Shrimp Po’ Boy with Mango

I’m sure fried food is exactly what you thought you’d see here today. But, you know, we’re only human and sometimes we fry things. Well, to be clear, Jack fries things. I sit back with a glass of wine and watch. It’s a hard job, but someone’s gotta make sure he doesn’t burn the house down. Pictured is shrimp, but he also made a tofu version using the same method. I mixed up a tangy sauce by pureeing mango with kewpie mayo. (You could use regular mayo or even vegenaise if mayo isn’t your thing). We ate these with sliced mango,…

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Spring Salad & Arugula Hummus

Lately, we’ve been getting back into our ritual saturday morning walks to the farmers market. In the cooler months, we struggle to leave the house by noon. But the summer heat is starting to set in so we have some added incentive to get up and out a little bit earlier. (That and the vegan Red Rabbit doughnuts waiting for us when we get there). After we’ve had out fill of doughnuts, breakfast tacos, and coffee, I pick up whatever veggies look the best that day and we head home. A few weekends ago, I came back with this assortment……

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Mango Pesto

Admittedly, I have a pesto obsession (see here, here & here). Adding mango wasn’t something that ever occurred to me, but I’ve been trying to think of simple creative ways to use mango. (And no this isn’t another Arrested Development post, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, you can google it)… But mango pesto – so delicious, who knew? I just love this lighter and brighter twist, especially for summer. You can be healthy, like we were, and eat it as a snack with sliced cucumbers. Or you can do what we did with the leftovers – scoop it on…

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Frozen Chocolate Bananas

This is Jack – the “and” in Love and Lemons – and this is my first post. For awhile now, Jeanine has been mentioning that I should make some posts. But I didn’t want to tread on her writing territory, and I’m used to the “video gamer” view of the internet, where people are mean and petty. This “food blog internet” where people are sweet and polite is frighting and confusing to me. As the one year anniversary of the blog has come and gone, my apprehension went from “what do I say” to “what do I make?” I can…

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5 Kale Dinners

Challenged by Food52, here are five kale recipes! Spanakopita, Sushi Bowls, Kale and Eggs, Chimichurri, and Spanish Chickpea with Kale!

In case you weren’t getting enough kale in your life… This week, I was thrilled to contribute to Food 52’s Halfway to Dinner series. The challenge was to make a few bunches of kale stretch into 5 nights of relatively simple meals. You don’t have to twist my arm to cook kale so it’s a challenge I gladly accepted. (Although after “week-of-greens” I’m pretty sure my husband Jack is out eating fried chicken somewhere…)

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Pea & Chickpea Pasta Salad

This has been a favorite lately. I’ve made it countless times before I even thought of posting it here. It’s too easy… the ingredient list is short, and you likely already have these these things on hand. It’s super delicious and it takes no time to toss together. If I weren’t always trying to come up with new ideas, I would stop here and we would eat this most nights of the week. (Maybe switch out the veggies every so often to change it up). I whisked a little dijon with olive oil and lemon juice before tossing it with…

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Fried Egg & Mango Salsa Waffle

Happy Friday! This one makes me so happy that the weekend is just about here… This is part 1 of a fun project I’ve been working on with the Mango Board as part of their “Mangover” campaign. (makeover + mangoes, get it?) It’s about simply adding mango to ordinary food for an unexpected pop of color & tangy sweetness. Once a week they’re asking their facebook fans for meal ideas they would like to see made over with mango. This week (breakfast week), the choice was waffles and eggs. So I made a quick mango salsa with avocado, smoked paprika and a pinch…

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Gluten-free Almond Coconut Bars

This recipe is from the hilarious new book Gluten is my Bitch: Rants, Recipes and Ridiculousness for the Gluten Free, by April Peveteaux. If you’ve been recently diagnosed with Celiac disease and are feeling sorry for yourself, this is a must-read. If you’re like me and you deal with other food sensitivity issues, you’ll have a good laugh reading April’s stories because you totally “get it.” And because she is just so freaking funny. My favorite part has to be the chapter about traveling as a gluten-free person. It’s called “Paris doesn’t have to suck, but it might.” I had…

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Creamy Leek & Almond Pasta

A healthy & light creamy pasta made with almond milk, cremini mushrooms, greens, lemon, basil and sun dried tomatoes. Vegan option.

Meals like this are the reason I love cooking at home. These are the kinds of dishes that my lactose intolerant self can’t order at restaurants. The amount of butter and cream that go into pastas and risottos… I don’t even want to know. I worked on this a few different ways. I was going to make an almond version of cashew cream (similar to this one), but I decided I didn’t want to ask you to break out the blender. At least not this time. The winner was this version where I simmered leeks & mushrooms in almond milk. Such…

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Spiced Carrot & Chickpea Salad

This salad is loosely inspired by a carrot salad I ate during a trip to Morocco a couple of years ago. It was part of our first night’s dinner… a hot night (114 degrees!) on the rooftop of our Riad at sunset. There were marinated vegetable salads, flatbreads, tagines, and a bottle of moroccan rose… all while the evening prayer chanted over a loudspeaker in the distance. We might as well have been on another planet, it felt so surreal. Yet, one of the things I remember most about that night was the carrot salad. Recently, J.R. Watkins asked me to create a dish…

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Coconut Mint Ice Cream

Dairy free mint ice cream - a delicious holiday treat with vegan chocolate magic shell topping.

Let me start by saying that mint chocolate chip has never been my top choice. It’s always been my sister’s favorite, I was more of a cookies & cream kind of girl. But this blog makes me try things I might have otherwise not… For example, I bought turnips the other day at the farmers market just because they looked cute. When I saw this green mug, I craved just one thing: Mint ice cream. To my surprise (and Jack’s too), mint ice cream made with fresh mint is amazing! It’s a completely different ice cream flavor altogether. First off,…

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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.