Stuffed Acorn Squash w/ Kale & Creminis

The best side/vegetarian main at Thanksgiving! Acorn squash is stuffed with millet, mushrooms, kale, sage, pecans & cranberries in this healthy fall dish.

Over the years we’ve had more than a few untraditional Thanksgivings… the ones where we didn’t make it to the family feast because flying during the holiday weekend is the biggest. hassle. ever. We’ve had a slew of friendsgivings, well before they were the cool hipster thing to do… One year, Jack and I spent a nice evening alone over a romantic dinner of butternut squash risotto… And I’ll never forget the year I didn’t fly home from college and I ate a can of tuna and frozen green beans. I know, so sad. But I had schoolwork to catch…

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Coconut Creamed Spinach

Learn how to make the best creamed spinach with this easy 10-ingredient recipe! It's a healthy, delicious side dish you'll make again & again.

What are your favorite Thanksgiving foods? When Jack was growing up, his mom would always make her famous creamed spinach, so this year, I wanted to make a riff on her traditional recipe. My new creamed spinach recipe is totally dairy-free – I use coconut milk instead of cream – and it’s filled with savory umami flavor and tons of fresh greens. It requires just 10 ingredients and less than 30 minutes to make…are you thinking what I’m thinking? Yup, creamed spinach is a new Thanksgiving tradition around here. Best Creamed Spinach Recipe Ingredients To make my spin on creamed…

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Skillet Apple Crisp

This would be a pretty dessert on the table of any dinner party… or a no-fuss, no-crust Thanksgiving apple “not-pie.” But it’s equally perfect for a cozy Sunday when you’re too lazy to leave the sofa in between marathon-ed episodes of Mr. Selfridge. Don’t tell me what happens, we’re 3 episodes from the end, and we’re pretty obsessed. But we had to eat, and this was fast enough to quickly to whip up. (It just tastes like it should have taken longer). Feel free to scale it for a crowd, but I love a dessert that’s easy to to make…

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Rosemary Roasted Veggies

Who says thanksgiving has to be all about brown food? Not me, obviously… it’s an understatement to say that I love colorful foods. This is one of the easiest side dishes you will ever make. Cubes of butternut squash, cipollini onions, and green cauliflower are roasted simply with olive oil, garlic, and rosemary, then tossed with nuts and herbs. Of course, you could use regular cauliflower, broccoli, or even sub in brussels sprouts. This green cauliflower (or I guess they call it broccoflower, but how ugly is that word?), just happened to catch my eye. Best of all, you can…

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Kale & Apple Butternut Squash Salad

Kale & apple butternut salad is a perfect healthy fall dinner or Thanksgiving side. Butternut ribbons add fun color and texture to this delicious dish.

We’re on a butternut squash kick this week. It wasn’t intentional, it’s just that one butternut squash times two people equals about four meals. It’s a squash that keeps on giving. Today’s special shape: ribbons! No special gadgets required – just get out your regular veggie peeler, and peel away. Toss with a tangy dressing (it’ll help tame down the raw bite), and toss with kale, apples, herbs and nuts. If this is all too green and healthy for your traditional Thanksgiving meal, just think of it as your pre-turkey-day (delicious) detox!

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Butternut Squash Noodle Pasta

This healthy weeknight dinner uses half butternut squash noodles and half pasta to create a delicious vegetarian meal. Walnuts, fried sage, leeks & lemon add flavor & texture to this cold-weather dish!

Get excited, it’s fall faux noodle time! In the past we’ve done papaya, zucchini, and cucumber, but today we’re making butternut squash noodles. I mixed these pretty orange julienned spirals with regular noodles and made this simple leek & sage pasta. Of course, you could make this same dish with cubed squash, but you can’t twirl cubes on your fork, so where’s the fun in that? The butternut squash noodles make for a fun texture variation – I cooked them for less time than the pasta noodles, so they had nice firm bite. I topped it all with walnuts, fried sage, and…

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Apple Spice Cocktails

Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving, Friends-giving, or my personal favorite holiday - random Sunday - here's your fall party cocktail.

Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving, Friends-giving, or my personal favorite holiday – random Sunday – here’s your fall party cocktail. It’ll make you look like a good put-together host because you’ll have it ready as your guests walk through the door. No one has to know that you made (most of) it the day before. This is full of warm fall spices but it’s actually pretty light and refreshing. Crisp vodka gets mixed with sweet spiced apple juice… and a squeeze of lemon pulls it all together (doesn’t it always?). Serve with apple slices, cinnamon sticks, and star anise, because aren’t those little stars…

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Roasted Carrot Turmeric Soup

I freaking love soup. Warm, comfy, and healing for the soul. And with turmeric – supposedly healing for the body. A natural anti-inflammatory, “they say.” Which is what sparked the idea for this soup: Literal sparks of pain. Do you have those weeks where things seem to unravel? Where one mishap, leads to the next? For me, it began with a broken glass on the kitchen floor and a teeny tiny piece that I somehow couldn’t get out of my foot. I limped around for a couple days, until I could feel it was gone. Also gone — my sense of balance, apparently.…

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Mushroom & Chickpea Stew

This mushroom & chickpea stew is a cozy, hearty dinner perfect for fall or winter. Swap in whatever veggies you have to round out this delicious dish!

I realize, I just posted this happy sunny day post, so this is a little contradictory… but since then, I’ve been a fighting a bit of a cold. And all I can think about right now is soup. Well, and smoothies… hot and cold foods to cure a scratchy throat. And maybe some ice cream for good measure. You’re supposed to feed a cold, right? This soup/stew, whatever you want to call it, really hit the spot… it’s warm, hearty, and packed with a healthy amount of veggies. It was especially good served with a little bit of this pesto…

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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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Miso Sesame Squash Salad

Does anyone else have a fascination with grocery stores in other countries? In Japan, we spent lots of time at food markets, but we spent countless hours wandering the aisles of grocery stores. It was so fun just trying to figure out what everything was. I collected non-perishable(ish) items to bring back – miso pastes, spice mixtures, etc… We also had a short list of items to get for a very good Japanese friend back home. A few of them were a little hard to find – buttered peanuts, and a specific brand of salad dressing. She eventually sent us some photos so…

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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.