Recipes

This recipe was a happy accident. I was craving a pasta dish that was creamy but not super cheesy, and vegetable-y but not tomato based soooooo… I kinda just threw a bunch of things that sounded right to me in a blender and it turned out so delicious that I decided to write the recipe down to make again!

In a pan on medium heat, cook the following for about 3-4 minutes:

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 medium yellow/white onions, chopped

Then add in:

• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 3 tbsp tomato paste

Stir over the heat for another 1-2 minutes, remove from heat, and set aside.

To a large blender, add the following:

• 20-25 oz roasted red peppers (I used the jarred kind)
• 1 heaping cup grated pecorino romano cheese (or parm)
• 1/2 cup loose fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup of milk (I used unsweetened soy milk)
• The whole onion/garlic/herb/tomato paste mixture you just made

Then just blend it on high until it’s a pure creamy mixture!

Serve mixed into paste with fresh basil and fresh grated pecorino romano (or parm) on top! Some halved fresh cherry/grape tomatoes would also be a nice side garnish, and so would some fresh garlic bread!

Additional resources:

• For more recipes, click here
• For our kitchen sources, click here
• For our pantry sources, click here
• For our dining room sources, click here

Note: I like to prep all the ingredients first – so I chop everything, drain & rinse canned goods, measure out the broth and spices etc and put them into bowls by the stovetop and start cooking after everything is prepped. I’ve made it both ways (prepping as I go, or prepping-then-cooking) and personally I find the process smoother if I prep prior to cooking. You don’t have to do it like that, but just sharing my way 🙂

Add the following ingredients to a large pot on med-high heat and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large onions (diced)
• 6 cloves garlic (diced, not crushed)
• dash of salt

Add in the following ingredients and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

• 3 celery stalks (diced)
• 3 medium carrots (diced)
• 2 medium potatoes (diced)

Add in the following herbs/spices and stir everything together for 1 minute.

• 2 tsp salt (1 tsp works too, I just like 2)
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper (up to 2 tsp for an extra kick)
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Add in the following liquids and stir until combined.

• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp honey

Add in the following ingredients and stir until combined.

• 3.5 cups canned diced or crushed tomatoes
• 1.5 cups canned/frozen corn
• 1.5 cups canned kidney or black beans (drained & rinsed)
• 1.5 cups fresh/frozen chopped green beans – optional, but tasty
• 1.5 cups canned lentils (drained & rinsed) – optional, but I like it and it’s healthy

(Note for all the canned stuff: honestly, you don’t need to measure this so if your can is a little more or a little less than my measurements, don’t worry. Just try to stick to the ratios. It’ll taste great either way!)

Add in the following:

• 2 bay leaves (select whole leaves so they’re easy to fish out after)

Bring to a boil, then cover the pot, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 40 minutes. When done, taste the potatoes and carrots to make sure they’re soft enough.

Remove from heat, remove the bay leaves, and add in the following ingredients:

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1-2 cups fresh parsley or cilantro (chopped)

Stir everything together and enjoy!!

Optional things I’ve added successfully:

• Broccoli: if you’re going to add these, chop the fresh florets into even sized chunks and add them to the soup half-way through the simmer (around 20 minutes in) so that they don’t overcook.
• Pasta: if you decide to add pasta, I recommend cooking it separately, then add it in after the soup is fully done cooking and removed from heat. Also, if you have leftover soup that you refrigerate, all the broth will get soaked up by the pasta. Don’t worry! Just add water when it’s ready to be heated up again and there’s enough flavor in the soup that that water will turn to broth as it’s heated.

Recommend to serve it with:

• Roughly grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese
• Fresh crusty bread & butter or our favorite Garlic Flatbread recipe

Additional resources:

• For more recipes, click here
• For our kitchen sources, click here
• For our pantry sources, click here
• For our dining room sources, click here

These fresh rolls are one of our favorite meals to make — we often make them on special occasion days like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. They’re fresh and tasty and the best part is you can make each one exactly how you like (kind of how pizza toppings can be totally modifiable) so they’re a hit with almost everyone!

We don’t go by a recipe and each time we make them they’re slightly different, but I’ll share the general idea and you can also modify it to suit your own taste.

The wraps are these round rice paper discs, about the size of a small dinner plate. They come in packages about an inch thick and they’re hard like pasta when you buy them. To make the wraps, we just fill a large pie plate with warm water (as warm as you can bear to touch) and fully immerse one of the rice paper wraps in the water for about 30 seconds to a minute until it is completely and totally soft. Then gently lay it out on a cutting board, or actually we just use dinner plates, and put your favorite ingredients lengthwise in the middle while leaving about 2 inches of empty space at the top and bottom, when all your toppings are in just fold in the two ends, then tuck in one side and roll the rest of the way (kind of like a burrito, but longer).

Note: these do not stay fresh long as the rice paper wraps dry very quickly so what we do is we actually prep all the filling ingredients at once, then lay them out in the middle of the table, and everyone gets a plate and just assembles, eats, assembles, eats etc, until they’re full… so it’s a very interactive and involved meal which we find to be so much fun, even though it’s a lot of work! They take a bit of skill to learn how to wrap so you’ll definitely have to help younger kids or new-to-this-food adults, but it’s such a fun family experience to make these so it’s worth the mess! And, they’re super healthy!

