.

Almond Breeze Almondmilk is my go-to nondairy milk for baking, but the Almond Coconut Blend works especially well here to enhance the light coconut flavor.

These are best right out of the oven but they also freeze well! Store them in an airtight bag in the freezer for up to a month. Pop them in the microwave for 20 or so seconds for a warm muffin-y breakfast or snack.