Easy Peanut Noodles

This simple recipe offers two variations for making delicious, easy peanut noodles. These vegan dishes make great weeknight dinners or weekday lunches!

I don’t make peanut noodles nearly enough. I forget how easy it is to make a peanut sauce, and that I usually already have all the ingredients on hand. I’ve made other peanut sauce variations before, but this time I wanted to simplify it down to just the necessary six ingredients. It takes about 5 minutes (tops) to stir it together… then toss it with noodles & veggies. Dinner is done. We rarely have leftovers when I serve peanut noodles for dinner, but when we do, I use the leftover peanut noodles in lettuce wraps for lunch the next day.…

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Nasu Dengaku {Miso Eggplant}

eggplant / japan

If you need a reason to try (and love) miso, this is your recipe. I’m hoping eggplant is still in season where you are. I was excited to find these little nearly-black beauties at our farmers market last weekend. If you don’t have eggplant, this sweet & salty glaze is amazing on cod, tofu, and even sweet potatoes. There are many variations to the dengaku recipe – some use sake along with mirin, some add a bit of ginger… I’ve even made it with agave syrup before (although that would probably not be approved by the Japanese, shh). I like…

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Vanilla Matcha Smoothie

Banana, vanilla & almond milk make the sweet, creamy base of this matcha smoothie. It's a healthy, antioxidant-filled breakfast or afternoon snack!

vegan / almond breeze / smoothie

Matcha treats – I can hardly remember my life without them. Since we’ve been in Japan, matcha ice cream, matcha doughnuts, and matcha cakes have become daily afternoon snacks. This matcha smoothie, I promise, is a much healthier treat than any of those. Sure matcha is healthy, but a doughnut is still a doughnut after all. At home, this is how we enjoy matcha. I use my go-to smoothie base – almond milk and bananas – and add matcha powder along with a bit of vanilla bean. If you’re new to matcha, it’s very finely ground, high quality green tea…

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Spicy Jalapeño Margaritas

summer / entertaining / cocktail

Happy weekend! I just wanted to pop in for a minute and share this easy recipe for the spicy margaritas we served at our margarita party a few weeks ago. They were such a big hit – tart, smooth, not too sweet, and most importantly – spicy. The perfect refreshing cocktail for one last summer party! photos #1 and #3 by Chris Perez of Citygram Magazine

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Whole Grain Flax Waffles

vegan / gluten free / breakfast

Admittedly, I’m not the best at baby showers. I forget that the point of a baby shower is the gift-showering part, and I usually show up with an amazon print-out of what I purchased off the registry that morning. (really, I mean well). So this is my kind of baby shower… the virtual kind where I make and eat waffles and snap a photo. No pink bows required. Melissa (of The Faux Martha) is a dear friend I’ve met through the blogosphere. Her beautiful blog is filled with delectable sweet treats and her waffle recipe is one of her signatures. When…

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Grilled Veggies with Basil Miso

vegan / gluten free / summer

The “summer’s not over yet” recipe theme continues. Right now Jack and I are in Seattle for a few days before we head to Japan. I feel inclined to write about how we spent the last few weekends at home savoring the last of our local late-summer produce… But seriously, it was 104 degrees when we left so I’m sure there will be plenty of summer (and it’s veggies) waiting for us when we get back. With Japan on the brain, I’ve been in the mood for miso. Although, I realize nothing else about this recipe is remotely Japanese… the…

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Mango Sesame Avocado Salsa

summer / gluten free / vegan

This wasn’t originally going to be a post, but of course that’s how so many of these things start out. I was making dinner one night last week… the mango salsa I usually make, on top of seared tuna. (thanks to my Aunt Judi for the suggestion!). I started preparing my tuna the way I usually do – marinated in soy sauce and maybe some ginger… pressed in sesame seeds, with a drizzle of sesame oil at the very end. That’s when I had the “ah-ha moment” that those asian-inspired ingredients would make for a nice spin on the salsa itself. So…

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Stuffed Peppers w/ Chipotle “Cream”

vegan / cashew cream

Hands down, our most popular post has been this enchilada recipe with creamy cashew poblano sauce. I posted it over a year ago and I’m still receiving emails about it. So today I’m really excited to share this new twist: cashew cream meets chipotles. A happy marriage, especially if you like spicy food. You could top it on just about anything. At the risk of posting too many taco recipes, we did stuffed peppers this time. I roasted mild poblanos and these cute little anaheims… stuffed them with a smoky quinoa & black bean filling and topped them with dollops…

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Serrano & Corn Salsa

summer / vegan / gluten free

This recipe started as an idea for a salad. My salad “testing” often happens during lunch – I experiment with a variety of veggies, usually a concoction of whatever I happen to have around. When I come across an especially good combo, I save the idea and make it again later to shoot for a post. The afternoon I sat down to eat the salad-version of this, I was sure it would be a winner. Corn, peppers, cucumber, tons of lime… an easy recipe to use up tons of late summer produce. Well it turned out to have a little…

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Blueberry Banana Pancakes

Vegan banana pancakes - perfect for a light, healthy breakfast or brunch.

vegan / gluten free / almond breeze

This is my very first pancake post. I either feel late to the game, or like I’m earning some right of blog passage. The truth is, I’d gone the last few years not eating pancakes. Let me back up. I spent a lot of years eating a LOT of pancakes… pancakes for dinner, late nights at Denny’s, the whole bit. This all added up to a number of post-college pancake pounds, and the easiest thing for me to do was cut out the temptation altogether. But that’s all behind us now. I mean, you won’t find me eating pancakes at…

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Grilled Potato & Arugula Salad

summer / vegan / gluten free

I might be from the land of meat and potatoes, but you all know how that my heart lies with the green stuff. I rarely eat potatoes, but I just couldn’t pass up these little cuties. And since it’s summer, I felt I needed to share a true picnic/cookout side dish. These little ones grill up so well – they cook through without having to boil them first, and they get that nice charred edge. Off the grill, I drizzled them with a lemony dijon dressing. I let that soak in for a bit and then tossed them peppery arugula,…

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.