It’s Spring, but Iowa isn’t participating. We woke up to a dusting of snow and day three of cold biting winds that make you want to just curl up under the covers and sleep until May. Aside from reading gardening books and impatiently waiting for “real Spring” to arrive, I love making a big bowl of noodles to warm up with. This Garlic Lime Bok Choy Mushroom Soup only takes… Keep Reading
Every time I tell people that I eat fried pumpkin and squash blossoms I get A LOT of weird looks. Trust me, I thought the same thing when I first heard that these stunning bright yellow blossoms are actually edible! I threw together a simple six ingredient batter, added a few handfuls of blossoms, fried them, and was stunned to find that they tasted like… cheese sticks! Paired with some… Keep Reading
After creating and writing up this particular post, I’m realizing that I should probably grow sweet potatoes in this year’s garden. Not only do I enjoy creating recipes with them, but each time I’ve gone to the store they seem to be just as scarce to find as toilet paper is! Weird world we’re living in right now… This particular recipe is a spin off from my Roasted Sweet Potato… Keep Reading
I’ve been on a roll with making soups lately and can you blame me? Once the cold weather hits, all you want is something delicious that warms your bones and this Spicy Cilantro Lime Sweet Potato Soup does just the trick. This is also one of the easiest soup that I’ve made to date. The sweet potato, onion, and red bell pepper get roasted to perfection in the oven while… Keep Reading
We’re in the season of all things pumpkin (not to worry.. this hummus isn’t pumpkin spice flavored) and I couldn’t think of a better fall snack than this Garlic Rosemary Pumpkin Hummus! Made with pumpkin puree, goat cheese, fresh garlic, and rosemary.. it’s extra smooth, rich, and loaded with fall flavors. I topped mine off with extra olive oil, goat cheese crumbles, and toasted pumpkin seeds for a little crunch…. Keep Reading
A few years back I did a cookbook review for Taste of Home’s Simple & Delicious Cookbook and I recently rediscovered it while I was packing. I had dog-eared the pages of tons of recipes I wanted to cook and decided to revisit a few of them for inspiration. One was for a simple appetizer of cranberry-brie tartlets where they used pre-made refrigerated crescent rolls. Since my days off have… Keep Reading
If you haven’t embraced cauliflower into your life yet maybe this will be the post that makes you do it! I never used to be a fan of it myself, but after learning how to make it taste like hot wings.. I was sold! For a good throwback recipe you can see what I’m talking about here. I decided to challenge myself with THREE new flavor variations and the best… Keep Reading
Beets will forever be on that fine line of you either love them or hate them and if you hate them… this recipe is NOT for you. I like to channel my inner Dwight Schrute and fully embrace beets and their earthy flavor. This time I went even further by using their greens in this salad and pickled the stems to use in other dishes, putting every bit of them… Keep Reading
While making this recipe the other day I was reminded that winter is essentially here and found myself scrambling to snap photos of the final product with the last little sliver of dusk light. I’m not 100% happy with the photos I managed to get, but I am over the moon with how the recipe turned out! It’s loaded up with eggs, whole grain bread, butternut squash, apples, fresh sage,… Keep Reading
Yesterday I shared how to make Simple Homemade Pumpkin Puree, so today I thought I would share a round up of some of my favorite recipes using pumpkin. Some of these posts are from my first year of blogging, which means cringe-worthy lighting, angles, and composition with the photos, but the recipe itself is something I wouldn’t change at all. They’re tried and true recipes that I use often, especially… Keep Reading
This summer I let one side of the garden become a pumpkin patch full of ghost pumpkins and sugar pumpkins. I got a lot of questions asking why the sugar pumpkins were so small and why you can’t use the regular carving pumpkin variety to cook and bake with. The difference is this: The carving varieties have less flesh, they’re stringier, and have more water in them, not making for… Keep Reading
This may seem like a spaghetti squash recipe, but this is really all about the sauce.. A good homemade tomato sauce can take a lot of time.. blanching, peeling, and then cooking down tomatoes for hours on the stove top. But let’s be real.. most of us are lucky if we even have time to wash our hair during the week (thank you Dry Shampoo Gods) so there’s no way… Keep Reading
