Oscar Party Appetizers & Wine Pairings

Vegetarian appetizer recipes and wine pairings for your Oscar party! Red Pepper Soup Shooters, Best Dressed Endive Spears, and Mini Pizzas.

The Academy Awards are this weekend – have you seen all of the movies? We’ve binge-watched only a few of them, but so far my favorite is the Grand Budapest Hotel. Does anyone know where I can get Jack a hat that says “Lobby Boy?” Whether or not you’re into the glitz and glam of it all, we love any excuse to gather over food and wine. We’ve partnered with Dark Horse Wine to create 3 fun Oscar-themed appetizers along with some unexpected wine pairings. To make things easy, most of this menu can be prepared in advance, and all of these Dark Horse wines are under $10…

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Millet Cakes with Carrots & Spinach

These veggie-packed curried millet cakes make a fun, unexpected, and delicious vegetarian dinner! From The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook.

vegan-option / gluten free / America's Test Kitchen

I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get quinoa to stick together to form cohesive patties. With eggs, without eggs… I’ve made countless variations, some more successful than others, but now I have just one word: millet. What is millet? If you’ve never cooked millet before, you’re going to love it. One of my favorite grains, millet has a delicious nutty flavor and versatile texture. Depending on what water:grain ratio you use while cooking it, it can become a fluffy couscous-like grain or a creamy millet porridge. Like brown rice, it’s a naturally…

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Butternut Squash, Kale & Quinoa Stew

This spiced fall stew is full of butternut squash, kale, quinoa & tomatoes. It's one of our favorite healthy dinners, and it's great to pack for lunch!

fall / vegan / gluten free

And soup season continues! It might not be snowing here, but the fact that it’s been 80 degrees outside doesn’t stop me from craving big pots of stewy vegetables. Plus I just love having the leftovers around for lunch all week. They get better on the second day, and even better on the third day. This stew has pretty much all of my favorites: hearty butternut squash, quinoa & kale. It all gets simmered in a stewy tomato broth. It’s a pretty simple recipe that you should spice up as much as you like. I used cumin, coriander & smoked paprika, but…

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Valentine’s Molten Chocolate Cakes

Valentine's Day = time for molten chocolate cake! With 6 ingredients & 20 minutes, you'll have the perfect treat to share with someone you love.

valentines day

Happy almost-Valentine’s Day! Jack here reporting on my first baking love – molten chocolate cake. See, way before this blog, I pretty much had one staple “date night” dish. That dish was seared scallops and it was always a hit. Well, one Valentine’s Day, I decided to kick it up a notch and shoot for the moon… by trying out molten chocolate cakes. I had never made anything like a molten chocolate cake before, and for those unfamiliar, it’s a cake that spills out chocolate sauce when you cut into it. It’s a great show when it works. My first time making…

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Saffron Couscous & Spinach Stew

vegan / dinner / valentines day

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be all about fancy cooking and elaborate meals. If pasta making sounds too stressful, try this cozy one-pot stew that’s perfect for two. (With maybe a little leftover, if you eat less than we do). It doesn’t get much easier than this – sauté leeks and mushrooms in an oven-safe pot or this adorable heart shaped one. Add tomatoes, chickpeas, couscous and – the fancy part – a few pinches of saffron. Yes, saffron is expensive but a little goes a long way. Plus, it’s Valentine’s Day so let’s live a little. Pop it in the oven and bake…

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Rainbow Chard Bowls

These rainbow chard bowls are a delicious weeknight dinner! With 10 ingredients, they're easy to make, but they pack a punch of flavor.

winter / vegetarian / dinner

As a kid, I was obsessed with everything rainbow – my Rainbow Brite doll, a fresh new Crayola 64 pack (with built in sharpener!), and best of all – the rainbow-neon terminal at O’Hare airport. Pure magic. Nowadays, I have a new grownup rainbow obsession: rainbow chard. Cooking with Rainbow Chard If you’ve never cooked with rainbow chard before, it has a slightly bitter, earthy taste that I love to pair with sweet, tangy, and nutty accents. Aside from its gorgeous vibrant color, it has a special superpower: it’s kind of two vegetables in one! Not only can you use the chard leaves, but…

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Pear & Arugula Chickpea Salad

Meet this salad: your new favorite winter lunch. Just 7 ingredients, sweet, tangy, fresh, and hearty, yet healthy. You'll love this one.

winter / salads / gluten free

I realize this post might not be the most timely. If you’re snowed in, chances are you’re not reaching for a cold salad – BUT it’s not snowing here and nothing will ever stop me from craving big bright salads for lunch. (If you need something hot today, click here, here, or here). My lunch salads are what I would call “kitchen sink” style. I toss whatever veggies I happen to have into a bowl… often with chickpeas and a bit of feta cheese or a scoop of hummus. For crunch, I add toasted nuts and/or hemp seeds. And to bring it all together…

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Green Quesadillas

winter / vegetarian / gluten free-option

In this frigid weather, nothing sounds better to me than soups and sandwiches. But if you’re like me and you keep tortillas on hand more regularly than bread – quesadillas are the perfect little soup or salad accompaniment. I always love to sneak a few greens into my food but today there’s no hiding it. These green-on-green-on-green quesadillas start with spinach tortillas that I stuffed with cheese, jalapeños, cilantro and sliced collard greens (feel free to sub spinach, kale, or whatever you have on hand)… and pickled shallots for a bright tangy bite. These are especially good with our Spicy Black Bean Soup.

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Jalapeño Cauliflower Mac & Cheese

Jalapeño mac and cheese is perfect for warming up on winter weeknights. With roasted cauliflower & fresh kale, it's filling, simple & nutritious.

winter / vegetarian / dinner

Hi everyone, Jack here reporting in from the frozen tundra of Chicago. We flew in for a quick weekend over Jeanine’s birthday (happy birthday!!!) and it is just beyond cold. Austin’s apparently snowing today, but still, not much prepares you for walking outside into 9ºF (-13ºC) weather from a nice, warm airport. This blog is almost always about making meals completely from scratch, but it’s cold times like this that sometimes you just want to pour a box of mac and cheese into a pot and go to town. Well we did that, posted a photo here on Instagram, and people went crazy for…

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Roasted Cauliflower Kale Salad

When I want a fast, healthy meal, this salad is my go-to recipe. I dress it up with fresh citrus juices, seasonal veggies, and my favorite nuts & cheese.

winter / salads / vegan

When I’m not in the mood to cook (and yes, that happens), our dinner often looks something like this roasted cauliflower salad. While there are a lot of salads on this blog, I probably don’t post as many kale salads as I actually consume. I love them because they’re hearty and filling and are pretty much a blank canvas for any seasonal vegetable. Plus, they’re great to pack away for lunch the next day. Kale might be “so last year,” but it’ll always have a special place in my heart. How to Make This Roasted Cauliflower Salad This is a…

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.