Mushroom & Quinoa Lettuce Wraps

mushroom & quinoa lettuce wraps / loveandlemons.com

Nutella one day, quinoa the next. This is what I call balance. Tasty balance. Last week, I had this huge head of red lettuce. After a few days of salads, I worked my way down to the small rounded leaves in the center. I thought they were just too cute to tear apart into another salad, so I thought… lettuce wraps. This could be a lovely spring appetizer, or a light meal for two. Especially if you’ve been over-indulging lately like we have been.

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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.

sweet potato & brussels sprout skillet / loveandlemons.com

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.

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.

apple muffins / loveandlemons.com

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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Apple Pancake

This thick, custardy baked apple pancake takes me straight back to my childhood. Dust it with powdered sugar for a sweet finishing touch & dig in!

apple pancake // loveandlemons.com

My sister and I used to beg my mom for things like Fruity Pebbles and Frosted Flakes. She didn’t cave often, but I remember the few times she did… she’d sigh and say, “If I buy this, are you really going to eat it this time?” We’d smile and nod, excited to be taking home the same colorful boxes our friends had. We’d each eat maybe one bowl full. Then up in the pantry it would go… to collect dust and then ultimately get tossed in the next pantry clean-out. The smiling kids on Saturday morning commercials would convince us…

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Brussels Sprout & Sunchoke Salad

What's your favorite sunchoke recipe? Do you have one? I love this caramelized sunchoke & Brussels sprout salad - a perfect light winter meal.

It’s hardly winter in Austin anymore, but I’m still trying to keep all of you snowbirds in mind. Enter: the winter sunchoke salad. This sunchoke recipe is full of warm, roasty goodness and brightened up with a tangy lemon dressing. Cooking with sunchokes Have you cooked with sunchokes? Do you have a sunchoke recipe to recommend? They’re new to me, but I just love them, so I was eager to develop a sunchoke recipe of my own. Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, have a potato-like quality. I like them both thinly sliced and roasted or sautéed with butter and…

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Chipotle Shrimp Tacos

Fish tacos with a spicy creamy chipotle aioli.

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos // loveandlemons.com

I have some guilty confessions relating to this meal: 1. This might seem un-characteristic, given my general healthy habits but I love mayo. And I have an unhealthy addiction to Japanese Kewpie Mayo. If I had to choose 5 things to bring to a desert island, that just might be one of them. Along with a few chipotles to make this sauce. 2. I made these tacos all for myself one night last week while Jack worked late… catching up on my guiltiest of guilty tv shows… The Bachelor, which I had proudly avoided for weeks… and Smash, a show…

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Mini Ceviche Tacos

mini ceviche tacos, two ways (vegetarian & pesca)

I’m guest posting today on A House in the Hills (one of my favorite blogs), while Sarah is in Mexico this week. I know, I’m jealous too. To compensate for my vacation-envy, I made these bright little ceviche tacos and imagined myself on the beach soaking in the sun with a margarita in hand. Whitefish gets “cooked” with lots of lime juice. And for a fun twist I made a vegetarian version using chopped up hearts of palm that was equally, (if not more), delicious than it’s pesca counterpart. You could serve them with chips as an appetizer, or with tortillas as more…

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Granola & Pomegranate Bowl

This is dessert for breakfast. Especially when you eat it with vanilla coconut yogurt like we did. And drink a mocha on the side. Sometimes a morning sugar rush is just what you need to welcome the day, right? And as if this wasn’t sweet enough already, Jack still had to ask “so… you’re not going to put chocolate chips in there?” Um, no. No, I’m not… (Although, I suppose you could if you wanted too).

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Sake-steamed Mussels

This is something sort of different for us. I’ve never cooked mussels before, but when I was choosing a recipe to make from Steamy Kitchen’s new book, I felt like trying something outside my comfort zone. I also knew Jack would never expect this, and I like to surprise him every now and then. Surprise… mussels are so easy. 6 ingredients and about 5 minutes later we had perfectly steamed mussels in a fancy aromatic sake broth. I made some soba noodles to go along with them (and to soak up more of the broth – no sake goes to…

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Seared Cauliflower Steaks

pan seared cauliflower steaks / loveandlemons.com

This one is so simple but I’m really excited about it. I received (yet another) giant cauliflower last week. I loved this preparation so much that I made it two nights in a row… which rarely happens around here. Also rare… this short list of ingredients. I have a way of turning a “simple” recipe idea into a list of 20 items, but not this time! (I was so proud, can you tell?) This is great as a side dish but it would also make a nice appetizer – skip the greens and serve them with the sauce for dipping.

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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.