Tag: comfort food

Make This Now: Cold Weather Favorites

Lauren4 Comments

With a new season comes new cooking inspiration and the return of some old favorites.

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Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Putting a batch of cookies in the freezer is one of the best things you can do for yourself.  It took me 26 years to learn this, but now that I know, I’m not wasting another second of this life without cookies stashed in the freezer.  These ones ooze fall flavor, and chocolate chunks — are you kidding me?!  So much better than chocolate chips!  I just take one out of the freezer at dinner time and by dessert time, they are perfectly soft.

5 Ingredient Coconut Curry

Kinda forgot how much we used to make/love this quick curry recipe.  Do yourself a favor and use full fat coconut milk because that creaminess is so worth the extra fat/calories.  This time around, I didn’t even mix in the water/cornstarch because I didn’t really want the sauce to thicken up and I’m doing that every time from now on.

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Roasted Vegetables with Nutritional Yeast

Joey and I might be the unofficial spokespeople of nutritional yeast.  I know it sounds (and looks and smells) weird, but GAH, IT IS SO DELICIOUS.  For this recipe, you roast some squash (or broccoli, but I prefer the squash) then toss it in nutritional yeast and prepare your tastebuds for pure delight.

White Bean & Hominy

We made this a handful of times last fall/winter and we love it so much!  The recipe calls for meatless sausage but that sounds ew so we just leave it out and it is so so good.  Eat a bowl + a jalapeño cheddar corn muffin for the most perfect winter dinner.

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Pumpkin Maple Pecan Granola

I’m on something like my fourth batch of this granola and I eat it EVERY SINGLE MORNING.  It’s on the softer side, so if you’re looking for big crunchy clusters, this isn’t it, but if you’re looking for fall spices and that perfect blend of oats and nuts, HERE YOU GO!  Also, you mix chopped dates into the mixture after it’s done baking and I kinda never want to eat granola without dates ever again.

United States of Meatloaf

Never thought I would wax poetic about meatloaf until I tasted this one.  If tender is a word you can use to describe meatloaf, that’s exactly what this tastes like.  Sautéing the onion and garlic before mixing it into the meat and adding a delicious glaze on top are serious game-changers.  Jeff Mauro, I love you for this recipe.

P.S. I use half beef, half pork and nix the veal, I use panko instead of Saltines and have left the sriracha out of the glaze when I made the horrible mistake of leaving the bottle at work.  It still turned out perfectly.

Ginger Cashew Chicken Curry

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I turned down an invitation to get a manicure with my sister for this chicken curry.  And it was so luxurious, decadent and flavorful that I almost cried upon first tasting it.  You know when you eat something and with every bite, you feel like yelling “HOW’S THIS SO GOOD??” This is that meal but with the added bonus of having MADE IT YOURSELF.

Kale Salad Bowl with Tahini

Alright, I’m not sure a kale salad fits in the winter comfort food category, but this one has lots of cheese, sauce and roasted sweet potatoes so it’s about as comforting as a salad can get.  Plus I just gave you a list of sweets, stews and meatloaf, so our palate could probably use a salad, right?  I ate this every day for lunch last week and would do a little salad happiness dance while eating it.  It’s that good.

Happy Winter Eating!

Make This Now

Lauren1 Comment

After I published my first “Make This Now” post, Joey told me I should make it a weekly series.  I told him I’d been saving up recipes and writing that post for over a month, so I probably wouldn’t have enough content to make it a weekly thing, but he assured me that even one recipe a week would be good enough.  Go figure that a week later, I’d end up with three recipes worth sharing!  This edition includes all things carby, aka delicious, so pay attention now.

Vegan “Brioche” Slider Buns

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When you can’t stop thinking about slider buns, even during Game of Thrones and your husband can’t stop talking about slider buns, even during a Fantasy Baseball draft, you know you’ve found a recipe winner.

Vegan or not, these were SO GOOD.  The yeast actually foamed up (which never happens for me…), they rose like a charm and they made the biggest, fluffiest, softest slider bun cloud I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.  I started the dough and Joey formed them into the slider buns while I was at book club and then we baked them and it was probably our proudest joint-effort-moment thus far in life.  I can cross “find PERFECT burger bun recipe” off my life goal list.  DONE!

Creamy Chive Potatoes

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I don’t even like potatoes (‘cept sweet potatoes and, uh, all French fries), but this recipe!  I can’t even deny the potato goodness here.  It transcends all potato blandness and just becomes something so innately satisfying.

We’ve made this before, but even so, I wasn’t prepared for that first forkful to hit my taste buds.  HOW IS IT SO GOOD?  Full Disclosure: we used almond milk, which might be the furthest thing from the half-and-half the recipe called for, and it still turned out so creamy and luscious.  They almost taste like gnocchi — or, as I call them, “potato pillows” — but without all the trouble of actually making gnocchi.  Just know we had to go to FIVE different grocery store to find chives and it was 100% worth it.

Orecchiette with Peas, Shrimp and Buttermilk-Herb Dressing

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Confession: I reach “recipe exhaustion” after making something about five times.  As much as I wanna be that person who has an arsenal of tried and true recipes they’ve made so many times they know how to make them by heart, I’m just not.*  BUT, I’ve been making this every spring for like five years and I look forward to it every.single.year.  It’s so dang easy, quick and delicious.  Warning: serious garlic breath ahead, but it’s so very worth it.

Exceptions to this rule: my mom’s stuffing and red velvet cake.  I will NEVER get sick of those two things.

Happy Eating!