Flora & Vino

The Main Meal

Delicata Squash Quinoa Power Bowl

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Power bowl with roasted delicata squash, quinoa, spinach, basil, and toasted pine nuts. Oil-free, gluten-free, and packed with protein and leafy greens!

Delicata Squash Quinoa Power Bowl by Flora & Vino

At yoga teacher training last weekend we wrote our fears (about beginning training) on scraps of paper and burned them standing in a circle in the parking lot.

When it was my turn, I read my fears aloud (public speaking, lack of time, judgement) and then added sheepishly, “One of my other fears is fire, so, uh, could someone else light this for me?”

One of my yoga teachers grabbed my paper, squatting towards the asphalt and lighting my folded fears with ease.

The truth is that all of my fears wouldn’t fit on that scrap piece of paper even if I wrote SUPER small.

They’ve been a little out of control lately adjusting to living, cooking, and working in a new space.

Change. Is. Hard.

For example, I used an electric stovetop my *entire* life, and was more than apprehensive about the gas cooking range in my new townhome.

“You mean I have to cook over an open flame???”

Fear of fire, friends.

Well, and the very real fear of accidentally leaving the gas on, because I can be so haphazard in the kitchen.

This Delicata Pesto Quinoa Power Bowl is the first thing I’ve cooked in my new home and I’m pretty proud of it.

These power bowls are an excellent basic meal to make this fall for an easy protein-packed lunch or dinner.

Feel the fear (and the fire) and do it anyway!

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Baked Eggplant Steaks with Spiced Chickpeas, Beets, & Green Beans

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Baked eggplant steaks seasoned with oregano served with diced beets, sautéed green beans, and fresh tomato. Ideal for a plant-based dinner in!

Baked Eggplant Steaks with Spiced Chickpeas, Beets, & Green Beans

This past weekend I explored farmer’s markets in my new city and discovered the cutest little spot maybe 10-ish minutes from my new house.

Yippee!

The market was packed with late summer veggies, so I grabbed some of my favorites to build one last ode to summer.

Confession: I  *love* farmer’s markets, but I don’t go as often as I could (should!).

I’m the kind of shopper that prefers to get everything in one massive haul that bursts the seams of my reusable bags but saves me multiple trips to different stores for the right ingredients.

There’s something so exhilarating, though, about going somewhere with a limited seasonal selection.

The produce perusing process can inspire some of the best dishes when forced to work with what’s available.

What’s available this week, friends, is Baked Eggplant Steaks with Spiced Chickpeas, Beets, & Green Beans!

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Cauliflower Chickpea Tacos

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Easy vegan and gluten-free tacos made with a hearty cauliflower and chickpea filling in baked corn tortillas. Perfect for a plant-based taco night! 

Cauliflower Chickpea Tacos

Oh my goodness I start my move in exactly ONE week.

Throughout this season of life, I’ve been eating out a *lot* more than normal.

Normal for me used to be a week or twice a month special (it helps that they’re aren’t ALL that many plant-friendly restaurants near me, haha), but lately it’s been an almost daily occurrence to eat out on plants.

At first I was upset by this and angry that I couldn’t seem to keep up with my stellar stacked Tupperware meal prep days.

“I mean, how hard is it to wash and chop some vegetables and fruit and cook some quinoa?” my inner mean girl scoffed.

Well, pretty darn hard if the knives are boxed up and the cutting board is in the dishwasher and the home inspector will be here in FIVE.

So, I eventually reasoned that while meal-prepping adds value to my life, it’s OK to temporarily let go of tasks where I can for the greater good of my sanity.

I also decided to frame my time dining out as “recipe research”, which automatically makes it sound relevant, valid, and biz-worthy.

It was on a dinner run at Naked Lunch that I first discovered their cauliflower tacos and was inspired to recreate them for the blog.

These Cauliflower Chickpea Tacos have a hearty hearty cauliflower and chickpea filling in baked corn tortillas for a healthier taco night.

Let’s taco through it.

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Jamaican Jerk Cauliflower Steaks & Rosé

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Vegan cauliflower steaks with a homemade Jamaican jerk seasoning and fresh squeezed orange. Serve with greens, grains, or protein of choice. 

Jamaican Jerk Cauliflower Steaks & Rosé by Flora & Vino

I’ve been craving a big fancy meal lately.

The kind of meal you get dressed up for and spend hours devouring the courses.

Most of the time I’m the type of person who would choose a home-cooked meal over going out any day of the week.

Something about the helter-skelter of moving, though, has made me crave the simplicity and charm of eating out.

Partially for the food and also heavily because of the fact that I don’t have to do the dishes afterwards.

But instead of immediately jumping on Happy Cow seeking your next fix of plants, let’s make a fun cruciferous steak of our own.

These Jamaican Jerk Cauliflower Steaks & Rosé are an easy plant-based pairing to elevate your summer dinner plans!

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Carrot Hot Dogs with Japanese Yam “Buns”

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Veg-centric take on the classic hot dog that’s vegan, gluten-free, and grain-free! Vegan carrot “hot dogs” stuffed inside baked japanese yams “buns”.  

Carrot Hot Dogs with Japanese Yam Buns by Flora & Vino

Before I was vegan, I was vegetarian for a few months in college, trying on the veg-life for size.

It felt good.

I remember I sheepishly broke my veg-tastic streak on a night-out at the ballpark with friends.

Peer pressure persuaded me to order a ballpark hot dog because, hey, I didn’t want to be the oddball snacking on peanuts until the 9th inning.

My, how times have changed.

These days, I’ll gladly flaunt my veg while watching home runs.

And I’ve got just the quirky veg alternative that is sure to get noticed.

