Ingredients: 

• 1 head garlic, roasted
• ½ white onion, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium butter potatoes, diced small
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1 tbsp Adobo seasoning
• 1/ tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Start by roasting your garlic. Slice the tops off of the whole, unpeeled head. Lightly cover the exposed areas with olive oil, wrap it in foil, and pop it in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes. It should look caramelized when you take it out and be very soft. Set it aside to cool. 

2. Heat the tbsp of olive oil in a stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until just translucent, about 3-4 minutes. 

3. Add the vegetable stock in bring it to a simmer. As always if, you use broth and not stock you will end up with MUCH saltier soup. You may want to pull back on the adobo if you go the broth route. 

4. Add your roasted garlic by squeezing it out of the skin and into the pot. If the big chunks aren't your thing, you can press them with the back of a spoon to help them break down. 

5. Add the potatoes and simmer until almost cooked through, about 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your chunks. 

6. Stir in the fresh spinach (in batches, if needed) and let it wilt. Once wilted, add your quinoa, Adobo, and pepper. Adjust seasonings to taste. If you don't have Adobo seasoning - get some. It will be in the international or Hispanic section of your grocery store. And an alternative to that - it's pretty much salt, garlic powder, oregano, and a little tumeric. Play with those seasonings until you get something you like. 

Serves 4. 

Original post here. 

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ medium white onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 ½ c frozen (or fresh) peas
• ½ c vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 4 tbsp lemon greek yogurt (I prefer Chobani)
• 3 cups cooked quinoa
• 4 radishes, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp fresh Italian parsley, minced
• ½ cup queso blanco, minced or shredded
• salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the onion and garlic and saute until translucent, 3-4 minutes. 

2. Add the vegetable stock and peas, cook for 5-7 minutes until peas are heated through.

3. Mix in the sour cream and yogurt. Salt to taste.

4. Mix the yogurt sauce with your quinoa. You can heat your quinoa up first (which will melt the cheese), or leave it at room temperature.

5. Finally, add the queso blanco, parsley, and radishes. 

Serves 4. 

Original post found here.

Yorkshire Pudding recipe found here. I followed it pretty much - making the puddings in muffin tins with a pea-sized dot of Crisco in each one. I also used skim milk and egg substitute because it was what I had on hand. They were a little chewy, but still really good. 

Ingredients:

• 1 medium white onion, slice into thin half-moons
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 tbsp flour (gravy flour like Wondra is amazing)
• 6-10 sprigs of fresh thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. The key to this gravy is the caramelized onions. It takes a while, but it add a depth of flavor similar to what you would get from meat fat. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and once hot, the onions. Stir occasionally until they are soft and brown. This could take up to 30 minutes. 

2. Once your onions are browned, stir in your flour to coat the onions. I prefer a gravy flour like Wondra since it never clumps and thickens right up. But regular flour will do you just fine. 

3. Add your vegetable stock and stir well.

4. Toss in your thyme springs - 10 will be pretty strong, so you may want to start with 6 and see how it goes. Bring the gravy to a soft simmer to thicken it and infuse the thyme. 

5. When it's thickened to your liking, season to taste with salt and pepper. If it doesn't thicken enough, add flour, a little at a time, until it's where you want it to be. 

6. Take the thyme sprigs out - little leaves are okay, but you'll want to remove the actual stalks. 

Serve hot.

Serves 5. Original post here. 

Heavily adapted from Bits of Everything.

These bad boys pack some legit stats: 262 calories, 4 g of fat, 7 g of fiber, only 10 mg of cholesterol, and 16 g of protein. THAT is BREAKFAST, bitches. 

Ingredients:

• 8 large flour tortillas (I used La Banderita large soft taco tortillas)
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 a white onion, diced
• cooking spray
• 1 tube (14 oz) Gimme Lean sausage
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 cup shredded queso blanco (drop or sub the cheese to make me vegan!)
• 2 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes

Directions:

These are pretty easy, especially compared to my usual ridiculousness. You'll need one big skillet, some paper towels, and some freezer bags. 

1. Cut the tube of sausage into discs. It's MUCH easier to do this with the wrapper on. Just use a serrated knife to get through the plastic packaging. Remember to remove the plastic before you cook it (or don't, I don't care really).

2. Heat the skillet over medium heat and give it a generous spray of cooking spray. Cook the sausage discs until browned, then flip and cook the other side. Set them on paper towels to cool. 

