Green Quesadillas

In this frigid weather, nothing sounds better to me than soups and sandwiches. But if you’re like me and you keep tortillas on hand more regularly than bread – quesadillas are the perfect little soup or salad accompaniment. I always love to sneak a few greens into my food but today there’s no hiding it. These green-on-green-on-green quesadillas start with spinach tortillas that I stuffed with cheese, jalapeños, cilantro and sliced collard greens (feel free to sub spinach, kale, or whatever you have on hand)… and pickled shallots for a bright tangy bite. These are especially good with our Spicy Black Bean Soup.

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Jalapeño Cauliflower Mac & Cheese

Jalapeño mac and cheese is perfect for warming up on winter weeknights. With roasted cauliflower & fresh kale, it's filling, simple & nutritious.

Hi everyone, Jack here reporting in from the frozen tundra of Chicago. We flew in for a quick weekend over Jeanine’s birthday (happy birthday!!!) and it is just beyond cold. Austin’s apparently snowing today, but still, not much prepares you for walking outside into 9ºF (-13ºC) weather from a nice, warm airport. This blog is almost always about making meals completely from scratch, but it’s cold times like this that sometimes you just want to pour a box of mac and cheese into a pot and go to town. Well we did that, posted a photo here on Instagram, and people went crazy for…

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Roasted Cauliflower Kale Salad

When I want a fast, healthy meal, this salad is my go-to recipe. I dress it up with fresh citrus juices, seasonal veggies, and my favorite nuts & cheese.

When I’m not in the mood to cook (and yes, that happens), our dinner often looks something like this roasted cauliflower salad. While there are a lot of salads on this blog, I probably don’t post as many kale salads as I actually consume. I love them because they’re hearty and filling and are pretty much a blank canvas for any seasonal vegetable. Plus, they’re great to pack away for lunch the next day. Kale might be “so last year,” but it’ll always have a special place in my heart. How to Make This Roasted Cauliflower Salad This is a…

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Ginger Miso Soup with Soba & Turnips

This nourishing ginger miso soup recipe is filled with shiitakes, turnips, tofu, carrots & soba noodles. A delicious healthy lunch.

I’ve had this miso soup in the queue for a little while now. Which isn’t normally the way I work, but I knew this humble healthy soup would get little love in between all of the sparkly & sprinkle-y holiday recipe madness. So I saved it especially for this week, which is otherwise known as the soupiest, salad-iest week on the internet. Inspired by our love of Japanese cooking, this recipe is nourishing, light, and refreshing – perfect for a winter reset. Miso Soup Ingredients Here’s what I use to make this healthy miso soup: Kombu. Kombu is dried seaweed used to make…

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Peanut Butter Goji Berry Granola Bars

Delicious & healthy homemade granola bars made with peanut butter, goji berries, pepitas, pistachios, and a little chocolate. Gluten-free and easy to make!

Happy New Year! Today I’m guest posting over at Better Homes and Gardens’ Dish Delish Blog. These granola bars were inspired by their recipe for Chocolate-Peanut Butter Granola Bars, which reminded me of the ones my mom used to pack into my school lunch everyday. I might not have that Barbie and the Rockers lunchbox anymore, but I thought it would be fun to recreate this favorite afternoon treat in a healthier way. My version is packed with goji berries, chia seeds, pistachios, pepitas, (and of course, chocolate)… These are so quick & easy to make. Click over to the BHG Dish…

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Minty Millet & Pomegranate Salad

I’m calling this my “Merry Christmas Millet Salad”… because why wait until January to eat a little lighter and brighter? This salad is full of everything I love – pretty pomegranates, pistachios, fennel, & mint… and it’s tossed in a light but tangy tahini dressing that’s sweetened with big squeezes of orange. If you don’t have millet, you could just as easily sub quinoa. I use the two pretty interchangeably (especially when I forget to label my bulk bin bags). What I love about millet is that it almost tastes like semolina couscous, but it’s entirely gluten free and a healthy whole…

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Buttercup Squash Crumble Bars

The ultimate fall dessert - these crumbly, creamy butternut squash bars are topped with chocolate and coconut. (Plus a video!!)

I had this buttercup squash (perhaps the funkiest looking squash of them all), sitting on my countertop for the longest time. It likely would have become soup had it not been for the name itself –  “buttercup” which spoke to me and said: let’s make a crumbly & buttery dessert! I won’t go as far to say this is healthy, but hey, it’s the holidays and we’re making dessert, so let’s live a little. These bars are made with good quality organic ingredients (and remember: squash). This recipe is loosely based on my recipe for raspberry crumble bars. I switched out…

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White Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

We have a new favorite food and it’s not what you think. Well, ok, it is what you think, given that the title and photo in this post have given it away. Lately, I haven’t been able to make it through the Whole Foods checkout line without sneaking a package of those Justin’s white chocolate almond butter cups – have you had them? (This is not a sponsored post, btw).  So I thought – how hard would it be to make them at home? First we tried to make a vegan version w/ cacao butter – total fail. (points for trying…

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Vegan Kale & Artichoke Dip

Vegan Kale & Artichoke dip is a healthy spin on the classic spinach artichoke dip. It's the perfect appetizer for holiday parties or winter gatherings!

Hey all, Jack here – now that it’s the end of the year, it’s holiday party time! And what does it normally mean to eat at a party in the winter? To a lot of Americans, that means spinach artichoke dip. I mean, what makes you feel like partying more than eating an entire loaf of bread dipped in cream cheese and mayonnaise? Well, Jeanine and I don’t really think that’s much of a party any more. Our idea of a party is one where the next day you (or your guests) don’t feel awful. So we took a bit of…

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Matcha White Hot Chocolate

A delicious, grown-up winter treat, this Matcha White Hot Chocolate is an easy, cozy drink for cold days. 4 ingredients and full of healthy antioxidants!

Hot chocolate always has to come with warm fuzzy memories, doesn’t it? I vividly remember being about 9 – otherwise known as the age when snow was fun. My sister and I would spend hours and hours building forts and making snow angels. We’d come in the house with red noses and leave our snowpants in a puddle at the door (you know, for mom to clean up). We’d sit down to mugs of Swiss Miss hot chocolate, no marshmallows for me. I might not have wintery white Christmases anymore, but here’s my fancy adult white hot chocolate that’s made oh…

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Mini Sweet Potato Pizzas

our Mini Sweet Potato Pizzas are topped with brussels sprouts and kale. Customize the recipe with ingredients you happen to have on hand.

I feel like I missed the boat on the Thanksgiving leftover trend – sorry no mashed potato sandwiches happened here. (and um, eww). Instead, I turned a bunch of random veggie scraps and a chunk of red onion into fancy little veggie packed pizzas. In other words – it’s pretty much a non-recipe made on mini naan breads. You can customize these with whatever veggies you have on hand. Red onion and brussels sprouts are a tried & true combo (this recipe is still one of our favorites), and the sweet potatoes add a nice hearty bite. I slathered ricotta cheese…

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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.