These Carrot Hot Dogs with Japanese Yam Buns might be the cutest and healthiest “hot dog” you’ve ever seen!

A smoky marinaded carrot “dog” placed between a perfectly baked japanese yam “bun” piled with my favorite ballpark toppings!

Hot diggity dog, let’s get to it.

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Zucchini Crust Pizza (Vegan & Gluten-Free!)

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Plant-based pizza made with a creative zucchini crust that’s vegan, oil-free, gluten-free, and sugar-free. Add pizza sauce and your favorite toppings!

How are you channel changing skills?

To be honest I’ve never been a big TV channel explorer.

I’m more of a “pick a show and binge-watch it then turn off the tube” kind of a consumer (like I did with The Handmaid’s Tale last night into the wee hours of the night!)

Dan, however, is notorious for channel surfing at a rate that makes my head spin.

(You can’t get too invested, folks, because it’s gone in approximately 2.5 seconds.)

The other day, per usual, he was flipping YouTube TV channels and we ended up watching a reel called “Your Daily Dose of Satisfaction”.

Curious, we continued to watch as the video skipped from clip to clip of action scenes.

Clay on a pottery wheel whirring, chopping veggies in clean cuts, paint filling a canvas with precise strokes.

“I guess watching these scenes is supposed to make us feel more satisfied,” Dan said.

And I’ve got to say, I did get a sort of weird charge from watching tasks get completed on the big screen even though I wasn’t the one doing the completing.

Well, here’s your daily dose of satisfaction, and it’s called Zucchini Crust Pizza (Vegan & Gluten-Free!).

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Vegetable Pasta Salad (Grain-Free!)

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Lightened up pasta salad packed with fresh chopped vegetables, grain-free chickpea pasta, and a light balsamic dressing. Perfect for healthy summer lunches!

Have you been to the pool yet?

I went for my first time this season on Memorial Day with a girlfriend.

It was late on the holiday and I really just wanted to lay there motionless in the sun until dark, but I recognized with a sigh that the workweek was quickly approaching.

So we shifted out convo to preparation for week, which sifted to food and meal prep and easy things to throw together with the limited time we had.

I confessed that lunches had me particularly perplexed lately.

What do you eat when you don’t want salads for lunch, but also aren’t in the mood for cooking?

(I swear I’m a food blogger, haha.)

“What about a pasta salad?” she asked.

Yes, what about that.

This Vegetable Pasta Salad (Grain-Free!) is packed with protein and raw vegetables for an easy lightened up vegan pasta salad!

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Vegetable Kabobs with Spicy Lime Yogurt

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Rainbow kabobs with summer vegetables and a quick-mix spicy lime yogurt sauce. The perfect skewer to enjoy for summer grilling!

Vegetable Kabobs with Spicy Lime Yogurt by Flora & Vino

It’s Memorial Day weekend!

Which means it’s unofficially (but so officially) summer.

It was a perfect 75 degree day today here in Virginia and every second spent indoors away from the sunshine hurt!

So.

If you stayed in town, are you grilling this weekend?

Grilled veggies are to summer what roasted veggies are to fall.

A staple.

We haven’t fired up our grill yet, but I love using my grill pan to achieve the grill marks without actually manning the fire.

Dan wants to dust off the real deal tomorrow– weather permitting!

If you’ve already got yours out and ready, throw these Vegetable Kabobs with Spicy Lime Yogurt on the fire for a quick plant-based option to classic kabobs.

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Veggie Noodles with Lentil Walnut Mushroom Bolognese

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Tender-crisp vegetable noodles with a homemade bolognese sauce packed with lentil protein and slightly sweetened with dates. Perfect for pasta night in!

Veggie Noodles with Lentil Walnut Mushroom Bolognese by Flora & Vino

Hello, hello!

Do your pups have a favorite parent?

If Harper could talk, she would tell you that without a doubt, it’s Dan.

Dan was away on a business trip this week so Harper was stuck with mom for the last few days.

She mostly moped around under the bed upstairs or impatiently waited by the front door, pouty and persistent that Dan would come home even well after midnight.

We had some good times though, staying up watching the remake of “Overboard” on Amazon Prime last night (cute but nothing like the original!), eating lunch on the deck in the gorgeous seventy-degree weather, and dancing around the kitchen after instructing Alexa to “play party music”.

She even got to scarf down a few veggie noodles that fell on the floor during my shoot today.

This Veggie Noodles with Sweet Lentil Walnut Mushroom Bolognese is the perfect warm weather pasta bowl that’s vegan, gluten, grain, and oil free.

It manages to be both light and refreshing for spring and summer while still being a true protein powerhouse.

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Vegetable Quinoa Fried “Rice” with Edamame

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Easy vegan fried “rice” made with quinoa for a fresh variation! Packed with fresh vegetables and edamame protein for a complete meal or side.

Vegetable Quinoa Fried "Rice" with Edamame by Flora & Vino

How was your week?

I’m writing like it’s already over because it feels impossible for one more thing to go down.

For example, we had our dishwasher serviced today after a week of crackling dishwasher cycles.

The service guy crawled out from under the washer with handfuls of almond pieces from the dishwasher drain, looking perfectly polished and white.

I tried to explain to him that I was a food blogger, you see, and it’s really hard to get all of the dishes to come clean.

He just laughed and shook his head and continued picking almonds.

Needless to say, none of the dishes are clean right now at the house, so takeout sounds like a pretty good idea.

Except that this Vegetable Quinoa Fried “Rice” with Edamame sounds better.

You just need cooked quinoa, your favorite veggies, and…preferably a working dishwasher.

Let’s stir-fry.

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