Stuffed Peppers w/ Chipotle “Cream”

Hands down, our most popular post has been this enchilada recipe with creamy cashew poblano sauce. I posted it over a year ago and I’m still receiving emails about it. So today I’m really excited to share this new twist: cashew cream meets chipotles. A happy marriage, especially if you like spicy food. You could top it on just about anything. At the risk of posting too many taco recipes, we did stuffed peppers this time. I roasted mild poblanos and these cute little anaheims… stuffed them with a smoky quinoa & black bean filling and topped them with dollops…

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Slow Roasted Tomato Pasta

Your eyes aren’t tricking you, these are not zucchini noodles. As much as I love non-noodle noodles, some nights just call for a big bowl of pasta. Especially when I have more tomatoes than I know what to do with and a basil plant that is finally flourishing. Slow roasting tomatoes is, well, slow. But it’s entirely hands-off and you really can’t mess it up. I find roasting to be an easy fix for my tomatoes that aren’t so perfect – you know, the ones that are sadly not that sweet. Eight or so hours later, they’re shriveled up little…

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Zucchini Coconut Noodles

This is my perfect cooking scenario: I walk into the farmers market with an open mind and no preconceived recipe idea. I take a quick scan and an idea instantly pops into my mind. I grab zucchini, tomatoes, cilantro, basil, these gorgeous amaranth greens, and we head home. (Ok, we stop at the doughnut stand, and then head home). Later that night, I start chopping, mincing and simmering. Jack works on the computer upstairs and instead of being mad that he’s working yet another weekend, I go to my zen place of carefully balancing flavors over the stove. Lemongrass, coconut and lime zest…

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Tequila Lime Fish Tacos

We’re switching things up today – this one is all about love for limes. (our alter-ego blog). The great thing about this recipe is that once you gather all the ingredients for the tacos, you’ll conveniently have everything you need to make margaritas to go with them. It’s like one of those “cook once, eat twice meals.” Only with drinking. Which is even better, right? Just be sure to get tons of extra limes. Cheers to a happy weekend!

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Chile-lime Grilled Veggie Skewers

Chile-lime Grilled Veggie Skewers - mango, zucchini and red pepper are SO good on the grill. Serve them on skewers or wrap them in tortillas with tomatillo salsa. Perfect for memorial day or 4th of July cookouts.

Cookouts are not always a vegetarian’s best friend. Over the years, I’ve eaten more dry cardboard-flavored Boca burgers than I care to remember. And for no good reason other than I suppose most of the parties we used to go to were single-dude cookouts. You know the kind: burgers, buns, and beer. Done. Since my younger veggie days, I’ve learned a few things: #1: Veggies are (of course) amazing on the grill. and #2: Make foodie friends and life will be a lot tastier. Vegetarian or not, these would make a delicious addition to any summer bbq.

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Cold Cucumber Soba

A healthier noodle dish that uses spiralized cucumber in place of half of the noodles. Fresh, healthy, vegan and gluten free.

I guest posted the other day at Turntable Kitchen. Kasey and Matt are in Japan, which is one of the places Jack and I loved the most. We spent a week in Kyoto and one of the first things we set out to find was soba. It’s served in teeny tiny hundred-year-old restaurants. The noodles are handmade, and cold soba is served plain with a dipping sauce. Just dip and slurp. The louder the better. Since the soba I make at home comes from a box I, of course, add stuff. But I try to keep it simple. We’ve been…

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Shrimp Po’ Boy with Mango

I’m sure fried food is exactly what you thought you’d see here today. But, you know, we’re only human and sometimes we fry things. Well, to be clear, Jack fries things. I sit back with a glass of wine and watch. It’s a hard job, but someone’s gotta make sure he doesn’t burn the house down. Pictured is shrimp, but he also made a tofu version using the same method. I mixed up a tangy sauce by pureeing mango with kewpie mayo. (You could use regular mayo or even vegenaise if mayo isn’t your thing). We ate these with sliced mango,…

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5 Kale Dinners

Challenged by Food52, here are five kale recipes! Spanakopita, Sushi Bowls, Kale and Eggs, Chimichurri, and Spanish Chickpea with Kale!

In case you weren’t getting enough kale in your life… This week, I was thrilled to contribute to Food 52’s Halfway to Dinner series. The challenge was to make a few bunches of kale stretch into 5 nights of relatively simple meals. You don’t have to twist my arm to cook kale so it’s a challenge I gladly accepted. (Although after “week-of-greens” I’m pretty sure my husband Jack is out eating fried chicken somewhere…)

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Pea & Chickpea Pasta Salad

This has been a favorite lately. I’ve made it countless times before I even thought of posting it here. It’s too easy… the ingredient list is short, and you likely already have these these things on hand. It’s super delicious and it takes no time to toss together. If I weren’t always trying to come up with new ideas, I would stop here and we would eat this most nights of the week. (Maybe switch out the veggies every so often to change it up). I whisked a little dijon with olive oil and lemon juice before tossing it with…

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Fried Egg & Mango Salsa Waffle

Happy Friday! This one makes me so happy that the weekend is just about here… This is part 1 of a fun project I’ve been working on with the Mango Board as part of their “Mangover” campaign. (makeover + mangoes, get it?) It’s about simply adding mango to ordinary food for an unexpected pop of color & tangy sweetness. Once a week they’re asking their facebook fans for meal ideas they would like to see made over with mango. This week (breakfast week), the choice was waffles and eggs. So I made a quick mango salsa with avocado, smoked paprika and a pinch…

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Creamy Leek & Almond Pasta

A healthy & light creamy pasta made with almond milk, cremini mushrooms, greens, lemon, basil and sun dried tomatoes. Vegan option.

Meals like this are the reason I love cooking at home. These are the kinds of dishes that my lactose intolerant self can’t order at restaurants. The amount of butter and cream that go into pastas and risottos… I don’t even want to know. I worked on this a few different ways. I was going to make an almond version of cashew cream (similar to this one), but I decided I didn’t want to ask you to break out the blender. At least not this time. The winner was this version where I simmered leeks & mushrooms in almond milk. Such…

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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.