I'm someone who struggles to have the energy to cook good meals, so I made this food blog to share in the struggles and wins of cooking as self care. A place for recipes and stories of how things turn out.
I haven't posted in a while since I've been struggling with cooking recently. But I have made stuff! I'll likely share more later, but here's some recent pics.
Not all of these were winners (looking at you watermelon salad -- never again), but I've had some nice new stuff and great returning dishes.
Also took one of the dishes pictured and made it my own with a lot of adjustments.
Having motivation to cook has been tough but I'm planning to make a bunch of soup this weekend and feast. Fall is so good for food.
This Kale Pesto Pasta Salad is made with a dairy-free, earthy kale & basil pesto, vegan feta, chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes & arugula.
Putting the link and photo first and foremost for this one because it was an instant win. So delicious and filled with lots of great nutrients. Not pictured is the arugula since I did a smaller amount at the bottom of my bowl and then mixed it. Arugula is a tough thing for me so it was easier to do smaller batch.
I will absolutely be making this one again.
I recommend a nice wedge of lemon squeezed over everything once mixed together in addition to the lemon in the pesto. I also used chickpea pasta so it was much healthier. There didn't seem to feel like too much chickpea since the pesto flavor balanced it. Maybe next time I'll add a little more of the sun dried tomatoes since they were so subtle mixed with everything.
Great easy recipe with little cooking. Easy one when the self care energy is running low after doing chores all day.
I found this recipe a month or so ago and have made it twice but never got around to posting it. It's super easy and delicious, so much so that it drew my cat's attention.
This is a Mexican Quinoa Soup I found online.
You're going to love this Mexican quinoa stew! It's hearty, easy to make and tastes amazing. This delicious soup recipe is vegan and gluten
It's super easy and full of hearty vegetables. I used my immersion blender a lot on it but you can choose not to blend. I find that I love blended soups and it makes it really easy to dip chips into.
Highly recommend using some lime flavored corn chips with this as a crunchy component to dip.
I used olive oil instead of coconut oil and it works perfectly. I also like heat in my soups so I kept the jalapeno seeds in and used the cayenne pepper. It's well balanced.
If you need a quick and healthy meal, this is a great go to.
It's been a while since I last posted. I haven't done much cooking since I had some life stuff going on. Gonna try to catch up with what I have done.
Last week I made this delicious black bean quinoa salad (see link below).
If you make this, I highly recommend cutting the quinoa amount in like half, if not more. 2 cups was too much. I was able to make use of the leftovers in some breakfast dishes, but it was a whole lot.
This recipe makes a lot. I was able to have two full meals leftover. I shared one with my boss. It made a fantastic lunch.
Next time I make it, I'm going to make more of the dressing to go around.
It's such a colorful and tasty salad, though. Definitely recommend.
This Black Bean Quinoa Salad is filled with crunchy veggies, a light lime dressing, black beans and chilled quinoa. The perfect lunch!
I'm a soup girly so when I found a black bean soup, I knew I had to try it. This came out amazing.
Thanks to the apple chili I made a while back, I had some chipotle and adobo sauce in the fridge already. They store nicely for use later.
I, of course, added more garlic than it called for. I also used chicken broth instead of veggie broth and it came out great. That's a personal choice for me, so use what works best for you.
Not pictured were the pepitas I added afterwards. They were recommended as a topping so I got some roasted and salted ones. They were a delicious crunch that paired perfectly.
Be advised that it does have a spice level to it. The chipotle adds some of that, so adjust as needed for your crew.
One benefit of a blended soup is easy freezing. I went ahead and stored the rest for later.
Another Love and Lemons recipe for you:
This black bean soup recipe is easy to make with pantry ingredients like canned black beans and spices. It's healthy, savory, and delicious!
Will absolutely make this again. Delicious and easy. I love a blended soup (my immersion blender is amazing).
I am so freaking proud of these cookies. These double chocolate chip cookies came out amazing. I had a nice weekend of energy last week and made these. My partner and coworkers liked them.
I don't have kitchen aid, but an Ankarsrum stand mixer with cookie paddles and that worked great.
I ended up using a couple more tablespoons of butter because it was looking pretty dry when mixing.
