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Mu Shu Jackfruit Lettuce Wraps

May 21, 2013
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Excuse the short introduction to this recipe, but I’m packing my bags and heading to Portland, Oregon, to hobnob with the vegan and famous at Vida Vegan Con. I’ll be giving a food photography presentation, speaking about blog monetization with Nava Atlas, and participating in a panel on privacy and oversharing with Dreena Burton, Joanna [...]

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3-Minute Chickpea Salad

May 15, 2013
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A quick search of this blog will prove that I adore chickpea salad. As of today, I’ve posted six of them. I love being able to take a can of chickpeas, mash it up and have a quick sandwich filling or salad topping. And as my days get more and more hectic, my chickpea salads [...]

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Zucchini “Noodles” with Sesame-Peanut Sauce

April 19, 2013
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It’s been a week full of tragedy and fear. My heart aches for the families of everyone hurt or killed in Boston and Texas, and my reaction to everything that’s happened (and continues to happen) is to plant myself in front of the news in search of the answers to “What?” and “Why?” It’s not [...]

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Chickpea Flour Omelets with Asparagus

April 11, 2013
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Even though I’m not a breakfast eater and I don’t eat eggs, I love omelets. Tofu omelets, that is. I can eat them morning, noon, or night; plain or stuffed with as many veggies as they can hold. My Vegan Omelette for One and all my “Eggless Eggs” recipes are, to me, the definition of [...]

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Lentil and Cauliflower Rice Tacos

April 4, 2013
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Welcome to the latest edition of Cauliflower Magic Tricks! In today’s exciting episode, our hero will enter a food processor as an ordinary head of cauliflower only to emerge as…RICE! And then that rice will, through the use of culinary arts, be transformed into a delicious, spicy, low-calorie filling for tacos.

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Roasted Asparagus Salad with Chickpeas and Potatoes

March 25, 2013
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To the lady in the red blouse shopping at The Fresh Market last Thursday: Please forgive me for scaring you. I was that crazy woman with the rain-frizzled hair who startled you by yelling “Yes!” over your shoulder as you were bagging your asparagus. I’m really not that dangerous. Ask anybody (well, maybe not the [...]

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Smoky Apple Baked Beans

February 14, 2013
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Happy Valentine’s Day! I know that on this day of love, I’m supposed to offer you a rich, sugary indulgence or at least a romantic dinner for two with aphrodisiac potential, but what, dear reader, do I have in store for you instead? The lowly and much-maligned bean. But wait, could there be any more [...]

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Healthy Hash Brown Casserole

February 7, 2013
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I wish I had a cute story behind this not-so-cute dish, but the truth is that I saw a hash brown casserole recipe online and wanted to fat-free veganize it. So I did. I threw out all the butter, the cheese, the sour cream, the cream of chicken-parts soup, as well as the corn flakes [...]

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Gluten-Free “Meatball” Mix

January 31, 2013
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I’ve been obsessed the last couple of weeks with coming up with a gluten-free mix that I could keep on-hand to make quick “meatballs” for spaghetti and sandwiches. I don’t know what got me started on this quixotic mission, but the result is that I’ve made so many balls in the last few days that [...]

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Vegan Cabbage Rolls

January 23, 2013
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Last week two people wrote to me on the same day asking for a recipe for cabbage rolls, and since I’d never made them before, I decided to take that as a sign. I’m always on the lookout for dishes that I haven’t yet cooked, and besides, cabbage is one of the few green vegetables [...]

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Korean-Inspired Black-eyed Peas and Kale Bowl

January 7, 2013
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I’m seven days late in saying this, but Happy New Year! Coincidentally, I’m 2 days early in wishing myself a Happy Blogging Anniversary. That’s right, on January 9 this blog will be 7 years old. I wish I had something profound to say about that, but frankly, I ran out of wise words on my [...]

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Black-eyed Peas and Greens for a Healthy New Year

December 30, 2012
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Black-eyed peas and greens are the traditional New Year’s Day meal in the South. Supposedly, the peas bring you good luck and the greens bring you money in the coming year. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Either way, I think it’s a great tradition because beans and greens are about the healthiest thing [...]

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Caribbean Pineapple Black Beans and Oven-Fried Plantains

December 13, 2012
Caribbean Pineapple Black Beans

I know we’re in the “holiday season” when most people are looking for holiday recipes (see mine here), but I wanted to send you on a brief vacation to the tropics with a couple of easy recipes guaranteed warm up your winter meals with a bit of summer sun.