Our wraps are most commonly filled with these ingredients:

• Lettuce (I core the stems and cut them into strips)
• Avocado (thin slices)
• Cucumber (thin sticks)
• Bell pepper (thin sticks)
• Fresh cilantro (de-stemmed)
• Fresh mint (de-stemmed)
• Baked tofu (I cut extra-firm tofu blocks into strips, drizzle over a bunch of soy sauce, sesame oil, and thick teriyaki sauce and bake at 400 until they’re a bit crispy.)

For sauces we use the following (we’ve found it’s less messy to spoon the sauces inside the wraps instead of dipping into them):

• Sweet chili sauce (I just buy this)
• Peanut sauce (I make this by mixing peanut butter, soy sauce, a smidge of sesame oil, hoisin sauce/teriyaki sauce, and sriracha/hot sauce until it’s the right consistency for dipping)

Other optional fillings:

• Egg (if you beat them up with some soy sauce and make them kinda like a crepe in a pan on the stove, then cut them into strips, they make a great addition to the rolls)
• Mango strips
• Fresh Basil
• Shredded carrot
• Thin rice noodles (we kinda consider this a waste of space in the wrap but some people love it)

And that’s it!! For a full list of our kitchen sources, click here!

One of our favorite meals to make when we don’t have time to really cook is Pesto Pasta. Making the actual pesto takes less than 10 minutes and you can store a bunch of it in the fridge or even freezer for those days when you just want a fast hot meal. We often make it even healthier by blending in a bunch of kale (you don’t even notice it’s there for those of you who aren’t fans of kale) and we really love serving it with just pasta, chopped tomato, and a little pecorino romano cheese on top!

To make the pesto, you basically just blend up the following items. If this is your first time making pesto, you can follow the recipe. But I’ve made it so many times now that I actually just eyeball the ingredients based on how much fresh basil I have on hand (that is what determines the quantity of pesto I make).

Pesto ingredients (half this or double it as you see fit):

• 2 cups loose fresh basil leaves (not packed down)
• 1/3 cup olive oil (basically you want enough so that the mixture blends up nicely. Add more or less as needed)
• 2 large handfuls grated Pecorino Romano cheese (or Parm)
• 1/3 cup pine nuts (we like to roast them lightly in a cast iron pan to bring out the flavor, but watch them carefully and stir frequently as they can over-roast and turn black in the blink of an eye)
• 2-5 garlic cloves (depending on preference)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• Optional: half a head (or more) of kale leaves (minus stalks) or even baby spinach. You’ll never notice the taste difference and it makes it healthier. Our preference is to use kale and I’ve done as much as a whole head of it depending on the quantity of pesto. Basically just watch it as it blends, as long as it blends down all the way, you’re good to add more, if it starts to get chunky, then you’ve added enough. You may need to drizzle in a bit more olive oil as you blend the kale.

I usually start with blending the basil + olive oil. Then add the cheese + garlic and blend. Then add the pine nuts + salt/pepper and blend more. And finally add the kale (and add in more olive oil as needed to make it blend smoothly). Blend until it has the consistency of a grainy smoothy.

Relevant kitchen sources:

• Matte black drawer pulls (long): Amazon
• Matte black drawer pulls (short): Amazon
• Matte black knobs: CB2
• White cotton wreath: Amazon | (similar option: Wayfair)
• Rectangular cutting board: Amazon
• Utensil crock (white/tan): Wayfair
• Glass & twine vases (different sizes set): Amazon
• Tupperware sets: Amazon | Amazon

For a full list of our kitchen sources, click here!

Apple Crumbles (and actually all crumbles) are one of my favorite fast-and-easy desserts so I thought I’d share my recipe because there are a lot of different ones out there and this one is very flexible (so it can work for any quantity you want to make) and it’s super yummy!

Filling: chop up however many apples (or any other fruit) fit into the baking dish you want to use (I’ve used everything from brownie pans, to this bigger one, to pie plates, to tiny little individual serving baking bowls). In a separate bowl, add the juice of one lemon, some cinnamon, and a couple big spoonfuls of brown sugar to the apples. Mix and spread into pan.

(My other favorite filling is blueberries. I use frozen blueberries (unthawed) and literally just fill a pan with them along with the juice of 2 limes and some nutmeg and cinnamon and that’s it. No sugar is needed. As the frozen blueberries cook, they’ll release their liquid which will make the filling the right consistency even without the sugar.)

Topping: my topping recipe is all about ratios rather than amounts. It’s: equal parts flour & brown sugar, and double that large flake oats (so for example 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup brown sugar to 1 cup oats). Then add enough melted butter or sunflower oil to make the crumble topping the consistency you want. I start with a few tablespoons and then add more as needed. With this ratio rule, you can modify the recipe for any quantity of topping you need pretty easily. When it’s done, sprinkle topping over apples.

Bake at 350 for 30-45 mins, or until the top starts to turn dark golden brown.
And I like to serve it with vanilla ice cream.
ENJOY!!!

Sources:

• Black/white polka dot baking dish: Wayfair
• Long matte black drawer pulls: Amazon
• Short matte black drawer pulls: Amazon
• Black knobs: CB2
• Barstools are from West Elm (mine are sold out so here are similar options or other ones I just like): #1 West Elm | #2 CB2 | #3 All Modern | #4 World Market | #5 Lulu and Georgia | #6 Wayfair
• Patterned island vase: Crate & Barrel
• Stems in island vase: Amazon
• Rectangular cutting board: Amazon
• Utensil crock (white/tan): Wayfair
• Glass & twine vases (different sizes set): Amazon
• Black island lights: Rejuvenation
• Double sink: Blanco (Wayfair)
• Faucet: Moen Align (Wayfair)
• Soap dispenser: Moen (Wayfair)