It was tough to spoon out (I need a cookie scooper or something) but they came out so nicely. I realized when putting the chips on top that they look prettier face up lol, but that didn't take away from their deliciousness.
Will be making these again. I felt so empowered as a baker. They're incredibly rich (probably made more so by the dutch cocoa powder I used and sifted).
I tried something new with this one. It's a carrot, leek, chickpea dish with harissa powder and other seasonings. I also paired it with rice and feta.
It came out way spicier than I anticipated, but luckily I love spicy. May need to adjust the harissa a bit with the brand I have for my partner's sake. It may have also been because I used cilantro instead of parsley for the fresh herb part.
This recipe is great for vegans. For those like me who can't do veggie broth, chicken broth works well, too.
It was a nice low spoons kind of dish since it was in one pan.
Definitely gonna try this one again. The North African flavor profile is really cool.
This Harissa Chickpea Skillet with Leeks and Carrots (vegan) is the easiest one pot meal. So healthy for you and full of plant protein.
If you've never had harissa, you can typically buy it online. I had to order via Amazon for mine (but I'm going to try to find a different vendor in the future) since it's not regularly stocked in most supermarkets. It's a solid spice to have for dishes. I plan to make more harissa dishes in the future.
This looks wild but it's actually just a strawberry salad with a balsamic glaze.
I adjust the recipe for this one a bit. The original recipe calls for avocado but I'm not a fan, so I leave that out and add a little more strawberry and cherry tomatoes.
I've made this with feta and the mozzarella balls and both are amazing, so pick your favorite.
Absolutely toast your pecans for the best flavor, and then chop them up for easy spreading.
I also add in 1/4 of a cup of cooked quinoa so it's a fuller meal. Start that up first, then turn on your oven to preheat for the pecans. Next, I start the balsamic vinegar to simmer as instructed.
The pecans bake at 400 degrees for about 6 minutes. Spread them out in a piece of parchment paper for easier cleanup.
The part that takes me the longest is tearing the basil leaves. I always forget how long it takes until I'm doing it as the last step.
Check out the full recipe below. Love and Lemons is one of my favorite food blogs to follow. I've had great luck with all the recipes I've tried from them.
This strawberry salad recipe is so fresh and delicious! It's filled with juicy strawberries, creamy avocado, cheese, pecans, basil, and bals
It seems intimidating at first but it's actually a pretty easy recipe. Leave yourself enough energy for cleanup and you're set. I'm sure you can also eat this as a side salad if you have a bigger group. My way with the quinoa works for two people and leaves enough leftovers for one the next day.
When people ask me for a favorite crock pot dish, this is what I send them. This is a pesto minestrone that cooks all day in the crockpot. I discovered it a couple years ago and weave it into my dinner plans every couple of months. I'd totally make it more if it wasn't such a beast to do first thing in the morning. But oh, it's worth it.
You'll also notice in the picture some bread. The recipe recommends pairing it with a rosemary focaccia bread so last time I cooked this dish, I also made my first batch of focaccia. It was a huge success and I will be making it again, and maybe some other types to try with different recipes.
Technically, I used three recipes for this one. One for the pesto, one for the minestrone, and the other for the focaccia.
First off is the pesto. I made a traditional basil pesto with pine nuts, but you can totally make it an arugula pesto, or use a variety of different nuts and seeds instead of pine nuts. I have a friend with some nut allergies so if I make this for them, I'm going to use pepitas instead of pine nuts. The recipe also recommends roasting the nuts. If you have time for it, definitely go for it, but it's also fine without. I've roasted the nuts a couple times and loved how it turned out, but for this batch it was close to when I needed to get the dish started so I went for the easy route of not roasting.
Important to note with this minestrone: you definitely don't need to make your own pesto. It works just fine with store bought pesto. I prefer organic and really like the Simple Truth Organic Pesto that comes in a small jar. The first time I made this minestrone, I did that and it was still absolutely delicious.
I love this recipe for pesto.
Homemade basil pesto is so easy! Learn how to make basil pesto with this recipe, plus find tips on how to properly toss it with pasta, freez
Okay next up is our main event, the minestrone.
Another photo with just the dish.
