Chocolate Chip Carrot Cookies

Sneak some veggies into your chocolate chip cookies! These are the perfect mid-afternoon vegan treat.

chocolate chip carrot cookies

I’ve been baking a lot of chocolate chip cookies lately. I’m not sure what prompted the obsession, but what I’ve learned is that once you start a 3 o’ clock cookie habit, it’s hard to break. This particular day I had carrots, so I worked those into the mix. I quickly realized that grating carrots by hand was a tedious task, so I turned to the food processor. And instead of dirtying another bowl for my wet ingredients, I just mixed them straight in there. (My mom uses the same method for her carrot cakes). A couple of notes… these…

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Lemony Chickpea Salad

chickpeas for hunger / loveandlemons.com

Today, I’m participating, in Food Bloggers Against Hunger. A movement organized by Nicole of The Giving Table, in response to the movie A Place at the Table. Today 200 food bloggers are sharing budget-friendly recipes to raise awareness about hunger in America. There is plenty of food in this country, yet most don’t realize (myself previously included) that 1 in 4 kids don’t know where their next meal will come from. One of the main points of the film is that hunger and obesity in this country go hand in hand. Ingredients that make up unhealthy processed foods (corn, soy,…

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Arugula Scramble with Kale Pesto

Arugula, kale pesto and scrambled eggs. A simple breakfast for simple leftovers.

arugula scramble with pesto / loveandlemons.com

Happy weekend! I though I’d share one last pesto meal. (It’s gone now, I promise pesto week is over. At least for now). I love a good breakfast, but I don’t like to wake up and spend a lot of time cooking first thing in the morning. This is very much a non-recipe, but it’s something simple that I make all the time, in one variation or another. It’s never to early in the day to fit in some green food, right?

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Farro Salad with Kale Pesto

farro salad with kale pesto / loveandlemons.com

I’m continuing my kale pesto kick with this easy throw-together grain salad. This was based around ingredients I already had in my fridge and pantry… come to life with spoonfuls of the pesto I had made earlier in the week. Feel free, with this one, to sub in ingredients that you have on hand. The farro could be wheatberries or quinoa, the arugula could be shreds of raw kale leaves, the radishes could be another crunchy veggie. Make a big batch and save some for lunch the next day.

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Parmigiano & Fig Grilled Cheese

parmigiano & fig grilled cheese / loveandlemons.com

A few weeks ago Whole Foods set out to break the Guinness World Record of number of Parmigiano Reggiano wheels cracked simultaneously. Jack and I were the “official” witnesses of Parmageddon at our Austin store. I know what you might be thinking… how does the lactose intolerant girl get herself into these things? Well, first of all, Jack will not ever turn down an opportunity for free cheese. And second, in recent years I’ve learned that hard cheeses don’t have very much lactose, and that I don’t have as much of a problem with really high quality cheese. (ie. just…

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Edamame Hummus & Radish Crostini

Fresh spring toasts topped with zesty edamame hummus and lemony yogurt dip.

edamame hummus & yogurt radish crostini // loveandlemons.com

It’s been snack time around here lately. I don’t know if it’s because spring is in the air, or because our schedules have been irregular lately, but we seem to have traded regular meals for snacky meals. Here are two variations that we’ve recently called dinner… best served with wine and maybe a light soup or salad. The snacking continued with the leftovers. The next morning I baked a tortilla until crispy, and topped it with edamame hummus and a fried egg. (New discovery: the breakfast tostada). The rest of the yogurt sauce went on a salad with chopped veggies.…

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Mushroom & Quinoa Lettuce Wraps

mushroom & quinoa lettuce wraps / loveandlemons.com

Nutella one day, quinoa the next. This is what I call balance. Tasty balance. Last week, I had this huge head of red lettuce. After a few days of salads, I worked my way down to the small rounded leaves in the center. I thought they were just too cute to tear apart into another salad, so I thought… lettuce wraps. This could be a lovely spring appetizer, or a light meal for two. Especially if you’ve been over-indulging lately like we have been.

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Nutella Stuffed French Toast

nutella stuffed french toast / loveandlemons.com

This might be the most unhealthy thing I’ve made for this site thus far. It’s not “surprisingly” vegan or “by the way” gluten free. And I didn’t make my own Nutella, although I thought about it. But… it’s fast, easy, and super delicious. We’re having some Nutella-loving friends over for Easter brunch next weekend, so I’m thinking this will be sure to impress. If sweets are too much for you in the morning, this can double as dessert with a scoop of ice cream on top. (If you’re reading between the lines here, yes… we ate these for breakfast and…

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Swiss Chard & Egg Casserole

swiss chard & egg casserole

Eggy casserole… fancy fritatta… I wasn’t sure what to call it but our “eggs for dinner” series continues with this new favorite. I realize this looks like a pile of greens (and it very much is), but there are thin layers of egg baked in between the light and flaky chard leaves. The trick is to toss the whisked eggs with the chard leaves raw. In the oven, the greens on the bottom wilt down, the ones on top stay a little bit crispy… a perfect mix of textures. The eggs are mixed with garlic and my favorite part –…

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Sweet Potato & Brussels Skillet

This Sweet Potato & Brussels Egg Skillet is a simple, healthy vegetarian dinner or brunch! This flexible, easy recipe is also gluten-free.

sweet potato & brussels sprout skillet / loveandlemons.com

Brunchy food… it’s perhaps what I cook the most, but what makes it to this site the least. Saturday and Sunday mornings are just not the time to be breaking out the camera. So in an effort to provide a few pre-Easter brunch ideas, we had eggs for dinner… something we should really do more often. I love this sort of meal because it’s a bit of a fridge clean-out. A trip to the store is not necessarily required, you can switch this around to work with what you have. I had a sweet potato and a few brussels sprouts……

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Ginger Citrus Soba & Snow Peas

ginger-citrus soba noodles / loveandlemons.com

I realize I posted soba noodles only a few weeks ago, but I’m back with more. This time, they’re stir fried in a sweet, tangy orange-ginger soy sauce with some crunchy snow peas and edamame. While that one was best served cold, this one is best piping hot. And aside from the tedious task of cleaning the snow peas, this comes together rather quickly.  

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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.