Kale & White Bean Crostini

A healthy appetizer perfect for holiday gatherings! Toasted baguette is topped with marinated white beans and sautéed kale for a tangy, savory starter.

The season of holiday parties is beginning… I don’t know about you, but I’m still pretty full from Thanksgiving. Not that I’ll be turning down cocktails or sugary treats when they’re offered to me… but somehow I feel less guilty indulging if I’ve had my kale fix. (Kale neutralizes out cookies, right?). This appetizer is super simple to throw together (or even make ahead of time) and packs a garlicky-lemony-rosemary-ey punch…

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Kale, Egg & Avocado Toast

This avocado toast topped with balsamic-sautéed kale and a fried egg makes a simple and healthy vegetarian lunch or snack.

breakfast / snacks & dips / favorite

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Ours was filled with family festivities, eating, walking (trying to burn off at least some of the calories consumed), followed by more eating, and of course some drinking in there too. Many of you are probably tired of cooking by now, so today’s recipe is not really a recipe. I realized the other day that I rarely post about the food that I actually eat the most… the simple things I throw together for breakfast or a quick lunch. I eat a version of this at least a few times a week……

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Mushroom & Edamame Quinoa Fried “Rice”

A veggie- & protein-packed Quinoa Fried Rice from Keys to the Kitchen by Aida Mollenkamp! A healthy, easy vegetarian weeknight dinner. Gluten free.

dairy free / gluten free / keys to the kitchen

Time to get excited – I have another giveaway! Aida Mollenkamp’s new book, Keys to the Kitchen, is a new food bible. I planned to post this yesterday, but the book has so much that summing it up in a post is a nearly impossible task. In fact, it took me about 20 minutes to explain why I love this book to Jack (and I talk fast, so you don’t want to know how long a post that would be). Simply put, the book is beautiful, informative, helpful, and will make anyone, at any skill level, a better cook for…

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Sesame-Ginger Chickpea Cakes

These vegetarian sesame-ginger chickpea cakes make impressive healthy homemade appetizers. Cilantro lime yogurt sauce adds creamy texture & tons of flavor.

fall / vegetarian

As promised, here is the vegetarian followup to the tuna cakes I posted last week. I used most of the same ingredients (because I happened to have them all leftover)… the end result was pretty different, but delicious just the same. Of course, I really have a soft spot in my heart for panko-crusted anything… With this, I wanted to share a couple of handy tips: 1. Fresh ginger – keep it in the freezer, and grate it as you need it. No thawing required… by the time you grate, it’ll be thawed enough. I love to cook with ginger,…

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Tuna Cakes with Yuzu Yogurt

Make this lightly adapted version of Yotam Ottolenghi's Tuna Cakes with Yuzu Yogurt for an elegant and healthy at-home appetizer.

appetizers / seafood / favorite

I’m a little bit (more) obsessed with Ottolenghi since coming back from London. I’m kicking myself for not picking up a copy of the new cookbook, Jerusalem, while we were there (I didn’t realize it wasn’t out in the US yet and, well, books just aren’t very packable). So last weekend I sat around and bookmarked a whole bunch of recipes from his column on The Guardian. He just has so many unique ideas. This one is going into the category of “I’ll-probably-make-this-over-and-over-until-we’re-entirely-sick-of-eating-it.” You can’t exactly tell from the photo, but it’s like tuna tartare formed into a patty and…

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Ginger Noodles with Kale & Shiitakes

This noodle bowl is filled with a warm gingery broth & fresh herbs, sautéed shiitakes, kale, garlic & scallions. A healthy dinner in fall or spring. Vegan.

vegan / gluten free

Our vacation was filled with two weeks of unapologetic amounts of cheese, bread, wine, and pastries… so coming home, this is the kind of comforting meal I look forward to… healing Asian foods… shiitake mushrooms, ginger, sesame (and kale just for kale’s sake). This is inspired by a recipe of Heidi’s that I’ve made countless times in a variety of ways. I just love the basic flavor idea – simmering ginger broth kicked up with lime juice, basil, mint, and crushed red pepper flakes. Just because vacation is over doesn’t mean it’s time to eat boring food. I kicked up…

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Edamame Dumplings

These homemade dumplings filled with edamame, basil, ginger, miso & tahini make a delicious 30-minute vegan dinner! Perfect for spring & summer weeknights.

dairy free

Somehow we ended up with a lot of photos for this one… so with that, I’m going to keep the words short. Our countdown continues… just 2 days until our trip and many many errands left to go. Thanks to everyone who left such thoughtful comments and suggestions the other day; it’s been such a huge help. This recipe was the first one I bookmarked in the Sprouted Kitchen cookbook. I realize we’ve already posted about their beautiful book before… Funny thing is that I actually made this with no intentions of photographing it… but then it was just looking so pretty… and then of…

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Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Make a batch of these chewy and moist gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and they'll be gone in no time. One of our favorite treats!

gluten free / dairy free

I’ll be honest, most things I bake don’t make it to the blog. For starters, I don’t bake very often. Our household (not including the dogs), is just 2 of us. And if 12 cookies are made one day, 12 cookies will be gone the next day. When I do bake, I’d call it experimental more than anything else. I can’t bring myself to follow a recipe all the way through without changing at least a few things, sometimes as an attempt to healthify things. Other times, I’m just too lazy to go out and get the exact ingredients. You…

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Green Papaya Salad

Green papaya ribbons tossed with a bright Asian-inspired herb, lime, and lemongrass dressing make a unique and healthy vegetarian meal.

salads / gluten free

I’ve been dreaming of making a green papaya salad for a while now… I just don’t see them (the unripe not-sweet green kind) around too often. A few weekends ago Jack and I ventured out to the MT Supermarket, a ridiculously huge asian market that we’d somehow never been to. If you live here in Austin, have you been there? The only way I can describe it is that it’s maybe the Asian grocery equivalent to IKEA. Super overwhelming… fun but probably only because it was our first time… and make sure you are highly caffeinated before you go. Among other treasures, I came…

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Coconut Loaf

Toasted coconut and a coconut milk glaze top this moist, coconut-filled healthy breakfast bread from the book Sprouted Kitchen. Great for dessert, too!

breakfast / snacks & dips / sprouted kitchen

I’ve been reading Sara & Hugh’s blog Sprouted Kitchen for about as long as I’ve been reading 101 Cookbooks. Which is food blog code for: a long time. I’ve had their book pre-ordered for months, but was excited (flattered, really) when Sara sent me one. Now, everyone reading my blog is, I’m sure, already familiar with Sprouted Kitchen. I probably don’t need to go on about how gorgeous Hugh’s photography is. Or about how many “I wish I thought of that” moments I’ve had over Sara’s inspiring and creative recipe ideas (Shiitake Taco’s anyone?). So I’ll just get to why I like…

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Roasted Shishito Peppers

Serve these spicy roasted shishito peppers as a fun & healthy appetizer for your next summer cookout! Peanut and miso dipping sauces up the fun & flavor.

summer / vegan

Before this year, I don’t think we even knew shishito peppers existed. Now we can’t get enough of them. They seem to be on the menu of nearly every restaurant we frequent and we’ve ordered them countless times… finally, I started making them at home. And I’ll tell you, they are just as good. And as with any simple vegetable preparation, the goodness is likely due to the fact that we’ve had really amazing ones available to us all summer long at our farmers markets. The fun thing about eating these mildly sweet peppers is the fearful anticipation that you’ll…

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.