With this recipe, I make several adjustments. It tells you to add the beans when you add the pasta at the end, but if you're like me and get canned dark kidney beans (the store never has the light), then you'll want to add them with everything else. I finally tried that with this iteration of my minestrone and they came out amazing. The last time I tried adding them an hour before it should be done but they were still too bitter and a little tough.
I also adjust the ditalini pasta amount from 1 cup to 1/4 of a cup. Absolutely essential to add at the end as they recommended. It'll cook it through perfectly. Also important to note that if you want to freeze the dish, don't add the pasta. You can cook it separately and add it to your individual bowls. Pasta doesn't freeze well so it's best to keep them separate.
If you're unfamiliar with leeks, you basically just cut off the leafy looking part at the top. These are really dirty inside and should be cleaned after you cut it up. It's easier to get to all the dirt inside that way.
And if you're unfamiliar with fennel, you cut off the end and the stalk parts. Save the green bits (fronds) to chop up last and store in a baggie or closed top bowl for garnish.
With the parmesan, you can buy a wedge and then grate it into another bowl. I tend to do this first since parmesan is needed for the pesto too. Save about 1.5 inches of the rind to put in last. When you pull it out at the end, use tongs and toss. It looks and feels weird lol.
Last but not least is the focaccia. My partner took some photos of the prep work but I didn't get those, but I got some of the early stages.
It was my first time making focaccia. I'm always intimidated by baking recipes, but this was super easy and fun. It's nice since I didn't have to worry about the main dish. I had evening energy to dedicate to making this since the crockpot was going.
Next time, I'll do a dusting of olive oil on it after it cooks to give it even more flavor.
In this recipe I used honey and fresh rosemary. You can use dried (which is cheaper) but you have to work it into the dough in advance since putting it on top like the fresh will burn. You don't want burnt rosemary on your bread. I also couldn't find a flaky sea salt, so I just used half the amount of fine sea salt instead. A rolling pin made this recipe super easy, but as you can see in my pics, still hard to get even lol.
This delicious Rosemary Focaccia Bread recipe is super-easy to make, and topped with fresh rosemary, olive oil and flaky sea salt.
And that, my friends, is a full ass meal lol. It lasts the whole weekend for two people. I learned when I first made this that minestrone was peasant food back in the middle ages, but this one feels so far from it. I know there are different types of minestrone but now that I've gone pesto minestrone, I can't go back.
Let me know if you make it! Be sure to leave plenty of time in the morning for it. The full day cook is the best for nice flavors and smells throughout the day.
Introducing, Spinach and Artichoke pasta. Someone I follow on Bluesky posted it.
It was a very creamy dish (so not one to use often with lactose issues) but super delicious. I froze some of it and will likely eat it this week or next.
Spinach artichoke pasta is the perfect quick and easy dinner for a busy weeknight. Packed with flavour yet quite light, this spinach articho
If you're looking for an easy dinner, you can't go wrong with this one. Also love the nutrient profile that's packed into it.
I'm don't think the recipe said to, but I chopped up my artichoke so it was easier to eat with the rest. I think it definitely helped, plus it spread it out more since I'm not totally used to eating artichoke.
I made a new recipe the other night that will be one of my favorites, and has so much flexibility.
Introducing chimicurri rice bowls with seasoned black beans and roasted bell pepper. The roasted bell pepper wasn't in the original recipe, but I had to add it for the added flavor and fun factor.
It was absolutely delicious, but took way longer than I realized. I ended up cooking for about 1.5 hours because I didn't realize some parts would take me as long since I was unfamiliar.
I'm eager to find more recipes on this site and give them a try.
Want to level up your rice bowls? These chimichurri rice bowls with seasoned black beans are going to make your meal prep dreams come true.
All bowls should be this good. I'm sure that I'll get faster at making stuff like this with more practice.
This weekend was a low spoons weekend, so I reheated a soup from the freezer I made a few months back and paired it with a basic salad and a loaf of bread that is premade and just needs baking for 15.
I call this combo "We have Olive Garden at home."
The soup was a butternut squash and apple soup with lots of delicious flavors.
The salad was a fantastic simple salad made with greens, granny smith apple, chopped pecans, craisins, feta, and an apple cider vinaigrette.
Close up because it's so pretty:
For anyone wanting to make it, here's the recipe I adapted.
