Lunch

Goat Cheese Flatbread Pizza

February 23, 2022 by Lindsay 4 Comments

Delicious, super easy flatbread pizza recipe with goat cheese and caramelized onions! Tons of texture, flavor, and options to customize storebought flatbread pizzas! Caramelizing the onions takes a bit of time, but after that these flatbreads are done in 15 minutes.

flatlay pink plate with flatbread pizza slices and white napkin.

Ok, let's talk flatbread pizza recipes: For years and years and years this was one of our late-night go-to dinners, back in the days when there were no kids and yoga at 7pm on a Tuesday BEFORE eating dinner and going out to trivia and then work at 7am the next day seemed totally normal.

Because it was, sigh.

This particular version of flatbread pizza is SO good, a little elevated (although a kid-friendly equally yummy fake pizza is this pizza quesadilla which we love!), and so simple to make. Caramelize some onions, grab some sundried tomato pesto, cheese, olives, DONE.

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Vegan Potato Salad

July 27, 2021 by Lindsay 1 Comment

This vegan potato salad with no mayo is a super easy summer side dish that comes together with just a few ingredients! It tastes just like salt and vinegar potato chips, has tons of fresh herbs, and can be served warm or at room temp. I love it with cast iron skillet salmon for a delicious weeknight dinner, or as a summer potluck side dish offering.

Hello, hello flavors of middle school chip dreams wrapped up in some adult ingredients.

LOOK! It's a no mayo potato salad!

Listen, I love super fatty, carby side dishes in the summer. Seriously. A lot. BUT, I'm also into dishes that can feed a variety of dishes and are light enough that we can Eat All The Things and not feel uncomfortably full.

Like this vegan potato salad! This is one of those side dishes that goes with ANYTHING all summer, and the flavor combo is riiiight in the middle of salt and vinegar and sour cream and onion potato chips, aka heaven.

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Vegan Tabouli Salad

July 6, 2021 by Lindsay 5 Comments

Delicious, easy vegan tabouli salad with marinated chickpeas that is the perfect light lunch! We serve this often as a side dish for grilled chicken or baked tofu, or take it to summer potlucks for a yummy vegan side dish.

gray pottery bowl of vegan tabouli salad topped with parsley and marinated garbanzo beans with blue napkins

I. Love. Summer.

I love the feeling of school being out. I love the heat and humidity, even when I bitch about it. I love the longer days, the smell of gardenias, going to hear music downtown, the whole cliché shebang.

I especially LOVE summer-feeling food. Grilled meat with fresh or raw side dishes, that great mix of healthy and decadent, salads so fresh and crisp that they somehow quench your thirst, you know?

This tabouli is one of those salads for our family, and I can't get enough. My mom used to make picnics of hummus and tabouli and pita long before those things were cool, and bring them to the pool late swim practices in the summer. She made both with a heavy hand of lemon, one of my favorite flavors for dishes like this.

This version of tabouli is a teensy bit jazzed up with marinating the chick peas, but that's super hands off and can be done way in advance - the longer in advance the better, actually. The garbanzos end up creamy but still with texture and so much flavor from the lemon juice, garlic, and crushed red pepper. I honestly can't even.

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Vegan Pasta Salad with Roasted Veggies

June 24, 2021 by Lindsay 2 Comments

Yummy vegan pasta salad is the perfect summer side dish! I make this with any seasonal veggies I have on hand, pine nuts, and lots of fresh herbs and lemon vinaigrette for brightness. Change up the veggies, pasta shape, and herbs each time for a fresh take on this yummy, healthy side dish!

large serving bowl of vegan pasta salad with asparagus and tomatoes

I just finished the book Hello, Summer and tbh want to start all recipes like this with OH, HELLO SUMMER, but it feels kind of redundant.

Know that I'm thinking it, though.

This is, to me, the pasta salad to end all pasta salads. It's light, fresh, and full of summery flavors. I love that it's vegan because lots of different types of eaters can eat it, and almost every aspect of it can be switched up based on what you have on hand. Different nuts, veggies, fresh herbs, it all works.

