Cucumber Apple Green Gazpacho

Soup is my favorite thing to make regardless of the season – it’s comfy and cozy in the fall and winter, but just because it’s 100 degrees outside now doesn’t mean I don’t crave soup in the summer. Enter: gazpacho. This one is extra healthy (and bikini-season-friendly) because it’s made with green juice as the base. Since working on these recipes, with Evolution Fresh, I’ve been inspired to incorporate more green juices into my cooking. I got this idea by reading the ingredient list for their Sweet Greens and Ginger cold-pressed juice. It’s full of cucumber, apple, and ginger (among other greens), and sounded like the…

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Watermelon Feta Salad with Kale & Avocado

Nothing beats this cooling watermelon feta salad in the summertime. With a bright dressing & lots of crisp veggies, it's a yummy, refreshing lunch.

summer / salads / gluten free

I love kale, and I love summer… therefore this might be my perfect salad. The temps aren’t too high here just yet but with all of the crazy rain we’ve been having, the humidity makes it sweltering to say the least. This watermelon feta salad is as refreshing as it gets – cool, crisp watermelon, fennel, and cucumber are mixed with creamy avocado and feta cheese. It’s pretty much everything I love tossed into a bowl. This is a greener version of this spicy watermelon salad that I love. The kale idea came from a salad that I regularly get at Snap Kitchen, a…

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Sara’s Strawberry Tabbouleh

A beautiful strawberry tabbouleh recipe adapted from The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon by Sara and Hugh Forte. With vegan & gluten-free options, it's great for a picnic.

spring / salads / Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon

After I posted my list of favorite spring cookbooks, I could tell that this is the book you’ve all been waiting for – and I’m here to tell you that Sara & Hugh Forte’s new book, Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon, doesn’t disappoint. The photos are of course gorgeous, and the food… well it makes you want to dig in with a spoon because all of it, like this tabbouleh recipe, looks so incredibly vibrant and delicious! The book has been sitting on my desk for a little while now, among a slew of papers, books, and other messy-desk things – which is how this tabbouleh recipe…

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Spicy Mango & Avocado Rice Bowl

vegan / gluten free / dinner

It’s been feeling summery around here, so I say – let’s bring on the colorful food! Lately, I’ve been slightly obsessed with these black rice veggie sushi rolls that are new-ish at (our) Whole Foods. One in particular includes mango, avocado and cucumber and I find myself craving it all the time. I’ve had it on my list to recreate it for you for awhile now, but the idea of rolling sushi has felt too labor intensive. For us, at-home sushi making is “sometimes” food. It’s reserved for those special nights when the sake is flowing and we have nothing but extra time……

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Pear & Arugula Chickpea Salad

Meet this salad: your new favorite winter lunch. Just 7 ingredients, sweet, tangy, fresh, and hearty, yet healthy. You'll love this one.

winter / salads / gluten free

I realize this post might not be the most timely. If you’re snowed in, chances are you’re not reaching for a cold salad – BUT it’s not snowing here and nothing will ever stop me from craving big bright salads for lunch. (If you need something hot today, click here, here, or here). My lunch salads are what I would call “kitchen sink” style. I toss whatever veggies I happen to have into a bowl… often with chickpeas and a bit of feta cheese or a scoop of hummus. For crunch, I add toasted nuts and/or hemp seeds. And to bring it all together…

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Rainbow Orzo Salad

Make this fresh, fun orzo salad recipe for your next picnic! With lots of fresh herbs, juicy mango, and crisp veggies, it's summer food at its finest.

summer / salads / vegan

I first made this orzo salad recipe at my mom’s house. When I dug through her fridge, I found crunchy veggies, summer herbs, and a big, juicy mango that I absolutely had to use. I caught sight of a box of orzo pasta and a can of chickpeas in her pantry, and I immediately thought – orzo salad! It would be hearty enough to serve for dinner, but light and refreshing for the heat wave that was happening that night. I tossed together crunchy cucumbers, red onion, fresh herbs, and mango and dished it up for my family. While we…

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Feta & Harissa Fattoush Salad

summer / salads / favorites

I have a confession to make: I’m obsessed with feta cheese. Growing up, my mom used to make spanakopita, (carefully wrapped phillo dough triangles stuffed with spinach and feta), every year for my birthday – it was my favorite thing and that tangy creamy flavor is still one of my fondest food memories. Of course, that’s a lot of work to do for every day meals, so nowadays I get my feta fix on salads. That tangy salty bite has a way of turning on-hand ingredients into tasty cohesive meals. Sweet potato and pomegranate, watermelon and avocado, strawberries and quinoa,…

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Any Vegetable Vinegar Pickles

A simple pickle recipe that's great for pickling broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, onions, cucumbers, and more!

cookbook / giveaway / hip girl's guide to the kitchen

I love cookbooks and I hoard them pretty obsessively. Although, I’ll admit, I have a hard time following recipes from start to finish. Which is why I love the premise of Kate Payne’s new book, The Hip Girls Guide to the Kitchen. It’s a “hit the ground running approach, seeing as you need to eat three times daily whether you’ve mastered your kitchen or not.” It’s full of, really, everything you need to know to be pretty successful in your kitchen – from how to set up your pantry to how to put meals together intuitively and economically. (Also she’s gluten…

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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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Cold Cucumber Soba

A healthier noodle dish that uses spiralized cucumber in place of half of the noodles. Fresh, healthy, vegan and gluten free.

summer / vegan

I guest posted the other day at Turntable Kitchen. Kasey and Matt are in Japan, which is one of the places Jack and I loved the most. We spent a week in Kyoto and one of the first things we set out to find was soba. It’s served in teeny tiny hundred-year-old restaurants. The noodles are handmade, and cold soba is served plain with a dipping sauce. Just dip and slurp. The louder the better. Since the soba I make at home comes from a box I, of course, add stuff. But I try to keep it simple. We’ve been…

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Mango Pesto

mango / vegan / gluten free

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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