 
4. Dice the cooled sausage into little pieces. Add it to the pepper/potato mix and transfer the whole thing to your assembly area. 

5. Scoop 3-4 large spoonfuls of filling into each tortilla. Top with some cheese and roll 'er up. If you're unfamiliar with how to fold a burrito so that it doesn't bust open and go everywhere, here's the idea:

a. Put your filling in a line toward one edge of the tortilla.

b. Fold the sides in, and then the back edge closest to the filling.

c. Wrap that edge all the way over the filling and tuck it underneath.

d. Fold the sides in again and continue rolling until you're finished. 

6. Fold a paper towl in half and wrap the burrito in it. Place the burritos in freezer bags and you're in business. When you're ready to eat them, just heat for a minute in the microwave, flip it and go for another 30 seconds on the other side, and jam it in your face.  

Original post here.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of asparagus, about 1 1/2 cups once cut up
• 3/4 cup of pistachios, shelled and chopped
• 3/4 cup of sharp cheddar, shredded
• 1/2 lb of mini rigatoni or other short, reasonably small pasta
• 2 tbsp of butter
• 1/2 white onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
• 3 tbsp sherry
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Cook your pasta according to the directions, keeping it on the al dente side. 

2. Prep your asparagus by snapping or cutting off the woody ends. You can find the right place to cut by holding a stem and bending it lightly until it snaps naturally. The spot where it snaps off is about where you should cut.

[Now, don't be an asshole about this. If you grab it on either end and wrench the ends down, it'll just snap in the middle. It's a vegetable, not a 2x4. Be sensible - hold it toward the base and bend it GENTLY.]

The thinner your asparagus, the less you will need to remove. With asparagus, thinner = better. I try to find it about the size of a pencil if I can.

3. Cut your asparagus into 1-inch pieces.

4. Now, you can toast your pistachios or not. They're not a very greasy nut, so I find that toasting them is nice, but doesn't make a big difference like it does with walnuts or sesame seeds. If you want them toasted, they do it quickly. 3-4 minutes over low heat in a dry skillet is all you'll need.

5. Melt your butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add your onion and garlic and saute until the onion is transparent, about 3-4 minutes. 

6. Add the asparagus pieces, sherry, and both vinegars. Continue to cook over low until the asparagus is just cooked, 7-10 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. I find that using them both a little more generously than I usually do works well in this dish. 

7. Add your asparagus and sauce to the pasta and mix well. Top each serving with cheddar cheese and pistachios. 

Makes 4 small servings or 2 awesome, large servings. 

[Seriously? Wouldn't everything that made 4 servings also make 2 large servings? I AM A MATH GENIUS.]

Original post here. 

Ingredients:

• 7-8 ounces of rice cakes (mine are the refrigerated ovalettes, though the tube/stick things are more traditional)
• 2 tbsp Korean hot pepper paste (Gochujang)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 teaspoons mirin
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 1/2 cups green cabbage, thinly sliced or shredded
• 1 large carrot, peeled and matchsticked
• 1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
• a few dried shitake mushrooms
• 1 2-inch piece of kombu
• 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 1/2 cups of water
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)
• 1 green onion, sliced (optional)

Directions:

1. Soak your rice cakes in cold water for about 10 minutes. Unless they're fresh, then you can skip this step. After 10 minutes or so, drain and set aside.

2. Heat your 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil with the shitake mushrooms and the kombu. Once boiling, turn off the heat and let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Strain out the mushrooms and kombu and discard. Add the soy sauce and set aside until you're ready for it. 

3. Separately, mix the pepper paste, mirin, and sugar together - this will be your sauce base. Don't be scared of the pepper paste - it's not like sriracha. It has heat, but it's not just peppers. Take a little taste beforehand if you're nervous about it and adjust according to your tolerance - it won't burn your face off. Which is good, because I think you look better with a face. Just sayin'.

4. In a deep skillet, heat the sesame oil over medium heat. Add the vegetables and saute until softened a bit, about 7-10 minutes.

5. Add 2 cups of the shitake/kombu stock (dashi) and the rice cakes. Cover and simmer until the rice cakes are softened and the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes.

6. Stir in the sauce base and add the remaining 1/2 cup of dashi if you need it. 

7. Serve topped with toasted sesame seeds and green onion, if you like. Makes 2 servings. 

Original post here. 