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Connecticut Lobster Rolls

June 3, 2021 by Lindsay 9 Comments

The most delicious warm lobster roll recipe, Connecticut Lobster Rolls! These easy lobster rolls are served WARM and have just six ingredients including tons of melty butter. These are the perfect recipe for all summer long!

Hello and HI, welcome to our summer of all the lobster.

I think in this post-but-still-kinda pandemic era, it's gotten more meaningful to make really fun foods at home. We still maybe aren't traveling or eating out as much, but we still want our favorite restaurant-style foods, right?

RIGHT.

Enter, Connecticut lobster rolls, or the deliciously-named butter lobster roll. SERIOUSLY, friends, how does one even choose a favorite type of lobster roll? There's the New England style, cold with flavors of celery, lemon and mayo, or these warm lobster rolls that are drenched in butter, lemon juice, and served in buttery toasted buns.

Probably both types of lobster rolls is what we need to make this summer count.

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Seriously Good Pimento Cheese (without cream cheese!)

April 6, 2021 by Lindsay 1 Comment

This classic Southern, slightly spicy pimento cheese recipe is absolutely perfect! I love to have pimento cheese homemade with lots of storebought ingredients (crackers, cheese, pickles, etc) for an easy cheese board at a party or for a snack plate dinner! This is extra delicious paired with some homemade focaccia for dunking.

Table Of Contents

Ingredients
Recipe Notes and Ingredient Notes
Step By Step Instructions
Serving and Storage
Other Easy Appetizer Recipes

OK SO.

Let us discuss the glory that is pimento cheese, since even if it's not Master's Weekend, we live in the South and love this dip for any and all snacking occasions. Since I started this blog I've made a LOT of pimento cheese, and have tweaked the recipe over the years to a combination that I absolutely adore.

Other people adore it too, and that's not something I say about a lot of the food I make, because I'm insecure. Pimento cheese homemade, though, is something that people of all walks of life really enjoy when it is good. Back when we used to cater large parties this was one of our most-ordered recipes, hands down.

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5-Ingredient Ham and Cheese Quiche

April 1, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Easy ham and cheese quiche recipe with my favorite basic quiche recipe! Use your favorite melty cheese, some savory ham, and enjoy this brunch recipe that is done in just about an hour (mostly hands off). I serve this with my favorite green salad, but this is also a great addition to a Mother's Day Brunch or Easter Brunch spread!

Ooohhhh I'm loving this spring, friends.

Spring is a really nice time for a pandemic to think about ending, you know? We're still in it, for sure, but we're also seeing signs of life. A little more color, a little more vibrancy, all around.

Spring is a great time to bring out some new brunch recipes because Easter and Mother's Day just really go great with a nice brunch, you know? I LOVE a quiche for any kind of brunch (or lunch, or dinner), but ham and cheese quiche may very well be one of my favorite flavors.

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Spring Salad with Asparagus

March 30, 2021 by Lindsay 3 Comments

This raw bok choy salad with asparagus and peas is the most delicious easy salad! A no-dressing dressing with lemon juice and olive oil + some fresh parmesan rounds out this gluten free side or main dish. Round this spring salad out with some favorite grilled chicken and shortcut focaccia, or serve this as a cold vegetable side dish!

It's another non-dressing salad, aka my favorite way to throw together a super quick and fresh meal.

Farmer's markets are finally coming back, which means we are in Spring Greens heaven, and so many of these ingredients are able to be found locally right now.

The gist is this: raw greens, fresh herbs, and a few choice veggies blanched super quickly in salted water that get cooled and served on top. Salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil, and parmesan top the dish for flavor, so we don't need to mess with making a dressing.

I LOVE salads like this this time of year, because you can customize them based on what you like or have in your fridge that needs to be used up. Literally any veggie, herb, or cheese can be swapped out here, this is just a combination that I love.

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Lentil Bowls with Cauliflower and Tahini

March 22, 2021 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

The best buddha bowls with cauliflower and tahini sauce! These are so delicious for a make ahead lunch, and the pickled onions and tahini sauce can be made in advance for a quick throw-together meal. These bowls are vegetarian, gluten free, and can be served hot, cold, or at room temperature.

lentil bowl topped with pickled red onions

When it comes to "healthy" food, I'm careful to not use words like "cheat, guilt, good, bad," and so on. I think that thought pattern surrounding food can be so damaging, but also I agree that in terms of physical health there are foods that are better for our bodies than others, if we're talking lentils vs cheetos.