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Tunisian-Inspired Chickpea and Potato Salad

November 28, 2012
Tunisian-Inspired Chickpea and Potato Salad

Though I love the tastes of Thanksgiving–gravies and dressings cozy with the flavors of sage and thyme–once the big day is over, I feel the need to shock my palate with seasonings and spices that would have made a pilgrim flush a bright Christmas red. So as I was thumbing through the November issue of [...]

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Easy Red Beans and Rice

November 4, 2012
Easy Red Beans and Rice

As a Louisiana girl, I consider slow-cooked red beans and rice part of my cultural heritage, as much a part of my childhood as climbing too high in the live oak trees and eating watermelon at the picnic table in the back yard. I know from experience that it takes all day to make good [...]

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Broccoli Slaw Stir-Fry with Tofu

October 12, 2012
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Packaged broccoli slaw is a healthy convenience food. Packed with fiber and vitamins, it can be used instead of cabbage to make a great slaw or tossed into green salads for added crunch. But did you know you can cook it? You can, and it makes the fastest stir-fry you’ve ever had.

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Massaged Kale Salad with Sweet Potatoes and Pumpkin Seed Dressing

October 7, 2012
Massaged Kale Salad with Sweet Potatoes and Pumpkin Seed Dressing

When it comes to kale, I always seem to be lagging behind the cool kids. Though I’m crazy about kale in soups and casseroles and skillet dinners, I haven’t loved the more trendy ways of eating it. I was one of the last food bloggers to try kale chips, and when I did, I was [...]

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Savory Lentil-Mushroom Burgers

September 12, 2012
Savory Lentil-Mushroom Burgers

I had a craving for a burger burger. Not a beet burger, or a falafel burger, or a black bean burger, or a curried eggplant burger–just a plain old burger that I could put on a bun with ketchup and pickles and not have the flavors clash or my daughter give me that look that [...]

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Farro Salad with Tomatoes and Grilled Zucchini

August 27, 2012
Farro Salad with Tomatoes and Grilled Zucchini

I hate to say it, but I’ve grown a little tired of quinoa lately. While it will always be one of my favorite grains/seeds (it has that split personality thing going on), lately I’ve been craving something more sturdy and robust, a grain that can stand up next to all the flavorful summer produce and [...]

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Layered Salad with Black Beans and Mango-Cucumber Salsa

July 24, 2012
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Ever since I was a child, one of the highlights of summer is the arrival of fresh mangoes. When I was growing up in the 60′s and 70′s, mangoes weren’t available in the local A&P or Piggly Wiggly. They were a rare treat that we enjoyed only after a visit to or from our Florida [...]

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Curried Rice Salad with Black Chickpeas and Mango

July 17, 2012
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Have you ever gotten excited about a new food only to try it and wind up disappointed or, even worse, hating it? I finally got around to trying black chickpeas last week, and I’m sorry to say that I was disappointed and my family was even less impressed. My husband, who likes almost everything, just [...]

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Curried Chickpeas and Kale

June 11, 2012
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There’s nothing like being left alone for the weekend to make someone who “loves to cook” lose all desire to operate a stove. My husband and daughter ran off to New Orleans this past weekend, and though you’d think I would seize the opportunity to cook dishes that I like that they don’t, the ugly [...]

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Thai Black Pepper and Garlic Tofu

May 21, 2012
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There’s a new Thai restaurant in town, and the first couple of times I ate there I had mixed feelings. While it was so much better than the other local Thai restaurant, I wasn’t quite satisfied with its take on dishes that I’ve liked in Thai places in other parts of the country. (This is [...]

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Swiss Chard with White Beans and Job’s Tears

May 10, 2012
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I first went in search of Job’s tears a couple of years ago when a reader recommended it as a gluten-free replacement for barley. After striking out at the local natural foods store, I thought for sure I’d be able to buy some on the internet, but a Google shopping search pointed me to a [...]

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Dreena’s No-fu Love Loaf

April 26, 2012
Dreena's No-fu Love Loaf

I’ve been looking for a great lentil loaf recipe, and finally I’ve found one! Unfortunately, I can’t claim credit for this delicious dish. That goes to Dreena Burton and her new book, Let Them Eat Vegan!: 200 Deliciously Satisfying Plant-Powered Recipes for the Whole Family. Fortunately, Dreena and her publishers have given me permission to [...]