Fresh green salad recipe featuring sliced apple, toasted pepitas, dried cranberries and crumbled goat cheese. Apple cider vinaigrette recipe
Some days can be low spoons but when I can still pull off something new and delicious, it feels empowering.
This past weekend I decided to make a curry dish I'd made once before. They recommended naan bread to go with it, naturally, so I decided to make homemade naan as well.
The naan came out beautifully and was super delicious. The recipe I followed was really easy and paired perfectly with cooking the curry as it rose. The various steps are below.
I recommend the recipe I found. I can't wait to make them again.
You will never go back to store bought naan after making this easy naan bread recipe. Just 4 basic ingredients and no special equipment. Del
While all this was happening, I also made my curry. It was a vegan red lentil curry with a nice blend of spices.
I also decided to blend the curry, which made it nice and easy to dip the naan.
I'll certainly be making this again in the future. The combo was just too amazing.
This one-pot Red Lentil Curry is a simple yet gourmet pantry recipe and bonafide fan favorite. Creamy, indulgent, and ready in 45 minutes.
I used to be so afraid of bread making, but these days I just try things and they always come out so great. I'm thankful for awesome recipes online.
May next weekend's cooking adventure be just as delicious.
A couple weeks ago I tried beets for the first time. My boss was having them with feta for lunch one day and I mentioned how I've never had them. The next week she brought me in a thing of feta and a package of organic cooked beets. I had them for lunch and decided I liked them enough to try making something with them.
Fast forward to today and ta-da!
This is a beet salad recipe I found online and decided to make. It was absolutely delicious. I didn't have a red onion, so that was the only part I was missing.
This beet salad with feta always gets rave reviews! Made with red and golden beets, feta cheese, and pistachios in a citrus vinaigrette.
I highly recommend this recipe. I loved it. The orange juice and zest with olive oil and red wine vinegar made a badass combo for the dressing and cut the earthiness of the beets. The pistachios made a great crunch and the sweet tang of the craisins was a fun addition.
If anyone is in need of a new salad and wants to do something easy, this one is worth it.
These are what I used for the beets. I rinsed them and drained the juices and they worked great.
I made a badass new chili recipe yesterday in the crockpot. Someone on a discord server I'm in posted the recipe and I had to try it.
The chili is a vegan apple chili. Absolutely delicious and full of great nutrients with the variety of things in it. It was super easy to throw everything together to cook for 6 hours.
This vegan apple chili is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy! One of the easiest vegan crockpot chili recipes that you will taste! I
Definitely check it out if you love chili. I'm excited to explore more recipes from this site.
My friend also reminded me that cornbread exists so I decided to make that for the first time. Growing up, my Grandma would always make sweet cornbread. I don't know why it always intimidated me to make it myself, but I'm glad I did. This sweet cornbread came out amazing and paired perfectly with the chili. It was like I brought my childhood cornbread back, but even more improved since I made it from scratch. Growing up they always used the Jiffy box with added sugar.
This tender and sweet cornbread is an easy recipe made with cornmeal, sugar, flour, honey, milk and eggs. A favorite side dish!
This recipe worked perfectly. I had to cook it and additional 10 mins to make sure it all got cooked throughout, but it came out so well when done. Had to resist eating it all yesterday so there'd be some with the chili leftovers today.
I can't recommend these recipes enough. It was so satisfying making two new things and they came out so well. The cooking adventure this weekend was a success. Can't wait to see what's next.
This is one of my favorite dishes. It's super easy to make with limited ingredients. The dish is called marry me chickpea. It has garlic, butter, seasonings, sundried tomatoes, chickpea, broth, heavy cream, Parmesan, and basil. Comes together fast and is so fulfilling.
Win hearts and prepare to fall in love with these Marry Me Chickpeas, a vegetarian twist on Marry Me Chicken! Perfect for date night.
Chickpeas have become one of my favorites to cook with. This dish also made me love sundried tomatoes and now I eagerly eat them. I used to struggle with tomatoes a lot, but I've gotten to love them in different formats.
This is my go to meal when I don't have the energy to cook too long or think much about it. Plus it has so many good nutrients.
I hope the photos of the process are helpful for others!
