Cranberry & Pistachio Chocolate Bark

Cranberry Pistachio Chocolate Bark is a quick & easy holiday recipe. It's delicious topped with dried fruit, coconut, and nuts. Vegan and gluten-free, too!

During the holidays, Jack has a thing for peppermint bark. I have a thing for not picking sticky candy pieces out of my teeth, so we compromised this chocolate bark together using festive ingredients that we both love – pistachios, dried cranberries, coconut flakes, and (most importantly!) a sprinkle of coarse sea salt. This chocolate bark is my kind of holiday dessert because it’s (naturally) red and green, and also easy to throw together. You might even already have these ingredients (or similar ones) on hand in your pantry. If you don’t – feel free to customize with whatever toppings you like…

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Sweet Harvest Pumpkin Ice Cream

Made with just 4 ingredients, this vegan Pumpkin Black Tea Ice Cream recipe is a simple & healthy pumpkin spice treat! Perfect for fall and winter holidays.

Are you all pumpkin-ed out yet? Hopefully not – but even if you are, you just have to try this one. If you’ve been following for long you know I have just a slight love for ice creams made with coconut milk. But this one? This one not only takes the cake but probably the pumpkin and apple pies too. It’s a rich & creamy, yet healthier, take on holiday desserts. I’ve had tea ice cream on my mind ever since tasting a tea-infused sorbet while visiting Celestial Seasonings last month. Their Sweet Harvest Pumpkin Black Tea is warmly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg…

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Stuffed Acorn Squash

I first made this stuffed acorn squash recipe for Thanksgiving, but its spiced quinoa filling is so good that it's become one of my go-to fall recipes.

The year I first became vegetarian I truly missed the turkey part of turkey day. It seems like ages ago now, but back then I barely knew how to cook for myself, let alone embrace seasonal foods like squashes, Brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes (you know, the kind without marshmallows). Now, with hearty vegetarian main dishes like this stuffed acorn squash, I couldn’t miss the turkey less. When I started working on this recipe, I knew I wanted to make an unconventional stuffed squash. Obviously, you won’t find ground beef or a sausage and apple combination here, but I also veered off the traditional…

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Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes

Seasoned with roasted garlic & fresh rosemary, these vegan cauliflower mashed potatoes are wonderfully fluffy and light. Perfect for Thanksgiving.

Jack here today. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m now a cauliflower mashed potatoes convert. To be honest, I used to be mashed potato traditionalist. When I was growing up, every holiday with my dad’s family, the mashed potatoes came out, and it was a frenzy. My uncle Billy, my grandfather, and I would load up, devouring what seemed like a truck full of mashed potatoes. Fast forward to today. Now, I have a lovely wife who makes wonderful, healthy food – all full of vibrancy and flavor. But there has always been a hole in my heart that…

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Pear Crisp

This pear crisp recipe is such an easy, delicious fall dessert! The sweet, soft fruit and nutty crumble are fantastic with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I love to think of this pear crisp recipe as a “pair crisp.” With quotation marks. Because this is a dessert for 2. Get it? Jack is sitting next to me right now shaking his head, but honestly, I love desserts that are easy to make in small portions. See, if I made a pear crisp recipe large enough to serve 4, it would still serve just the two of us. Just one more bite after one more bite, and it would all be over. We have no control, especially around sweet, cinnamon-spiced fall desserts like this one. (And pssst!…

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Shredded Brussels Sprout & Apple Salad

This simple slaw is made with just 8 ingredients, but it gets wonderful sweetness & crunch from apples, kohlrabi, dried cranberries, and pine nuts.

You may or may not have noticed, but I love salads. I intended to start November off with big hearty Thanksgiving inspiration… but, well, I’m not sure if the thought of mashed potatoes made my jeans feel tighter or if it was all the Christmas cookies I ate last week (don’t ask)… this week I ended up craving soups and, especially, salads. I’m really excited about this salad because it’s so simple yet so delicious with all of its shred-y, crunchy textures. If you have a mandoline, this will go really quickly. If you don’t, you can use a sharp knife, just try to slice everything as thinly as you…

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Forbidden Rice Pumpkin Salad

A delicious fall salad made with roasted pumpkin or butternut squash, pomegranate, pepitas, and blood orange vinaigrette. A great Thanksgiving side.

Are you sugared out yet? Since I already posted my one and only candy idea, I wasn’t quite sure what to make for today. I was going to skip this holiday post altogether until Jack came up with the genius thematic idea to make something with black forbidden rice. I had a pumpkin sitting on my countertop as well as some blood oranges… so naturally, I came up with the ultimate Halloween salad for this L&L Spook-tacular post. (That’s what Jack is calling it). I made a blood orange vinaigrette spiced with cumin, coriander, and a bit of cinnamon. I just love how the warm…

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Spaghetti Squash w/ Chickpeas & Kale

Sun-dried tomatoes give this vegan spaghetti squash recipe a savory pop. Hearty from chickpeas & kale, it's a great fall or winter weeknight dinner.

The first time I had spaghetti squash, it was served with a big scoop of store-bought marinara sauce mixed in. It was slimy and goop-y and decidedly not spaghetti-like. About a month ago, ditching the pasta idea completely, I planned a post for bbq spaghetti squash tacos. I have a super cute photo to prove that the meal existed, but the recipe ended in total disaster. So, long story short, I’ve learned that I prefer my spaghetti squash as simple as possible and most importantly: sauce-less. The roasted strands come out of the oven with a nice al-dente bite, but, smothered in sauce, they become just too mushy…

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Pumpkin Hummus Quesadillas

Spiced pumpkin hummus is a delicious vegan filling in these fall quesadillas! Load them with guacamole, greens & if not vegan, cheese! Weeknight-friendly.

Here’s my question for all of you pumpkin lovers out there – what do you do with your leftover pumpkin puree? So many recipes (including my own) call for 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree. Whether I open a can or roast a whole pumpkin, I’m always left with leftover mash. It calls at me from the fridge saying “how about pumpkin cookies?” or “let’s make muffins.” But after consuming too many pancakes for the making of last week’s post, I wasn’t in the mood for anything sweet. So I got this idea for pumpkin hummus… and I thought it would be great smushed in between tortillas with…

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Gluten-free Pumpkin Pancakes

To say that these are the best gluten-free pancakes I’ve ever had would be selling this stack short. I hesitate to ever make claims that something is “the best,” because taste is so subjective after all. But these (in my opinion) have to be right up there with the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten, gluten-free or not. I made these the other day for Jack and my mom (who is in town visiting right now). After we tasted, my mom said “what’s that special flour you used? I’ll have to get some of that.” “That flour” I used is Pamela’s…

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Butternut Squash Pasta with Walnuts & Sage

I make this butternut squash pasta recipe when I'm craving fall comfort food. It's so easy, and the sage & squash fill it with cozy autumn flavor.

Butternut squash soup may be my favorite fall comfort food, but this butternut squash pasta is now a close second. It’s a pretty easy throw-together pasta made from a classic fall flavor combo: butternut squash, sage, and walnuts. The sweet, caramelized squash plays perfectly off the earthy sage and nutty walnuts, and a little butter and pecorino add the perfect amount of richness. This is one we’ll have on repeat all season long. To make it, simply roast the squash until it’s tender and caramelized. Then, sauté the shallot, sage, walnuts, chickpeas, cooked butternut squash, and garlic until the chickpeas and squash…

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A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.