Imagine a batch of honey-sweetened whole wheat soft dinner rolls. They’re fragrant with warm spices like cinnamon and ginger and cardamom and loaded with candied ginger and dried fruit. Yep, these candied ginger honey hot cross buns. Make them healthier with whole wheat flour. Give them a cross made of flour and water before baking, or finish with a cream cheese and maple syrup cross once the buns have cooled. The flour and water cross is traditional and the frosting cross is my twist. Click here to PIN Candied Ginger Honey Hot Cross Buns! Hot cross buns commemorate the renewal of life that ..read more

Richly seasoned with onions, celery and garlic, a smoky tomato broth is the base for this hearty stew of black-eyed peas and collard greens. Make it quick and easy in your pressure cooker or Instant Pot! With a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, you don’t need to soak the black-eyed peas beforehand. 16 minutes under pressure, and your black-eyed pea stew will be done and finished, ready to enjoy, in 40 minutes! Click here to save this recipe for Black-eyed Pea and Collard Green Stew on Pinterest! If you don’t have a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, it’s best to soak the black-eyed peas ahead of ..read more

Under pressure, short fat Arborio rice kernels transform into delectably creamy risotto–in just 4 minutes. By adding green chiles, spicy pepper cheese, and crunchy pumpkin seeds, the Italian rice dish takes a Southwestern turn—into spicy Instant Pot chard and pinto bean risotto. Click here to PIN Spicy Instant Pot Chard and Pinto Bean Risotto! Did you know that many modern Italian cooks prepare their risotto in a pressure cooker? It makes sense: My trusty old stovetop pressure cooker is Italian-made, and, world-wide, for one reason or another, many families have two working adults. If home-co ..read more

Are you looking for a vegan mashed potato recipe? These roasted garlic mashed potatoes are your easy incredibly delicious answer! All you do is roast whole garlic cloves until they’re creamy soft and mash the garlic into well-cooked soft potatoes.Use coconut milk and olive oil in place of the usual butter and milk and you get creamy vegan roasted garlic mashed potatoes! Cooking garic until it’s soft transforms garlic’s sharp bite into mellow buttery sweet. An entire bulb of garlic goes into these roasted garlic mashed potatoes but you’d never know it. Click here to Save this recipe for Roaste ..read more

Noodle nirvana. Comfort food. There’s nothing like a dish of hot bubbling macaroni and cheese to make you feel warm and cozy. This one features gluten free penne pasta, plenty of sharp cheddar cheese and a delicious surprise topping of toasted sunflower seeds! Macaroni and cheese. Simply a casserole of grated sharp cheese melted into sauce, stirred into hot cooked noodles, and baked with something crunchy on top. It’s basic sustenance—and easy to make from scratch. Click here to PIN Gluten Free Sunflower Crusted Macaroni and Cheese! Switching out three ingredients makes this macaroni and chee ..read more

If you have eggs and leafy greens on hand, you have the beginnings of an easy and quick supper. Take for example, this rainbow chard frittata. Seasoned simply, with aromatic onions and garlic, plus salt and pepper, frittatas like this are a protein rich last minute meal, one I fall back on time and time again. Nutritious rainbow chard is the leafy green in this frittata. The best thing about using chard is that you can–you should–you must–use the colorful stalks as well as the leaves. The stalks add bonus flavor and color plus more vegetable volume to whatever you’re using it in, like frittat ..read more

Satisfy your craving for crunch with these golden crisp vegetarian bean and cheese taquitos. Filled with a creamy, chile-spiced bean and cheese mixture, these tightly-rolled taco-like treats are oven-baked to perfection. Dip into your favorite salsa and munch the crunch! Ditch the store-bought taquitos–these homemade vegetarian taquitos far surpass the frozen ones at the grocery store. Recently, while pushing my cart past a display of those deep-fried meat-filled ready-to-bake taquitos, I remembered the healthier vegetarian taquito recipe hiding in the corner of this blog’s archives. Unearthe ..read more

When fresh basil is garden plentiful, pull out the food processor and whip up a batch. This pesto freezes beautifully, so when you want pesto for pasta or pizza, there’s a stash of basil walnut pesto ready to use! Using a food processor, this pesto is quick to make–the work is in stripping the basil leaves off the stems. The garlic is super-easy to mince–begin your pesto by dropping whole garlic cloves in the work bowl while the processor is running and the blade is spinning. When the garlic stops hitting the sides of the processor bowl, it’s perfecty minced! This basil walnut pesto recipe us ..read more

This 5-ingredient made-from-scratch tomato carrot marinara sauce comes together almost as fast you can boil pasta water. A carrot in the mix elevates this marinara above and beyond ordinary tomato sauce. No supermarket bottled tomato sauce even comes close–homemade marinara sauce for the win! Using ingredients a cook typically keeps on hand–onions, carrots, canned diced tomatoes and a sprinkling or dried basil and oregano–this is an easy recipe to add to your kitchen repertoire. Take advantage of the speedy pressure cooker and your tomato sauce with the surprise ingredient will be not only ea ..read more

Here’s a healthier melt-in-your-mouth version of the sweet-tart American dessert, key lime pie. On top, instead of softly whipped cream or sweet meringue, this vegan key lime avocado pie flaunts a wreath of bright green kiwis. It’s a delicious and wholesome food play on the original. Kiwi and key–the sound-alike words kept tickling my brain–how can I make a healthier and vegan key lime pie with kiwi fruit? This tart key lime pie with bright green kiwifruit, this green on green pie, is just what I imagined! CLICK HERE TO PIN Creamy Vegan Key Lime Avocado Pie! Just so you know, some of the link ..read more