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Jackfruit “Crab” Cakes

April 11, 2012
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I’ve been experimenting off and on with young green jackfruit ever since I heard of jackfruit carnitas. Harvested before it has a chance to become sweet, green jackfruit “shreds” as it cooks until it has an uncanny resemblance to pulled pork. It doesn’t have much flavor itself, which makes it ideal for soaking up the [...]

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Pasta and Vegetables with White Sauce

March 21, 2012
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Welcome to another installment of My Family’s Favorite Recipes! If my daughter had her way, we’d eat pasta at every meal. Lasagna, mac and cheese, chili mac–she’s not picky, she’ll devour any of them. About once a week I give in to her demands, and the dish I most often make is this one, which [...]

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Burritos with Spanish Rice and Black Beans

March 5, 2012
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A Facebook friend asked me recently if I had a list of my favorite recipes, and I was sorry to say that I didn’t. But what a good idea! Or so I thought, until I started to name all the recipes I considered favorites and found that the list would be so long that it [...]

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Vegan Sausage and Mushroom Etoufee

February 20, 2012
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I’m writing this from a hotel on St. Charles Avenue after a night of revelry in the streets of New Orleans. If you’ve never been to Mardi Gras, you might assume that the partying is confined to Fat Tuesday itself, but Mardi Gras day is just the culmination of all the parties and parades that [...]

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Beetballs: A Vegan, Gluten-Free, Soy-Free Sausage Recipe

February 13, 2012
Beetballs

When I heard that a food blogging conference was taking place in the state just next door, I was intrigued. When I heard that friend, cookbook author, and fellow blogger Kathy Hester was going to be there, I said “Sign me up!” So a couple of weeks ago, I drove the four hours to Birmingham, [...]

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Seitan Stuffed with Walnuts, Dried Cranberries, and Mushrooms

December 13, 2011
Seitan Stuffed with Walnuts, Dried Cranberries, and Mushrooms

This is A Tale of Two Seitans. For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to make something a little fancier than the baked tofu my husband, daughter, and I usually enjoy while our omnivorous extended family is eating turkey. The day before the big feast, I took one of my old favorite stuffings, wrapped wheat gluten [...]

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Creamy Vegan Broccoli and Rice Casserole

November 21, 2011
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Thanksgiving is just three days away, and I don’t know where all my time went. Well, actually, I do know how I used some of it: making this casserole, twice, to get it just right so that if you decide to include it in your holiday meal, you can be sure it will work. And [...]

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Nava’s Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie

November 14, 2011
Nava's Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie

When Nava Atlas asked me at the beginning of last year to take the photos for Vegan Holiday Kitchen, I thought about it for about a day and then gave her an emphatic “Yes!” She warned me that she would need more photos than I’d taken for her previous book, Vegan Express–about five times as [...]

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Colleen’s Chickpea Burgers with Tahini Sauce

October 11, 2011
Colleen's Chickpea Burgers with Tahini Sauce

I was a vegetarian for six years before I became a vegan, and before I made the change, I thought that being vegan was just more than I was able to do. I had been inspired by Diet for a New America when I first became vegetarian, and though I agreed with the ethics of [...]

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Hearty One-Pot Meal Miso Soup

September 19, 2011
Hearty Miso Soup

Usually I serve miso soup as part of our “sushi meal.” I make or buy vegetable sushi rolls, cook some edamame, toss some green leafies with some tahini dressing, and make a simple miso soup. On a recent rushed weeknight, I decided to skip all the separate dishes and just throw everything into the soup.

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Thai Salad with Slow-Cooked Tofu in Pineapple Barbecue Sauce

September 12, 2011
Thai Barbecue Salad

One of the highlights of my trip to Portland happened after Vida Vegan Con was over. That Sunday night, I got to meet my friend and long-time reader Maria, whom many of you know from the comments as Moonwatcher. Maria traveled ten hours to visit her son in Portland and timed her trip so that [...]

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Skillet Eggplant and Lentils with Almond Parmesan

August 25, 2011
Skillet Eggplant and Lentils

I’m packing my bags and getting ready to fly to Portland early tomorrow morning for Vida Vegan Con, the largest gathering of vegan bloggers ever to invade a conference center. I’m so excited to get to teach a photography workshop with two of my idols, Isa and Hannah, and to sit on a panel of [...]

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Chili-Stuffed Peppers

June 30, 2011
Chili-Stuffed Peppers

My husband’s been suggesting for years that I stuff some bell peppers, and he always wondered why I would roll my eyes and tell him he could stuff them himself. The truth came out over dinner the other night. It turns out that both of our mothers made stuffed peppers, but while D remembered them [...]

