25 Ways to Celebrate Spring Vegetables

It’s time to ditch the white comfort food, and welcome spring with lots of colorful, fresh spring vegetables.

Hey there!  How happy are you that the end of March is in sight, and spring is just around the corner?  For real – and you know I mean spring weather, not the actual date on the calendar.  As soon as the days are longer, and the air has that “hello – it’s spring” smell to it, and shadows from the sun start screaming “it’s here!”, don’t you just want to say buh- bye to carbs and comfort food, and hello to those pretty, colorful spring veggies?  I sure do! Continue Reading..

Sesame Peanut Sweet Potato “Noodles” with Tofu {Meatless Monday}

Sweet potato “noodles” take center stage in this Asian-inspired meatless meal.

Hello friend, and happy Meatless Monday! I hope you have a few sharp knives in your kitchen, because this week will be filled with lots of veggie inspiration.  I’m joining the folks at the Meatless Monday Movement to gear up for Food day 2015 – next Monday, October 24. If you’re not familiar with it, think of Food Day as kind of like earth day for food. It’s a grassroots movement made up of individuals and organizations passionate about promoting a healthy, sustainable, and just food system. Continue Reading..

Sofritas Stuffed Poblano Peppers {Meatless Monday}

Have you tried those new vegan Sofritas Bowls at Chipotle yet? I have not, only because I’ve been too lazy to hunt down a Chipotle at dinnertime. Sadly, the nearest one is about 12 miles from me, and that’s just a little too far for me to go for fast food – even though their fast food is pretty darn good. So instead of driving to the next town for Sofritas, I did the next best thing. Yep – I made it myself.

I’m pretty much in love with this stuff. Cooks up incredibly fast, and it can be served in multiple ways – stuff it into a burrito, spoon it into a grilled corn tortilla, serve it in a bowl over regular or cauliflower rice, or just eat it with a spoon. I was craving some stuffed peppers, when I came up with this twist on them. Continue Reading..

Zucchini Fritters with Corn and Hatch Chiles

How do you feel about zucchini? If you’re a gardener, you probably love them because they are so easy to grow, and they make you feel like you really know what you’re doing out there. If you have a spiralizer, you probably love them too, because they make totally awesome veggie noodles AKA “zoodles”. Other than that though, I always feel like most people throw them in some ratatouille, or grill up a few slices, and decide they really don’t love zucchini. Continue Reading..

Grilled Stoplight Vegetable Skewers with Halloumi

Doesn’t everything taste better when it’s grilled? Well, OK maybe not comfort foods like chicken pot pie or risotto, but hey, its summer, so who needs comfort food? I find the sun and warm weather pretty darn comforting.

I grill A LOT in the summer, and I don’t mean to be a Debbie downer about grilling and meat, but there is some concern about grilled meats and cancer. Be careful when grilling meat to make sure that you don’t char it – which causes HCAs or hererocyclic amines to form. There is research, which suggests that HCAs are linked to cancer, but happily for all grill lovers, HCAs are considerably reduced when meat (and chicken or fish) is marinated.  Just a quick dunk in any kind of marinade does the trick.

Vegetables, however, do not form HCAs, no matter how much you like to char them. So feel free to skewer them up, and grill away.   Continue Reading..