I love lentils for the cheap + toothsome + nutrition-packed punch they pack in a bowl like this. They are SO flavorful (because salt) and honestly I could eat a bowl of them on their own.

We made this into a fun bowl with bright pink pickled onions, a shortcut gremolata, and toasty roasty cauliflower, one of my favorite substitutes for meat because when roasted it has just the best texture.

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Pan Fried Potato Chips

March 1, 2021 by Lindsay 11 Comments

Favorite pan fried potato chips are so easy to make yourself at home! These are a great lunch side dish or an offering for a summertime potluck. Just one russet potato makes enough to serve four people, and this recipe is done in an under an hour. I like Greek yogurt onion dip with these.

Let's make chips!

homemade potato chips on a baking sheet with kosher salt.

Because our lunches need a yummy side dish every day, right?

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Meal Prep Chicken Grain Bowls

February 16, 2021 by Lindsay 7 Comments

Meal prep chicken grain bowls with all of your favorite toppings! We're going super easy for meal prep with one dressing for the chicken marinade and salad, a few chopped veggies, and lots and lots of time saved during the week now that your meal prep lunches are made!

Mmmmmmm meal prep ideas for lunch, aka something I think about almost every week. It's been one of the hardest things about quarantine for me; very few opportunities to leave the house for lunch and very little desire to have leftovers since we cook 7 dinners per week now too.

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Spring Veggie and Farro Soup

May 23, 2018 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

One of our favorite easy vegetarian soup recipes, spring veggies with farro! This recipe is easily made vegan AND gluten free, and the herby, lemony broth is absolutely delicious. I love this as part of a weekly meal prep session; it keeps really well in the fridge for lunches.

Because apparently we are a sick house and I only want to eat broth-based things ever.

Our week of healing is going well, thanks to incredible amounts of support from our friends and family and narcotics for Jay. I, on the other hand, have gotten some kind of cold-on-top-of-a-cold and can't stop craving salty brothy things to make my throat feel better and my nose unclog slightly.

Doing a surgery recovery with a toddler while sick and doing regular work has been a struggle; we feel like we.just.can't.quite. catch up on sleep and housework, but we're getting there, one day at a time.

The good news is that the Porta Potty was picked up from our FRONT YARD where it has been for nearly 6 months, so small victories, you know?

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Roasted Eggplant Appetizer with Yogurt and Mint

August 14, 2017 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Perfectly seasonal, this delicious layered eggplant appetizer comes together quickly and will get gobbled up fast! Creamy yogurt raita, roasted eggplant, and fresh tomatoes + mint round out this yummy vegetarian small plate.

plate of yogurt with roasted eggplant and yogurt plus naan on board with decorative napkin

Oh hey seasonal eating that is healthy and feels decadent all at once.

We can thank the internet for this one. I don't have a great story here except that I read an article with a recipe similar to this and couldn't get it out of my mind. And then promptly couldn't find the link.

This eggplant appetizer features roasted chunks of eggplant over a raita/tzatziki sauce with fresh tomatoes and something green on top for good measure. The original recipe had crispy kale and there was a version with microgreens, but I went with just fresh mint because 1. it grows on my porch and 2. eggplant and yogurt with mint is a really wonderful flavor combination.

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Zaatar Crusted Chicken Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing

July 12, 2017 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

Because zaatar. And the pickled onions! And Lemon Tahini Dressing, which remains one of the most popular recipes on this website. It makes me smile because it's one of my favorite types of dressing in real life, so I'm so glad you like it too.

The premise here is simple. We need a new entree salad, and we need it to be wonderfully flavorful. Otherwise, entree salads lead to excessive garlic bread on the side. Garlic bread isn't a bad thing, but excessive quantities of it might be. MIGHT. I'm also a fan of anything that feels fried but isn't fried, which is the case with the spice-covered chicken.

Do you know about zaatar? It's a Middle Eastern Spice blend with sumac, sesame seeds, cumin, and other spices based on who makes it. I find it at our local Middle Eastern grocery, but bigger grocery stores carry it in the spice aisle or international foods section. If you haven't tried it before I'd highly recommend it for a new twist on a great summer salad.

