Kale Stem Pesto

You know all of those kale recipes? The ones that say to use just the leaves and save the coarse stems for another use? Well friends, this is your “other use”. The same way I collect stale tortillas for the eventual tortilla soup, I save chopped up bits of kale stems (and sometimes other stems) for this eventual pesto. Tiny little bags, all over my freezer. When I’m ready to make this, I mix them with freshly chopped stems so the whole thing doesn’t taste too “frozen.” I just love making this in the colder months when bounties of fresh…

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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!

easy / vegan

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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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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Gluten-free Almond Coconut Bars

snacks & dips / gluten free / book review

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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Rosemary Lemon Pasta

spring / vegan / lemon

A trip to Italy is in the works. Did I just say that? Ok, an idea of a trip to Italy is in the works. You’re the second to know… I just informed Jack the other night. Even though we have a long list of places we have not been to, somehow every few years we (the royal we) feel a calling to go back. Whenever I even hear someone mention a trip to Italy, I become insane with travel envy. So you can imagine the kind of envy I felt when I heard the story of a couple who moved to the Italian…

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Parmigiano & Fig Grilled Cheese

vegetarian / whole foods

A few weeks ago Whole Foods set out to break the Guinness World Record of number of Parmigiano Reggiano wheels cracked simultaneously. Jack and I were the “official” witnesses of Parmageddon at our Austin store. I know what you might be thinking… how does the lactose intolerant girl get herself into these things? Well, first of all, Jack will not ever turn down an opportunity for free cheese. And second, in recent years I’ve learned that hard cheeses don’t have very much lactose, and that I don’t have as much of a problem with really high quality cheese. (ie. just…

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Nutella Stuffed French Toast

breakfast / holiday

This might be the most unhealthy thing I’ve made for this site thus far. It’s not “surprisingly” vegan or “by the way” gluten free. And I didn’t make my own Nutella, although I thought about it. But… it’s fast, easy, and super delicious. We’re having some Nutella-loving friends over for Easter brunch next weekend, so I’m thinking this will be sure to impress. If sweets are too much for you in the morning, this can double as dessert with a scoop of ice cream on top. (If you’re reading between the lines here, yes… we ate these for breakfast and…

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Sweet Potato & Brussels Skillet

This Sweet Potato & Brussels Egg Skillet is a simple, healthy vegetarian dinner or brunch! This flexible, easy recipe is also gluten-free.

brunch / vegetarian

Brunchy food… it’s perhaps what I cook the most, but what makes it to this site the least. Saturday and Sunday mornings are just not the time to be breaking out the camera. So in an effort to provide a few pre-Easter brunch ideas, we had eggs for dinner… something we should really do more often. I love this sort of meal because it’s a bit of a fridge clean-out. A trip to the store is not necessarily required, you can switch this around to work with what you have. I had a sweet potato and a few brussels sprouts……

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Cauliflower Puree with Chickpeas

When I'm craving an easy, cozy weeknight dinner, I make this cauliflower puree. I sprinkle it with capers, roasted chickpeas & fresh rosemary.

vegan / gluten free / favorite

This cauliflower puree might just be my last cauliflower post of the season. I’m trying to remind myself that it’s still March and many of you have snow on the ground. Or at least slush. Which is hard for me to comprehend because it suddenly became July here this week. But last week, when it was a little bit cooler and cauliflower was still showing up at my door, we made this fancy little meal. Cauliflower, two ways… a light velvety puree, with roasted florets and chickpeas on top.

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Apple Muffins

These easy apple muffins are studded with juicy chunks of apple and toasty nuts. I love enjoying them with tea or coffee on a cool fall morning.

dairy free / gluten free-optional / brunch

My mom made these apple muffins for us last week while she was visiting. And I made them again for breakfast this morning. These muffins aren’t too sweet, and they’re not too indulgent. Rather, they’re the perfect pick-me-up to start a slow morning or a great healthy snack on a cool fall afternoon. They’re on the healthy side, made with spelt flour or whole wheat flour, coconut oil, and almond milk. My favorite part of them is the juicy chunks of apple on the inside that make them wonderfully moist. Change Up These Apple Muffins! I love this apple muffin recipe…

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Shells & Brussels Sprouts

vegetarian / pasta

Growing up, I was made to eat vegetables just as much as the next kid. Broccoli was at the top of my hate list, closely followed by mushy cooked carrots (one of the only veggies I still won’t eat). But I never had to face brussels sprouts. My mom didn’t like them as a child, so she never subjected them to our family. I felt lucky about this… if the adults in my family wouldn’t eat them, they must be that bad. I don’t know what prompted brussels sprouts to go from America’s most hated veggie to darn near the most loved one, but…

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.