Looking back on the majority of my recipes from the last year I realize I definitely lean towards using what I have on hand from the garden and this pizza is a perfect example of that. I collected squash and pumpkin blossoms, cherry tomatoes, and garlic from the backyard making this a quick, easy, and cheap recipe to put together. The only topping I didn’t grow was the goat cheese,… Keep Reading
If you want to know how these delicious veggie-friendly tacos taste you can go on and skip to the third paragraph, but I wanted to start out by explaining why recently I’ve opted for making more vegetarian recipes on the blog. Being born and raised in Iowa I’m definitely a meat and potatoes kind of girl. I love a good rare steak, sizzling bacon, and fried chicken, however I want… Keep Reading
I’ve been trying to get back into exploring the creative aspect of everything in my life and that includes recipes. We’ve had such a lack of greenery and spring blooms with the never ending winter so I wanted to recreate spring on a plate. A salad isn’t the most exciting culinary meal that I’ve ever produced, but I still had fun putting it all together and damn it if this… Keep Reading
I have been craving grilled cheese sandwiches lately so I put this one together with a few twists. First off I never thought I’d be consuming a grilled cheese that had green apples or purple cheese on it, but holy cow.. I don’t want them any other way now! I diced up some jalapeño and mashed up blackberries into the goat cheese to create this purple-people-eater concoction of cheese. It’s… Keep Reading
My days off seem to pass by within the blink of an eye so I’ve been taking them a bit slower to savor every minute of them. Cooking is the best way that I know how to do that as it involves all of my senses. It forces you to focus, be present, and be patient. And of course I purposely made sure the recipe called for some wine so… Keep Reading
I’m not exactly sure why I’m trying to stuff all of my food lately, so I do apologize for my second recipe in a row where it involves “stuffing” of some sort. Maybe because it’s getting colder and all I want to do is stuff my face? Regardless, I love making stuffed peppers, but I decided to forgo the traditional ground beef route and instead chose roasted sweet potatoes and… Keep Reading
When I first moved out of the house as a broke 18 year old, I knew about 3 meals: Tacos, spaghetti, and broke girl pizzas consisting of tortilla shells as the crust. We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?! Even though my skills and palate have expanded quite a bit since then, I still find myself craving my broke girl pizzas when I need a quick meal. I use homemade… Keep Reading
Typically when I make a big batch of chili, it lasts about a week around here.. this chili lasted only two days! Surprisingly simple to make, affordable ingredients, and it’s vegetarian, which no one seemed to notice until they were down to the last few spoonfuls. It’s spicy, zesty, hearty, and pairs perfectly with tortilla chips or my Jalapeño Cheddar Skillet Cornbread I shared yesterday!
We’re hitting the end of summer and everyone’s gardens are overflowing with zucchini. Our neighbors and a friend have loaded us up with some monster sized ones and I knew I needed to put them to good use. One of my favorites is baked zucchini sticks. They’re way healthier (and tastier) than French fries and it’s a great way to utilize all of that summer squash. Breaded and baked to… Keep Reading
I’m very deliberate about my grocery shopping and if it’s not on the list, I’m not buying it. Okay.. maybe Ben & Jerry’s is never “officially” on the list, but it’s sort of a given that it will make it’s way into the cart. Guilty pleasures aside, I started to walk past these cherries and stopped dead in my tracks. They were far too vibrant, plump, and juicy looking to… Keep Reading
I am fully aware that I’m a grown woman and have the right to choose whether I consume fruits and vegetables, but sometimes I find that I have to resort to my mom’s old trick of “hiding” them or presenting them in a way that’s more appetizing to me. This smoothie is a prime example of that maternal trickery and hidden away in that beautifully bright green layer is two… Keep Reading
Call it nostalgia or just my need to always go back and critique, but I found myself perusing some of my old recipes the other day and was left with an intense craving for my Skinny Jalapeno Poppers and Goat Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms. I opted for innovation and efficiency and combined the two, bringing you these scrumptious little nuggets! I used baby bella mushrooms which makes them perfectly bite-sized and… Keep Reading