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Clementine Mustard Vinaigrette

January 17, 2017 by Lindsay Leave a Comment

A yummy orange mustard vinaigrette made in the blender using seedless clementines! This is a thick and flavorful dressing made almost creamy without any dairy. It's also delicious as a chicken or shrimp marinade for grilling.

We are having a very serious citrus moment in our house. But everyone is, right? It's citrus SEASON, after all! It's kind of hard to remember to eat seasonally with everything being available all the time, but I find that when we do eat seasonally the produce tastes SO much better, and is usually cheaper. So. Everyone wins!

We cut up some clementine wedges into little bits for Beck a few weeks ago, and holy hell, you'd have thought I offered her a glimpse of Joseph Smith's golden tablets. There was yelling, and clapping, and inhaling....it went really well. Now every time we walk by the bowl of clementines in our house there is much cooing and pointing and squealing, which probably makes the citrus feel really good about itself, you know?

I used 2 clementines to whiz up a salad dressing in our blender, and it turned out gloriously. Not too citrusy like if you were to use concentrated juice, not too sweet at all, just wonderfully orange-ish and slightly bitter and spicy from the mustard.

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Quick Broccoli Slaw Soup

January 19, 2016 by Lindsay 6 Comments

One of my favorite super easy recipes, originally published in 2016 right after the birth of our first child. Easy broccoli cheese soup using broccoli slaw for no-fuss vegetarian soup in a hurry. If you think about it in advance, make a batch of the easiest no-knead bread for dunking!

I thought about calling this New Mom Broccoli Cheddar Soup, but that seemed....I don't know, people need quick-cooking food whether or not they have kids, right?

This, I have to say, is one of the more inspired things I've done recently in a recipe. Jay is all about the chopped salads, as you know, and is always buying these random bags of pre-chopped veggies but then we never quiiiite eat them in time. I hate throwing away food, and this bag of broccoli slaw was looking really sad to me a few weeks ago, so I made it into soup. The thing is, though, is that since the broccoli is pre-chopped there is no blender involved, we just end up with a really legit texture to our soup. AND there are carrots in the mixture which add some nice flavor and color to the whole shtick.

You do have to chop an onion and garlic but...you could totally skip those two ingredients and just use the broccoli, I won't tell anyone.

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Homemade Refrigerator Dill Pickles

August 4, 2015 by Lindsay 2 Comments

Easy refrigerator dill pickles in just 30 minutes! This is a great use for lots of cucumbers, and these last for months in the fridge. Alternatively, you can process the jars and keep them in the pantry all winter!

Pickles!

It's been a goal of mine over the past few months to try project food - homemade ingredients, condiments (like green tomato jam), etc. I did make those biscuits, but that was pretty easy and didn't involve yeast. Why am I so scared of it? I don't know. No-Knead Bread is about as far as I've gone with that so far.

When Jay and I were in Denver we had a few homemade pickles at different restaurants, and just loved all of them. This is the perfect time of year for pickles because cucumbers are at every market and store and are CHEAP, so get a bunch and make pickles for days!

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Spicy Kani Salad (like in sushi!)

February 26, 2013 by Lindsay 6 Comments

This easy spicy kani salad recipe is just like the filling of a crab salad sushi roll! Made with just three ingredients, I love this for meal prep to serve over rice or salad for a quick Japanese sushi rice bowl or poke bowl. Check out these crab salad sushi poke bowls for more spicy crab salad sushi fun!

white bowl with spicy kani salad, greens, and seaweed salad over rice.

Table Of Contents

Ingredients
Buy Key Ingredients
Spicy Kani Salad Recipe FAQ
Other Recipe Notes
Step By Step Instructions
Serving Suggestions
- Other Favorite Asian Fusion Recipes

You know how at sushi restaurants sometimes they have Crab Salad Sushi Rolls or Crunchy Crab Rolls but really it's just imitation crab mixed with mayo? And sometimes there are Spicy Crab rolls that really are just fake crab mixed with mayo and spicy stuff?

Welp, I love crab salad. And spicy crab salad. And when either of those things are made into a sushi roll? I'm a seriously happy human being.

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