Vegan Bacon

Learn how to make vegan bacon three ways! Crispy, smoky, salty, and slightly sweet, it's just as good as the real thing.

Whenever I take a tray of vegan bacon out of the oven, Jack, my bacon-loving husband, appears instantly. “What’s this?” he asks. As soon as I say, “Vegan bacon,” he reaches for it right away. Now, Jack is no fool. I make vegan bacon three ways: with tempeh, with coconut, and with shiitake mushrooms. None of these ingredients transforms into an exact replica of real bacon, and they wouldn’t fool him for a second. However, seasoned the right way, they have all the traits that make bacon so irresistible: they’re smoky, salty, and slightly sweet with a perfect crispy texture.…

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Homemade Taquitos

Meet my new favorite appetizer: Baked Green Chile Taquitos! They're crispy on the outside, gooey in the middle, tangy, lightly spicy, and so. much. fun!

Who would have guessed that moving to Chicago would have made me a taquitos fan? Just after Jack and I moved here, a new bar opened up down the block from our house. At first, we went there for drinks, but we’ve kept going back for taquitos! As it turns out, this bar has an inventive chef who comes up with a rotating menu of homemade taquitos. They make their tortillas from scratch and stuff them with seasonal, local ingredients. After just a few visits, Jack and I were total taquitos converts, and I knew I had to try making…

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Homemade Granola

There's a lot to love about this homemade granola recipe. It's easy to make, it's healthy, it's delicious, and it will make your kitchen smell amazing!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent hours in the granola aisle at the grocery store, trying to find just the right kind. You know the one – it has lots of fun mix-ins like nuts and dried fruit, it’s sweet, but not too sweet, it’s spiced with cinnamon, and it’s filled with big clusters of oats and nuts. And if you’re anything like me, you’ve come to realize that it’s nearly impossible to find the perfect granola at the store. Enter: my homemade granola recipe! Instead of using white or brown sugar, I sweeten it naturally with a modest…

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Easy Peanut Sauce

Try this easy peanut sauce recipe once, and you'll want to have it on hand at all times. It's perfect for jazzing up noodles, salads, bowls, and more!

Does anyone else absolutely love peanut sauce? Creamy, spicy, savory, and a little sweet, it’s a sauce that I’m equally happy drizzling over dinner or enjoying straight off a spoon. I can’t get enough! This peanut sauce recipe the first thing I turn to whenever I want to jazz up a simple stir fry, bowl, or salad at home. It’s super easy to make, and it calls for basic pantry ingredients that you likely already have on hand (no fish sauce here!). Peanut butter gives it creamy texture, rice vinegar or lime juice makes it nice and tangy, tamari or…

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Peanut Summer Rolls

Fresh veggies, herbs, and peanut noodles pack these summer rolls with bright, refreshing flavors. They're a delicious appetizer or light lunch!

Summer rolls are my favorite thing to make when I’m craving something light and healthy, but totally fun. I love stuffing rice paper wrappers with lots of fresh produce, mixing together a flavorful dipping sauce, and digging in! In this recipe, I toss noodles with an easy, sweet and savory peanut sauce made of peanut butter, sriracha, tamari, and a drop of maple syrup. Then, I roll the noodles into wrappers with avocado, sautéed mushrooms, green onion, and fresh basil and mint. How to Make Summer Rolls If you’ve never made fresh rolls like these before, it may seem intimidating,…

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Avocado Toast

Love avocado toast? Learn how to take it to the next level with this simple recipe (+5 amazing variations!) and my best tips and tricks!

When avocado toast came onto the scene years ago, lots of people wrote it off as a trend. But as someone who still eats it for breakfast or lunch a few times a week, I have to say that I think avocado toast is here to stay! It’s super easy to make, it’s healthy and satisfying, and it’s a blank canvas for flavorful seasonal toppings. What’s not to love? Below, you’ll find my basic avocado toast recipe along with 5 fun & fancy variations. Whether you toss them together for breakfast, enjoy them for lunch, or make them for a…

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Spinach Artichoke Dip

This baked spinach artichoke dip is a guaranteed party hit! It's deliciously creamy and cheesy, but shhh! A secret veggie ingredient is hiding inside it.

If you want to impress guests at your next holiday party, make this spinach artichoke dip! It’s creamy, cheesy, and rich with briny artichoke flavor. In fact, it’s so good that every time we make it, Jack and I devour it standing at the kitchen counter. We can’t get enough! But I’ll let you in on a secret: this spinach artichoke dip is made of mostly veggies. Sure, it’s loaded with the essentials – spinach and artichokes – but it also contains a surprising veggie ingredient: cauliflower! Instead of using cream cheese, sour cream, or mayonnaise to make this dip’s…

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Easy Sugar Cookies

These cut-out sugar cookies are fun and easy to make. They have crisp edges and thick, soft middles. Enjoy them plain or decorate them with royal icing!

When I was a kid, my family’s sugar cookie recipe was the first thing that brought us back into the kitchen after Thanksgiving. We’d spend the weekend after the holiday rolling out dough, cutting out festive shapes, and decorating the cookies once they were baked. To me, baking sugar cookies still feels like the first sign that Christmas is on its way, and this easy sugar cookie recipe is the perfect way to kick off the holiday season! It’s fun and easy to make, and best of all, it’s delicious. These sugar cookies are thick and soft, with scrumptious crispy…

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How to Cook Tofu

Silken or extra-firm? To press or not to press? This easy baked tofu recipe + my best tips and tricks will teach you how to cook tofu like a pro!

Everyone has an opinion on tofu, and here’s mine: I absolutely love it…when it’s prepared the right way. If you’ve never worked with it before, cooking tofu can be daunting. But once you learn a little about it, it couldn’t be easier to prepare tofu well. Below, you’ll find my best tips and tricks for how to cook tofu like a pro, plus my go-to sriracha baked tofu recipe! What is tofu, anyway? Tofu is a soy-based food that’s made from curdling soy milk and forming it into a solid block. It’s a good source of plant-based protein that can…

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No Bake Cookies

These no bake cookies are quick and easy to make—no oven required! Made with chocolate, peanut butter, and oats, they're rich, chewy, and delicious.

No bake cookies! If you’re not already making these irresistible, EASY treats, head to the kitchen and make yourself a batch. You’re going to love this recipe! No bake cookies were one of my favorite childhood desserts, and I still love them to this day. Made with simple ingredients like peanut butter, cocoa powder, and oats, they have a rich chocolate peanut butter flavor and amazing chewy texture. Given their name, you’ve probably guessed that these no bake cookies don’t bake in the oven. Instead, the dough comes together on the stovetop and sets up in the fridge. The process…

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Butternut Squash Soup

Served piping hot with a hunk of crusty bread, this creamy, nourishing butternut squash soup recipe is fall comfort food at its best.

My favorite fall tradition is making butternut squash soup on Sunday afternoons. On a brisk day, there’s nothing more soothing than chopping and simmering vegetables over a warm stove. As you cook, the kitchen fills with the cozy scent of sage, rosemary, and butternut squash, and when you’re finished, steaming bowls of butternut squash soup (that will last all week!) reward you for your work. In the past, my go-to butternut squash soup recipe has included coconut milk and curry spices, but this fall, I found myself craving one that was a bit more traditional. When I say traditional, I…

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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.