(Vegan) Creamy Thai Butternut Squash Curry

I’ve confessed again and again that I’m just not the kind of person who likes to eat things repeatedly.
Sure, I make this chickpea tikka masala more than I’d like to admit and also this sweet potato hash happens way too frequently.
I tend to get bored of the same food easily.
And though humans are creatures of habit, when it comes to cooking I feel the need to explore the less familiar.
What’s worse than food monotony?
I dunno, I dunno.

4-Ingredient Deviled Chicken Thighs

This, my friends, is all the evidence you will ever need that you can never go wrong with Dijon mustard.
Because despite recovering from a horrible cold (not just any cold, more like the biggest, baddest and ugliest cold ever) with zero appetite, and even less inclination to walk to the kitchen and cook, an email from Mark Bittman dropped into my inbox the other day with a recipe for a super simple way to cook chicken thighs; so I dragged myself and made it for dinner last night and it was awesome.
Curative, even. I almost feel reborn today.
Apparently the delightful tang of Dijon mustard woke up not only my taste buds.

Green Machine Soup with Polenta Croutons

Can I get a “woot, woot” for green soup?
Anyone?
No, okay, okay, I get it.
Maybe green soup isn’t the sexiest food around or will get your stomach’s rumbling. But if there’s one thing I know is that this Green Machine Soup is a surprisingly delicious and velvety soup. And after eating one bowl you’ll feel like you just did something really good for your body.
In other words, this green soup maybe even be THE sexiest food around and after trying it your body won’t get enough of it.

15 Delish Casseroles To Warm You Up

 In terms of pure comfort, casseroles are high on the list of my fave autumn cooking.
Double points if they have a good amount of cheese and triple if they also contain quinoa.
In fact, I’m stoked that the chilly weather has brought casseroles back into my meal rotation.

Big batches of Baked Spinach Rice or Cottage Pie not only make the kitchen smell like a million bucks on a Sunday night, but they become easy lunches and dinners throughout the week.
And if a couple of friends swing by, no prob — there’s always plenty to share.

On top of that casseroles don’t deserve their reputation of being heavy and loaded with cream and cheese — don’t get me wrong, they’re definitely delicious when they are — but they can be just as warming and yummy when filled with veggies.

So without further ado here are my 15 fave casseroles: filling, nourishing, and all delish. And trust me there’s not a single can of cream of chicken soup in sight!

Tuna Burgers For Two

 If you’ve been following me you know that I love me a good burger.
But who really doesn't?
Who doesn’t dig a messy, delicious, and flavorful burger?
It’s America's quintessential comfort food and can now be enjoyed in an impossibly endless number of ways.
It doesn’t have to be made from beef to give satisfaction. There are ton of options — chicken, turkey, tofu, sweet potato, and all kinds of fish.

10 Recipes To Make When You're Sick

 It finally happened. After months of good health and high spirits, one of my friends has infected me with the cold.
I hate getting colds because there's nothing you can do about it, except let it run its course. I hate getting food poisoning, I hate getting fevers, but I hate cold more.
Have you ever tried reading a book, watching a movie or working with a runny nose?
It is perhaps the most frustrating thing ever.
Just as you start to enjoy yourself, your nose begins to drip like a leaky faucet. Completely killing any enjoyment you have, as you proceed to wipe your nose again and again and again.
Torture.

Anyways, instead of feeling miserable and sorry for myself, I decided to take action and bolster my immune systems with food.

Believe it or not the most authentic way to fight a cold (or flu) is to eat foods that will help you build the healthy cells you need to feel better.

So I went in and selected 10 recipes from The Iron You to make when you’re sick. Most are smoothies, juices, and soups — because, as you have probably heard it like a million times, when you’re sick you need to get plenty of fluids.
And it’s true. The body needs extra hydration when you’re trying to get well.
But there’s also a grilled cheese. Trust me, there's nothing better to do on a sick day than to put cheese between two slices of (cauli) bread and call it a day.
I also included a recipe for popsicles as it’s my favorite remedy for a sore throat.

I hope you'll enjoy it!

(Easy) One-Pot Turmeric Chicken and Rice

There’s no doubt that one-pot meals are the best, easiest weeknight dinner solution, ever.
We can go even as far as saying that they’re almost a miracle when you need to cook but just don’t have the time or energy to do it.
Don’t feel like cooking? But look — it’s dinner in one pot!
Don’t feel like creating a pile of dishes? But it’s just one pot! (And a spoon, a plate, a fork, and knife but shhh, I don’t want to scare you off.)
Have a lot of friends coming over?
No more picking main, planning sides and veggies, running the stove, oven, and microwave at the same time. One pot and you’ve got a full-blown meal.
Everyone arriving at different times?
Don’t worry, one-pot meals are very forgiving of tardiness.

Health(ier) Sloppy Joes

With so many mouths to feed, my mom did everything she could to stretch her dollar at dinner and keep her recipes simple.
That meant that a lot of our meals featured ground beef, from meatloaf to spaghetti to tacos to chili, there wasn’t a ground beef dish my mother didn’t have a recipe for.
And then there was my favorite of them all, Sloppy Joes.
The Sloppy Joes my mom made always included ground beef, onion powder, a Sloppy Joe seasoning mix, and potato rolls. The sides typically included an iceberg lettuce salad, on special occasions we would also get Ore-Ida french fries.

Honey Lemon Garlic Ginger Chicken

 On the very long list of questions that I ask myself constantly and that I am convinced other people are never troubled with — “Where’s my phone?”, “Where did I put my keys?”, “What did I come into this room for?” — “What do I possibly have the energy to fix for dinner tonight besides fried eggs and avocado?” is near the top.

Cacio e Pepe Cauliflower Breadsticks

I LOVE Pecorino Romano cheese, like “truly, madly, deeply” love.
We have a long history together and we cannot help but to cherish one another.
To be honest I cherish it, I dunno if it shares the same feelings for me. I doubt it.
Anyhow, I love pecorino cheese because it makes my mouth pucker when I take a bite; it's so salty and sharp — I guess I must be really a salt fiend, whenever I’m grating it I always cut off a little chunk (okay, maybe a big chunk) and eat it straight.
So when I first saw Food & Wine’s September cover featuring a brilliant cacio e pepe pizza, as one does, my first thought was “Oooh, so hard to achieve outside a food styling studio pretty” (I mean, look at that beauty) followed by “Wait, cacio e pepe (a Roman dish with only three ingredients — pecorino cheese, black pepper, and spaghetti) on a pizza?”, followed by “Maybe that’s too much Pecorino?” (answer: no, there’s never too much pecorino cheese ) and then “I wonder how that would be on cauliflower crust? Does cauliflower pair well with pecorino cheese? And what about pepper?”
So many questions…