Healthier Game Day Recipes

our favorite vegetarian superbowl snacks and meals including Healthy Loaded Vegan Nachos, Super Stuffed Sweet Potatoes and more!

vegetarian / game day

Ok, so aside from watching the Cubs win this year, I’m not what you would call a sports fan. I know the Super Bowl is this Sunday but I have no clue who’s playing and if I had to guess (without googling it), I’d embarrass myself by naming teams from the wrong sport. But sportsball aside, here are a bunch of taco-nacho-ey-pizza-ish recipes that you might consider serving this weekend. I’d be game to eat any of these… game or no game. pictured above: Super Stuffed Chipotle Sweet Potatoes pictured above: Healthy Loaded Vegan Nachos Mango Goji Guacamole / Sweet Potato Avocado…

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Sustenance Sweet Potato Soup

This hearty sweet potato soup is exactly what you need to power through the winter. With a scoop of almond butter for richness, it's vegan & gluten-free.

winter / vegan / cookbook

Crazy weather we’ve been having here lately… one day we’re eating a sunny lunch on a patio and the next five nights we’re curled up at home trying to stay warm during torrential downpours. I SO wish I was one of those people who finds rainstorms to be cozy and calming, but I’m quite the opposite. Storms may get me a little edgy and nervous, but what does calm me down is making a stew like this one. This recipe comes from my friend Tess (a.k.a. The Blender Girl)’s new cookbook The Perfect Blend. This stew is everything you want on a cold January night…

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Buckwheat, Apple, Cranberry Avocado Salad

A healthy, hearty, lemon-ey salad from the cookbook Blissful Basil. Vegan and gluten free.

salads / vegan / cookbooks

Oh hi – long time no post. Last week, I was a bit sick and down for the count, to say the least. This week, I’m on a healing bender. I have my blender working overtime with crazy green smoothies made with ginger, turmeric and every herb that I’ve read about that contains immune-building qualities. I’m trying to eat lighter and brighter as well because I really do believe that plants can heal. Which brings me to this recipe from Blissful Basil, a cookbook that couldn’t have arrived at a better time. If you don’t follow Ashley’s blog of the same name, you…

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My favorite healthy recipes

vegetarian / lists

It’s January, which is like Christmas here in healthy food blogger land. Green smoothies, fresh bowls of vegetables, and hearty stews are all over social media. There’s not a cookie in sight and we don’t care because gorgeous healthy food is in abundance. For me, eating lighter doesn’t require juice cleanses or food fasts. I don’t like to feel hungry or deprived so instead I turn to recipes like these, a collection of my personal favorite plant-forward recipes that are both delicious and satisfying. (Click on the links OR the photos themselves to go directly to the recipes). Spiralized Daikon “Rice Noodle”…

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9 Tips for a Healthy & Happy New Year

real life / healthy tips

This post is sponsored by Burt’s Bees. All words and photos are my own. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that keep us cooking! Happy New Year! This is usually the post where I would list some sort of New Year’s Resolution… but today instead of talking about how I wish I would floss more or how I’m going to hit the gym more regularly (spoiler alert: I’m not), I thought I’d share some of the small things that make me feel happy and healthy throughout ANY week, new year’s or not. 1. Start the day on a healthy note. I…

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Top Recipes of 2016

Our top 10 reader-favorite recipes of 2016. Butternut Squash Stuffed Shells, Vegetarian Pho, Carrot Breakfast Cookies and more!

vegetarian / reader favorites

Happy 2017 everyone! I know everyone is ready to kick 2016 to the curb, but before we forget about it entirely, I wanted to share our top 10 recipes of the past year. These recipes not only top our site analytics, but they’re among the most made and shared recipes on Instagram. If you’re new here, (welcome!) this group of recipes is a great place to start. Click on the links OR the photos themselves to go directly to the recipes. Vegan Butternut Squash Stuffed Shells (pictured above) Ok technically I posted this one at the tail end of 2015, but…

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Winter Spiced Moscow Mule

A fun and festive holiday spin on a Moscow Mule - perfect for New Years Eve! This healthier version uses ginger kombucha instead of ginger beer.

holiday / cocktail

Hello from Holiday Vacation-land… aka, my parents house where Jack and I have been spending the week. We flew in just in time to have a white Christmas before the snow melted. Other than spending time with family, we’ve been spending time in the house because we’re really not winter people. I binge-watched Shirley Temple movies; Jack fixed my parents computer. We’ve been eating my mom’s Christmas cookies, and I’ve been working on a few new recipes – spending time in front of the stove is the best way to stay warm around here! All in all, it’s been a much-needed…

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Carrot Soup + our Amazon Echo recipe skill

Check out our new Love & Lemons Amazon Echo Recipe skill where you can search and cook recipes while Alexa reads the ingredients and instructions OUT LOUD. It's really handy because it'll keep your phone screen from getting messy while you're trying to cook!

vegan / gluten free

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! Christmas came a little early for us – a few months ago “Santa Amazon” sent us an Amazon Echo and my techy husband Jack could not have been more excited. While he was playing around with its features, he decided that it would be neat if it could read our recipes aloud. So he got to work and here it is: a Love & Lemons skill where you can search and cook our recipes while Alexa reads the ingredients and instructions OUT LOUD. It’s really handy because it’ll keep your phone screen from getting messy while…

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Christmas Morning Recipes

Favorite healthy holiday breakfast and brunch recipes - including Vegan French Toast, Blueberry Baked Oatmeal and more!

breakfast / brunch / holiday

And the countdown begins! As a kid, Christmas morning was always the absolute BEST part of the year. For the special morning my family celebrated with one of 2 breakfast rituals – a can of Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls or a box of Entenmann’s chocolate doughnuts. We loved it all – although my sister and I could honestly care less about the food because the morning was all about waking up and waiting sooooo patiently for my parents to get their coffee before we could start opening presents. The recipe suggestions here are a little more homemade, but hey no judgement if you have…

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Vegan Gingerbread Cookies

These vegan gingerbread cookies are perfect for the holidays! Soft, chewy, and deliciously spiced, they're fun to make, fun to decorate, and fun to eat.

vegan / holiday

These vegan gingerbread cookies might just be my new favorite holiday cookie! They’re so good that I’ve made them quite a few times this month already. We (ahem, Jack) kept devouring batch after batch, so I just had to make them again this weekend so we could snap some photos and share them with all of you! These vegan gingerbread cookies are soft, chewy, and deliciously spiced. If you ask me, they’re just as good as traditional gingerbread, but they’re made with wholesome, plant-based ingredients like coconut sugar, coconut oil, and almond butter – my secret ingredient. It makes these…

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Spaghetti Bolognese

You'll love this fresh take on spaghetti bolognese. It's filled with a hearty mixture of mushrooms, lentils, walnuts, and aromatic veggies.

dinner / pasta

Have you seen those lists of the new 2017 trends? You know, the ones that go around the internet this time of year predicting everything from the popularity of coconut oil to the color of pale pink we’ll all be wearing in the spring? One that’s caught my attention lately is that “they” are saying that staying in is the new going out. And I’m totally on board with that. If you’ve had a busy holiday season how good does this sound: Stretchy pants, spaghetti bolognese, wine, and a nice dinner by the fire with twinkly Christmas tree lights in the background? Ok, just…

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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.

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