Roasted Carrots & Cilantro

Sweet roasted carrots served with a creamy, tangy cilantro yogurt sauce make a healthy weeknight side or appetizer for spring or summer.

We don’t really like carrots. Ok, I take that back, we like cake made out of carrots, and we like raw carrots, but both Jack and I grew up with a disdain for cooked carrots. Of course, we only knew them as the mushy baby carrot version. Or worse yet, the mushy baby carrots in the pot roast version. We both have memories of our moms smasing the carrots and boiled potatoes together and pouring gravy on top. “But it’s so good this way”, my mom would say… each and every time… as if one day this mush would miraculously…

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Orzo & Arugula Lemon Thyme Salad

This 30-minute salad filled with veggies, mozzarella & orzo and tossed with a bright lemon vinaigrette is perfect for a spring or summer weeknight dinner.

In case it isn’t obvious… I love lemons. Ending a dish with a squeeze of lemon or a bit of zest, to me, makes the whole world seem just bit brighter. And now I’m revealing my newest lemon-y obsession… lemon thyme. I have a bunch of it growing in my garden, and it just smells so amazing. Sweet, bright, fragrant… move over basil. (Ok, not really). My first thought was that this lemon thyme needs to be in a cake. But I’m not exactly Jeanine the baker, so my second thought was to make a bright summery salad with lots of…

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Sesame Cucumber Salad

Chilled cucumbers and wakame in a sweet & tangy dressing make a quick & healthy summer condiment or snack. Sesame seeds add crunch. Vegan and gluten free.

This is hands down my favorite hot weather snack. Is it hot where you are? It’s about 95 degrees here and I have about a million cucumbers growing in my garden. Sadly, in this heat, the cucumbers are about all I have growing at the moment. But I’ll take my cucumbers and be happy about them. And make salad. This one is generally in my fridge all summer long because it’s just so quick and easy, and it keeps for days. I also find that it’s a great way to add in sea vegetables. They’re not necessary here: the cucumbers are…

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Grilled Veggies with Romesco Sauce

Sweet, smoky, and tangy romesco sauce served with grilled veggies and ciabatta makes an easy, healthy weeknight summer dinner or appetizer. Vegan.

Thank you to everyone who left well wishes last week about my poor thumb and helpful suggestions for my fighting-dog issue. I’m doing much better now. Since I was one hand down last week my wonderful husband took over and cooked this lovely meal for us. Sunday night, I sat back and drank wine while Jack carefully peeled, chopped, prepped, and grilled. I surely did not make fun of him for how long it could possibly take one to trim a pepper, and I tried hard to keep my “helpful suggestions” to a minimum. And now about the food — romesco…

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Leek Almond Chickpea Tart

Sautéed leeks and lemony, herb-filled creamy almond spread are layered over socca to create a unique, healthy spring or summer dinner. Vegan & gluten free.

This is so not my week. I’m going to keep this very short because I badly injured my thumb last night, and you don’t want to know how long it just took me to type out the recipe at the end of this post… Jack and I made this last Saturday night for dinner. I got the inspiration from this photo of a leek tart that I pinned. Leeks aside, my recipe is entirely different. I decided to try socca (a chickpea flour pancake/dough) as a healthier alternative to puff pastry… not that it’s equivalent to a flaky puff pastry, it’s…

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Mini Tomato and Herb Bruschettas

These simple balsamic, tomato, and herb bruschettas come together in under 30 minutes for a healthy summer dinner or appetizer. Vegan.

This is simple… maybe too simple. Jack’s been out of town this week, so not a whole lot of cooking has been happening around here. I had hopes – I wouldn’t say high hopes – but I had medium hopes of what I would make for just myself. But so far all I’ve made is coffee… trips to food trucks… dinner plans with friends (hey, it’s good to get out of the kitchen sometimes). But not to worry, I have something really good saved up for tomorrow’s post. So, until then, I’ll leave you with this simple, herby & balsamic…

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Chickpea Nicoise Salad

Tossed with an herby lemon dressing, this vegetarian take on the classic Nicoise salad makes a healthy weeknight meal for spring or summer. Gluten free.

We were on vacation in Nice around this time last year, and I think I ate a nicoise salad for lunch every day of that trip. Or as Jack has coined it, the “Nizzan” salad, because the Italians call Nice “Nizza” (pronounced like pizza). We learned this as were running through the Rome airport (we are always running), and the airport desk workers were yelling out “Nizza! Nizza! last call for Nizza!” So that’s what we call it now. The city and the salad. This is one of my favorite main course salads because it’s so filling yet light and…

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Red Curry & Miso Veggie Bowl

Your favorite veggies are roasted with a spicy miso glaze to make this easy vegan & gluten free veggie bowl. Perfect for a healthy weeknight dinner.

“Quick and easy weeknight cooking” hasn’t been something I’ve focused on much here. If something I’ve made happened to be quick, it was by accident more than anything else. I enjoy the process of cooking, and when I’m inspired, hours can fly by. (Although I’ll add the disclaimer that recipes on this site should, by no means, take “hours”). After a particularly stressful day last week, inspiration ran out. I was tired and preoccupied. I had a plethora of vegetables lying around the kitchen begging me not to abandon them for a restaurant. But my jumbled mind couldn’t figure out…

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Grilled Summer Herb Garden Pizza

These grilled tomato, mozzarella & herb pizzas are perfect for beautiful summer weeknights (+weekends, too)! Enjoy a healthy dinner in less than 30 minutes.

summer / vegetarian

I really wanted this to be “every-herb-I-have-except-basil pizza.” I’ve been on a bit of a basil kick lately and I really wanted to give some attention to the other herbs I have growing in the new garden. But the tomatoes I had were so pretty, I just couldn’t bring myself to not match them up with basil. It would be like peanut butter without jelly… ketchup without mustard… or me without Jack (it’s ok to groan, sorry). Basil notwithstanding, I couldn’t make up my mind on which other herbs to use, so I just went out and grabbed everything that…

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Black Bean Tacos with Zucchini Salsa

Healthy beans & greens tacos and a creamy avocado-zucchini salsa make a crowd-pleasing spring or summer dinner. Vegan. Gluten-free option.

It’s funny when inspiration strikes, or where a good idea finds you…The other day I was sitting at the Discount Tire store, waiting on my car…bored out of my mind. Just me and my phone. After every last email had been replied to and every last tweet read, I went to my go-to time-passing app, Epicurious. They aren’t paying me to write this, but I love this app. It saves me every time… dentist offices, bad movies, you name it… I stopped on this zucchini salsa recipe which completely intrigued me. How could zucchini possibly become a replacement for tomatillos?…

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BBQ Portobello Sliders

Add some veggies to your next summer cookout with these little sandwiches! BBQ-marinated mushrooms make a delicious meal for meat-eaters and vegans alike.

summer / vegan / grilling

Summer makes me happy… long sunny days, warm nights, flip flops, juicy watermelons, waffle cones, and food with ketchup. Or in this case, BBQ sauce. A few weeks ago, I was drooling over this post. So last weekend, for my dad and Jack, I decided to made a mushroom version. The only change I really made to the sauce was adding dijon mustard. I love ketchup… Jack hates it… so the mustard added a nice kick and kept the overall tomato-y factor in balance.

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.