Golden Turmeric Noodle Miso Soup

This vegetable noodle miso soup will brighten up a winter's day! Healthy & healing, it's made with lemon, ginger, and turmeric.

The thing that no one talks about in food blogging is that you develop some really weird eating patterns. The question of the day isn’t “what am I having for breakfast or lunch,” it’s “what are we working on and can it be considered a meal?” In December, testing cookie recipes every day was a bit of a sugar rush. After that, balance was restored while testing/creating this healthy nourishing veggie noodle miso soup recipe. I think I ate this soup four times in a row last week – so what you’re looking at is my unintentional soup cleanse. Now,…

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Vegan Lemon Muffins

These Vegan Lemon Muffins are great to bake for a weekend breakfast. Freeze extras for busy mornings or quick snacks!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fantastic celebration. Us? Well, we had a nice dinner and then slept through the new year for (I think) the second year in a row. The thing is – I’ve become a morning person. It wasn’t intentional – it just happened. On weekdays, I find that I get my best work done first thing in the morning. On weekends and holidays, I like to get up, pour coffee, and bake something for breakfast. So here are some yummy lemon muffins that I’ve been baking lately! This post is in partnership with…

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Roasted Cauliflower Salad

Dried apricots, olives, and toasted nuts fill this cauliflower salad with contrasting textures and flavors. A delicious side dish or make-ahead lunch!

This roasted cauliflower salad will brighten up any winter day! At least, that’s what I tell myself as I seriously consider getting one of those vitamin D lamps. Have any of you ever tried one? These 4:30 Chicago sunsets really take some getting used to. Anyway, back to the cauliflower salad! I was going to save this recipe to post in January. You know, once everyone wants to get healthy and eat vegetables again… but then I realized that you’re all here because you love vegetables, holidays or not! This hearty cauliflower salad could double as a holiday side dish…

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Roasted Red Pepper Soup

I love making this colorful roasted red pepper soup on cold winter days. With simple steps and nourishing flavor, it's a weeknight go-to.

This roasted red pepper soup recipe is light and nourishing, yet creamy and delicious – just the thing if you ate too many cookies this weekend. Plus, I think the red pepper soup and green herbs look so festive! If you haven’t gotten around to decorating a tree this year (or if you’re tired of decorating cookies), you can decorate your soup! 🙂 Roasted Red Pepper Soup Recipe Ingredients Because red bell peppers aren’t in season, I use jarred roasted red peppers, which are a super convenient pantry ingredient. If you’re making this soup in the summer or fall, though,…

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Tahini Cookies

It's impossible to eat one of these tahini cookies without reaching for a second. They're lightly sweet, chewy, and filled with spiced, nutty flavor.

These tahini cookies have become one of my favorite afternoon treats. They’re soft and chewy, with a lightly sweet, spiced flavor. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be reaching for a second before you’ve even finished the first. Luckily, there’s no need to hold back here, as these tahini cookies are actually on the healthy side. They’re vegan, gluten-free, and naturally sweetened, and the pomegranates on top add a pop of antioxidants! I mean…why not have three? Tahini Cookies Ingredients These vegan tahini cookies are SO easy to make, and they only require a handful of ingredients. Here’s what you’ll…

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Wild Rice Soup

Craving something that's comforting, but healthy? Make this creamy wild rice soup! Autumn veggies and herbs pack it with rich, savory flavor.

The next time you have a day when all you want to do is pull on your biggest sweater and curl up on the couch, make this creamy wild rice soup. If you ask me, it’s the best kind of comfort food. It’s creamy and cozy, but it’s nourishing too. Colorful autumn veggies like carrots, celery, and mushrooms fleck its surface, and nutty wild rice and white beans make it nice and hearty. And as for that creamy broth? Well, there’s actually no heavy cream or dairy hiding inside it. Instead, it’s a wholesome, flavorful blend of white beans, cashews,…

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Kale & Olive Oil Vegan Mashed Potatoes

This rustic vegan mashed potatoes recipe is made with olive oil, rosemary, garlic, scallions, and kale. A delicious, easy vegetarian holiday side dish!

Thanksgiving is next week, but I’ve been eating mashed potatoes for a while now because blogging life means eating holiday recipes early! I first made these vegan mashed potatoes for a family dinner a few weeks ago. While I was in the kitchen mashing stuff in a bowl, my brother-in-law came over and asked, “What’s in the mashed potatoes?” I said, “Potatoes…” and he said, “No, I mean, what’s the ‘potato’…is it cauliflower…is it parsnips?” He knows me so well. It dawned on me how rarely I make actual potatoes, but we’re changing that today. This Thanksgiving our potatoes are…

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Creamy Vegan Butternut Squash Pudding

Creamy vegan butternut squash pudding is better than pumpkin pie and is 10 times easier! Just roast, blend & chill to make this wonderful pudding.

Skip pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, and make butternut squash pudding instead! This yummy pudding is creamy and oh so pumpkin-like, but it’s made with fresh roasted squash. It’s super easy to make – just roast butternut squash, blend, and chill. Here’s how this one came about. A few weeks ago, I made these butternut sandwiches, and multiple tests of this butternut curry. By the end of that week, I had lots of squash parts leftover (particularly because those sandwiches required just the long plank pieces). My first thought, of course, was to make soup. My second thought was to ask…

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Pumpkin French Toast

This pumpkin French toast is the perfect fall breakfast! Cinnamon fills it with warm, spiced flavor, and a drizzle of maple syrup takes it over the top.

This pumpkin French toast is the perfect fall breakfast! It’s crisp and golden brown on the outside, moist and tender in the middle, and packed with pumpkin flavor the whole way through. It’s super easy to make, so you could whip it up on a weekday, but I especially love it on the weekends, when I can sit back, relax, and savor it. Just like it does in baking recipes, pumpkin puree makes a great egg replacer in this recipe, creating a rich, custard-like mixture to coat the thick slices of bread. As a result, this pumpkin French toast is…

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Sweet Potato Chili Fries

I crave sweet potatoes and chili on cold days, so these fun chili fries are exactly what I want on fall and winter nights. Great for game day or parties!

Once fall hits, I always crave two things: roasted sweet potatoes and chili. So naturally, I had sweet potato chili on my mind, but what I really wanted were big, puffy roasted sweet potato wedges and their deliciously sweet and browned caramelized edges. And that’s when it occurred to me – Sweet Potato Chili Fries! Well… wedges, technically. It’s the best of both worlds, and these little individual servings, topped with a quick slaw and avocado, are so fun to eat! I started with my favorite veggie chili recipe, which happens to be very quick and easy to make. Since there…

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Oyster Mushroom Soup

This oyster mushroom soup is a healthy, healing recipe for cool evenings. It's brimming with flavor from lemongrass, miso & ginger!

One night a week, Jack goes to comedy class, which means it’s the night that I have all to myself. In lieu of doing anything productive, I usually eat toast for dinner in front of the computer and let myself go down a rabbit hole of Youtube videos. I watch what people eat in a day, I watch people who live in vans and make vegan food (#vanlife), I watch people who live in vans and make vegan food while raising young children, and I read the scroll of crazy judgy comments that come as a result of that lifestyle…

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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.