Vegan Chocolate Cake

The BEST vegan chocolate cake recipe! It's moist and deeply chocolatey, with a rich chocolate frosting made from a secret healthy ingredient.

This vegan chocolate cake recipe comes from my new cookbook, Love & Lemons Every Day. Today, I’m sharing it in honor of the book’s launch, but this vegan cake recipe would be perfect for any celebration. It’s moist and delicious, with a rich dark chocolate flavor. Topped in a luscious frosting, it’s a dessert that everyone will love, whether they’re vegan or not. Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe Ingredients This vegan chocolate cake tastes rich and decadent, but secretly, it’s healthy. Healthy for a cake, that is. 🙂 Here’s what you’ll need to make it: All-purpose flour and whole wheat flour…

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Macro Veggie Bowl

A vibrant turmeric tahini sauce is the star of this delicious veggie bowl! It adds a pop of bright flavor to the mix of fresh vegetables, rice, and beans.

When we lived in Austin, I headed to a macrobiotic restaurant called Casa de Luz whenever I craved a nourishing, cleansing veggie bowl like this one. Instead of offering a menu, it serves one rotating meal that always contains a grain, a legume, blanched greens, steamed vegetables, a pickled vegetable, and a delicious sauce. It may sound limiting, but I’ve honestly had some of the best sauce and vegetable pairings of my life there. If you’re ever in Austin, make sure you check it out! Inspired by years of enjoying delicious, nourishing meals at Casa de Luz, I used the…

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Vegan Banana Pancakes

If you like banana bread, then you'll love these vegan banana pancakes! They're lightly sweet, thick, fluffy, and filled with yummy banana flavor.

This stack of vegan banana pancakes pretty much sums up my ideal Saturday morning. Except, well, I don’t eat 7 pancakes on my individual plate, but Jack would if I put them in front of him. Portion control aside, if you have ripe bananas hanging around, give these vegan banana pancakes a try! They’re easy to make in one bowl, and they’re thick, fluffy, and full of yummy banana flavor. I think you’re going to love them! Vegan Banana Pancakes Ingredients These vegan banana pancakes aren’t just delicious – they’re good for you, too! Here’s what’s in them: Bananas, of…

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Crispy Roasted Chickpeas

Roasted chickpeas make a great protein-packed vegan snack! Enjoy them on their own, or add them to your favorite healthy dishes for crispy texture.

If you like chickpeas, you’re going to LOVE this roasted chickpeas recipe! It’s no secret I’m a fan of chickpeas – they’re a great addition to soups, stews, salads, sandwiches, you name it. Not only are they a good vegetarian protein source, but they can also bump up the textural contrast in a dish. If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, though, you know that I’m not a fan of mushy food. Sometimes I’m craving something crispy in a salad, and chickpeas’ soft texture won’t satisfy me. Enter: roasted chickpeas. They still have all the protein and heartiness…

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How to Cook Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash is such a fun, underrated vegetable! Here is my favorite way to cook it, along with a few tips and recipes.

I get so many questions about how to cook spaghetti squash, so I thought I’d share my go-to method for roasting it, a few tips, and a couple of my favorite spaghetti squash recipes. How to Cook Spaghetti Squash First thing’s first: use a sharp knife to cut it in half lengthwise. After you slice the squash in half, use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Next, drizzle the insides lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I find that adding too much oil and too much salt at this stage makes the squash a bit…

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Maki Sushi Recipe

Fun & fresh maki sushi rolls made with brown rice, roasted shiitakes, cabbage, cucumber, avocado, and a tangy carrot-ginger dipping sauce.

It’s sushi day! You might be wondering – why the heck would you roll sushi at home when it’s so much easier to order it at a restaurant? Because this maki sushi recipe is fun, affordable, and way more fresh than take-out sushi… but the best part is that you can get creative about what you choose to fill your rolls with. No more cucumber-only veggie sushi rolls! These maki sushi rolls are filled with savory roasted shiitake mushrooms, avocado, cucumber, and red cabbage for crunch & color. There’s also a fun dipping sauce – the carrot ginger dressing from…

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Kale Salad

The BEST kale salad recipe! It's packed with colorful vegetables, crispy chickpeas, avocado, cranberries, and pepitas. Great for lunch!

Kale salad recipes aren’t as trendy as they used to be, but I’m still making them, and I think you should be too. My case in point is this kale salad recipe, which, if I do say so myself, is one of the most delicious ways to eat kale. A vibrant carrot ginger dressing coats the tender leafy greens, and roasted chickpeas, colorful veggies, and avocado add lots of contrasting textures. I love to serve it as a side dish because it pairs well with almost any meal, but it’s also hearty enough to pass as a standalone lunch. The sturdy…

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Sesame Noodle Bowl

This easy noodle bowl recipe is a delicious combination of crispy snap peas, sweet orange segments, shiitake mushrooms, and a savory miso dressing.

This noodle bowl is one of my favorite “bowl food” recipes. “Bowl food” always has a mix of delicious veggie-heavy ingredients with varying tastes, textures, and flavors, with a hearty base underneath. It’s fun to eat because you get something a little different in each bite. The inconvenient thing about component bowls is that all those components can take time to prepare. Chopping and cooking raw plant-based ingredients is time-consuming! This Sesame Orange Noodle Bowl is the exception, though. You’ll be surprised how quickly and easily it comes together! How to Make this Noodle Bowl Recipe Whisk together the simple…

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Golden Turmeric Noodle Miso Soup

This vegetable noodle miso soup will brighten up a winter's day! Healthy & healing, it's made with lemon, ginger, and turmeric.

The thing that no one talks about in food blogging is that you develop some really weird eating patterns. The question of the day isn’t “what am I having for breakfast or lunch,” it’s “what are we working on and can it be considered a meal?” In December, testing cookie recipes every day was a bit of a sugar rush. After that, balance was restored while testing/creating this healthy nourishing veggie noodle miso soup recipe. I think I ate this soup four times in a row last week – so what you’re looking at is my unintentional soup cleanse. Now,…

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Vegan Lemon Muffins

These Vegan Lemon Muffins are great to bake for a weekend breakfast. Freeze extras for busy mornings or quick snacks!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fantastic celebration. Us? Well, we had a nice dinner and then slept through the new year for (I think) the second year in a row. The thing is – I’ve become a morning person. It wasn’t intentional – it just happened. On weekdays, I find that I get my best work done first thing in the morning. On weekends and holidays, I like to get up, pour coffee, and bake something for breakfast. So here are some yummy lemon muffins that I’ve been baking lately! This post is in partnership with…

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Roasted Cauliflower Salad

Dried apricots, olives, and toasted nuts fill this cauliflower salad with contrasting textures and flavors. A delicious side dish or make-ahead lunch!

This roasted cauliflower salad will brighten up any winter day! At least, that’s what I tell myself as I seriously consider getting one of those vitamin D lamps. Have any of you ever tried one? These 4:30 Chicago sunsets really take some getting used to. Anyway, back to the cauliflower salad! I was going to save this recipe to post in January. You know, once everyone wants to get healthy and eat vegetables again… but then I realized that you’re all here because you love vegetables, holidays or not! This hearty cauliflower salad could double as a holiday side dish…

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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.