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Pesto Primavera Pasta and Other Fresh Basil Recipes

June 17, 2011
Pesto Pasta Primavera

Every summer, our small back patio turns into a miniature basil farm with large pots of the fragrant herb filling every available inch. As soon as the plants shoot up a few inches, I start snipping off their leaves and adding them to just about everything I make. By this time, mid-June, the plants are [...]

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Vegan Zucchini Frittata

June 7, 2011
Zucchini Frittata

When I was living on my own for the first time, a friend’s mom gave me a battered, 1960′s edition of The Joy of Cooking, and for the next year I taught myself to cook by following its often dated but always instructive recipes. I was particularly fascinated by the chapter called “Eggs, Souffles and [...]

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Cosmic Cashew Kale and Chickpeas with Confetti Quinoa

May 27, 2011
Cosmic Cashew Kale and Chickpeas with Confetti Quinoa

My daughter E graduated from middle school on Monday, so she’s officially a high schooler now. Yes, a high schooler. Those of you who picture her as she appeared in her first photo on this blog can perhaps appreciate how strange it feels to look at her and see both that nine-year-old girl and the [...]

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Ridiculously Easy Curry-Scrambled Tofu

May 19, 2011
Ridiculously Easy Curry-Scrambled Tofu

For years, the only scrambled tofu I ever made required a seasoning packet called Tofu Scrambler. I loved that product. It had just the right blend of seasonings and thickeners to conjure some magical response out of the blandness that is bean curd and turn it into what I considered the perfect breakfast. The idea [...]

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Green Curry Tofu Cakes

May 9, 2011
Green Curry Tofu Cakes

If you made my last recipe, I know you have a jar of Thai green curry paste somewhere in your fridge, although you could have done the wise thing and stored it in your freezer. But, if you’re like me, you always believe you’re going to be using it right away, so you keep it [...]

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Thai Green Curry with Vegetables and Tofu

April 28, 2011
Thai Green Curry with Vegetables and Tofu

I’m not one of those food snobs who think that absolutely everything I cook has to be made from scratch. Though I believe that the results are usually better (and more nutritious) when all the ingredients are homemade, I’m not above using packaged ingredients, such as vegetable broth or canned beans, when the ingredients aren’t [...]

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Black Bean-Pineapple Soup Stew Chili

April 7, 2011
Black Bean-Pineapple Soup Stew Chili

Sometimes ideas just come to me. I call it being inspired, but people of my parents’ generation called it being “touched in the head.” I was sitting here at my desk one day thinking how much I like salsa with pineapple in it (because that’s the kind of deep thinking I do), when it occurred [...]

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Potato and Broccoli Rabe Casserole

March 2, 2011
Potato and Broccoli Raab Casserole

A few days ago I was in the produce department of the store I call The Frou-Frou Market when I noticed a leafy vegetable that reminded me a little of Chinese flowering cabbage.  I leaned in closer to read its label, and then recoiled with a shudder and walked away.  “Broccoli rabe.”  You see, the [...]

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Hot Skillet Salad

February 8, 2011
Hot Skillet Salad

I’m on a diet healthy eating plan.  Those of you who just stumbled on this blog are probably now looking at its name and going, “Well, duh!”  But the fact is, I never really talk about my struggles with my weight here because that’s a long and personal discussion, and my writing style is fast [...]

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Eggplant and Chickpea Curry

January 28, 2011
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Sometimes when a recipe is truly great, I find I have little to say other than “Make this.”  So, if you like Indian food in general and Baingan Bharta in particular, make this.  It’s as good as or better than what you’ll find in a restaurant but without a lot of oil or, possibly, butter [...]

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Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Chickpeas

January 15, 2011
Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Chickpeas

Spaghetti squash can be a dieter’s best friend if you remember three things: 1) It doesn’t taste like pasta, 2) It doesn’t interact with sauce like pasta, and 3) It doesn’t taste like pasta.  Okay, I know that’s actually two points, but the first bears repeating.  Spaghetti squash tastes like–surprise!–squash, and if you sit down [...]

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New Orleans’ Style White Beans

December 28, 2010
New Orleans' Style White Beans

Come on, tell me you’re tired of rich holiday food and are ready to settle down to some healthy–even homely–fare.  I know I am.  I never thought there could be such a thing as too much dessert, but after stuffing myself on pumpkin cheesecake, cherry-chocolate mousse pie, and the downright obscene rum- and margarine-soaked bread [...]

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