 Ingredients:

• 1 ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
• 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 lemon, zested with fruit reserved
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped
• 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 12 muffin tin liners (you're going to want these, trust me)

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

2. Place your chopped, dried cranberries into a bowl of warm water for about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. 

3. Next, toast your walnuts. Place them in a skillet over medium heat, stirring every minute or so. When they get nice and brown and fragrant, they're done. Keep an eye on them - if you have the heat too high or don't stir often enough, they'll burn and get bitter. And then you'll get annoyed and have to started over. Not that I'd know. Once they're toasted, set them aside to cool.

4. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and cinnamon together in a fairly large bowl. In a second bowl, mash your avocado. My favorite method is a potato masher, since it's pretty easy and effective. 

5. Once the avocado is but a paste, add the other wet ingredients - milk, coconut oil, and egg. Also, take the fruit of the lemon left over from zesting and squeeze the juice into the bowl with the avocado. Stir until well combined. 

6. Add your wet ingredients into your flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Add the walnuts, cranberries, and lemon and stir as little as possible to get everything mixed together. 

7. Place your liners into a muffin tin. Now listen - if I were reading this and it called for muffin liners and I didn't have them, know what I'd say? F it. And then I would make these and put them into a lightly greased tin and think I was hot shit. And you know what I would end up with? A pile of muffin chunks and crumbs and the invention of at least 3 new swear words. These muffins are nice and moist, but they're also sticky, tricky bastards. Use the liners.

I hear you scoffing - DO WHAT I SAY. Or don't and eat your muffins in tiny chunks, I don't care. 

8. Fill each liner a little more than 3/4 full. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned and a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Now, the ingredients here mean that the inside will never really be dry, and that's okay. You may split them open and think they're not done, but they are. When you taste them, you'll see. 

9. One last thing - I have recently discovered the joy that is a grilled muffin. You need to do this - split a muffin and butter each side. Place, buttered-side down, in a skillet over medium-high heat. Smush it down a little to make sure as much of the buttered surface is touching the pan as possible. After 3-4 minutes, your muffin will have a hot, crunchy, buttered crust. It's the shit.

Makes 12 muffins. And possibly 3 cusswords. 

Original version here. 

Here's a link to Bittman's cracker base, which I used for these recipes. 

Ingredients:

For each flavor of cracker, you'll need: 

For the Parmesan Pepper crackers: 

• 3 ounces of chunk parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of crushed red pepper flakes

For the Toasted Sesame crackers:

• 2 tablespoons of sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
• 2 teaspoons of garlic powder (optional) 

For the Double Olive crackers: 

• 4-5 pitted green olives
• 8-10 pitted kalamata olives

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

2. For the Toasted Sesame crackers, begin by toasting the sesame seeds. Place them in a small, dry skillet over low-medium heat. Stir occasionally until they are lightly browned and fragrant. Set aside to cool. 

3. In a food processor, mix the flour, butter, salt, sesame oil, and garlic powder until combined. Then, add the 1/4 cup of water and blend. Add more water as needed until the mixture stays together but isn't sticky. I needed more than the 1/4 cup for each kind, sometimes a lot more. Use your judgement. I TRUST YOU.

4. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll out until very thin (about 1/8 of an inch), flipping as you roll to prevent it from sticking. 

5. Lightly wet the surface of the dough. Coat the surface in sesame seeds and run over with a rolling pin to set them into the dough.

6. Slice the dough into rough 2-inch squares. I like to call these crackers "rustic."

{"Rustic" = purposefully a little shitty looking because you're lazy but you call it something fancy that makes that okay.}

7. Lightly flour a baking sheet. Place the squares on the baking sheet and put it in the oven.

8. Bake about 10 minutes until lightly browned.

9. For the other two types, start by running the specialty ingredients in a food processor until they are finely ground. 

10. Add in the flour, butter, and salt and process until blended. Add the 1/4 cup of water and blend. The Double Olive will need a little less water than the other two types. 

11. Repeat the rolling, cutting, and baking steps for each type. Once cooled, they can be stored for up to a few days in an airtight container. Makes about 30 per batch.

I ate mine in the first two days. All 90. Whatevs. 

Original version here. 

• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 tsp dried dill
• 1 tsp dried garlic flakes
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt to taste
• 1 1/2 tbsp fat-free plain Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 tbsp light Hellman's mayonnaise

• 4 Wasa Crisp 'n Light crackers, cut into 1 inch squares
• finely diced tomates and dried dill for garnish

Otherwise, it makes a really good sandwich filling.

Directions: