The Main Meal

Chickpea & Wild Rice Soup

Chickpea & wild rice soup packed with garbanzo beans, wild rice, and savory herbs in a light broth. A classic soup staple for all year round!

It’s a good day, friends.

Today I woke up early to make the trip to my local Giant pharmacy to get my first COVID vaccine.

Other than a sore arm that smarts every time I lift my shoulder, I’m doing great, and I’m grateful.

Grateful to have had the opportunity to receive something that a year ago was only a dream, a hope, a wish.

I’m thankful for this protection for my health and the health of all those around me, along with the peace of mind it brings.

I’m starting to excitedly plan to see family and friends in a more intimate way after we’re fully vaccinated.

The thought of enveloping my family and friends in a giant bear hug makes me outwardly squeal with anticipation.

It’s going to be so good.

I want all of this for you, too, friend, and more.

But until then, I’m going to gift you with a new soup recipe that’s sure to make you feel cozy and comforted in the mean time.

This Chickpea & Wild Rice Soup is made in 1-pot in 30 minutes with garbanzo beans and real wild rice!

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Grain-Free Flatbread Wraps

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Grain-free flatbread wraps with crispy chickpeas, baked kale, dill hummus sauce, and your favorite toppings. Perfect for a date night in!

This week one of my girlfriend’s asked in a group text to share one word that best summed up our week.

“Overwhelmed”, I found myself typing, grateful for the space to be open and honest.

It’s true, there is a lot going on here at F&V lately.

This week I finally started photographing for the cookbook; making all of the dishes pretty propped on a white marble backdrop.

For the first time in my adult life, I finished my taxes by myself; squinting at a monstrous Excel spreadsheet to enter formulas and expenses and payments.

I created a resource for cookbook updates so anyone interested can sign up and receive updates on cookbook progress, pre-ordering, and publication.

Oh, and I presented to my cousin’s middle school class on what it’s like being a digital creator and entrepreneur.

The interesting thing about the word overwhelmed is that it doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

You can be overwhelmed by joy, overwhelmed by love, overwhelmed by gratitude.

With this post, dear friends, I hope you are overwhelmed by deliciousness.

These Grain-Free Flatbread Wraps with Tandoori Chickpeas are an easy plant-based meal that is easy to create and fun to share!

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Mushroom Marinara Stuffed Collard Greens

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Collard greens with mushrooms and vegan grounds, smothered in marinara, and baked to perfection. Perfect for an elevated plant-based dinner!

Hi, friends.

Since we last spoke, I submitted my cookbook manuscript!

I hovered my computer cursor over the “send” button on the email to my publisher’s email, wavering.

When my index finger finally made contact with a *click*, sweet relief washed over me.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of edits, formatting, and measurement conversions to match the publishing style guide.

Not to mention mixing and matching 60 recipes into a 6-week meal plan.

I shifted recipes back and forth across the weekly grid like puzzle pieces, waiting for that perfect fit.

On a Zoom this evening, my friend Laura asked me what I was doing to celebrate my cookbook submission.

I’m honestly torn between going to sleep at 6 PM and popping open a bottle of champagne.

Here’s a plan C– make these Mushroom Marinara Stuffed Collard Greens.

They feel fancy and elevated for a nice plant-based dinner at home with simple ingredients!

Let’s stuff some collard greens!

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Veggie Lover’s Flatbread Pizza

By Flora & Vino 1 Comment

Veggie lover’s pizza made grain-free with Bob’s Red Mill Flatbread Mix. Add sauce, vegan cheese, and toppings for a plant-based pizza night!

Story time: M and I have never been on a *real* dinner date; you know, the whole dinner and drinks thing.

Yes, dating during a pandemic is, well, less than ideal.

On our first date we went hiking, and I showed up in hiking boots, a loose olive green shirt, and yoga pants.

“You look ready to hike,” he said. I was.

Honestly, I found it a lot more fun to walk and talk than to sit and stare across a blank tablecloth, anyway.

It was nice to have something to do with my legs and arms while my mind was spinning like the tea cups at the amusement park.

But eating together is a fun way to connect, so it wasn’t long before we started sharing food at home.

On our second date I cooked for him at my place, the 1-Pot Pasta from the blog.

Since then, we’ve curated a collection of recipes that we enjoy making together, including but not limited to: tacos, spaghetti squash, and anything in a bowl.

Lately, one of the things we enjoy creating together is homemade pizza.

We ask Alexa to “shuffle songs by Alt-J” and start pizza prep across the gray granite kitchen island.

Together, we craft two personal pizzas, one for each of us, both similar but deliciously unique.

So today I’m sharing this Veggie Lover’s Flatbread Pizza with you that we made on a recent date night.

It’s ridiculously easy to make while being magically vegan, grain-free, and gluten-free!

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Cashew Butter Soba Noodle Stir Fry

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

Simple stir-fry with buckwheat soba noodles and tender-crisp vegetables in a creamy cashew butter sauce. Perfect for a quick weeknight dinner!

Lately I’ve been struggling with persistent nightmares.

It’s a little funny that at the ripe old age of 32, I’m plagued by bad dreams.

I wake up in bed, whimpering and writhing, uncertain what’s real and what’s a twisted tall-tale told by my subconscious.

Sometimes I say things, too, the words heavy like cement on my lips as I thrust them out in slurred sentences.

Occasionally I remember what was so terrifying– a loved one leaving, being chased by bad guys, or a new classic, finding myself in a crowded public space without a mask.

What never gets old, though, is the very real relief I feel after realizing that the dream was just a dream.

My reality instantly feels like something worth cherishing and celebrating, like something I’m seriously grateful to wake up to.

So, I’m blaming my less than restful beauty sleep on stress.

Yeah, it’s a little nerve-wracking running a business and writing a cookbook.

I know you’re probably busy, too, starting 2021.

So let me make dinner easy, comforting, and nutritious for us, OK?

This Cashew Butter Soba Noodle Stir Fry……

Warm Kale Salad with Citrus Tahini

By Flora & Vino 1 Comment

Warm kale salad with quinoa, chickpeas, and roasted sweet potatoes with an oil-free citrus tahini dressing. Perfect for a cozy working winter lunch!

Hi, friends.

It’s kind of a strange time of year.

The novelty of the new year has worn off and the next big holiday in sight is Valentine’s Day.

I’ve been hunkering down and working on the cookbook with the fire of a fast approaching manuscript deadline.

Honestly, the hardest part of cookbook recipe creation is keeping said recipes from you!

I’m so accustomed to the instant gratification of the blog posting process that hoarding all of this content feels downright miserly.

Which is why I’m letting one of the recipes slip through the cracks today…

This Warm Kale Salad with Citrus Tahini is my current, go-to lunch!

It’s served warm, and packed with complex carbs, plant-based protein, and a creamy, oil-free citrus tahini dressing.

So, if it can fuel me to write my first cookbook, I can’t wait to see what it does for you!
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Moroccan Mason Jar Salad

By Flora & Vino 1 Comment

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Safeway. All opinions are 100% my own.

Mason jar salads with raw chopped vegetables, chickpeas, quinoa, herbs, and a zesty Moroccan-inspired dressing. Perfect for meal prep!

Psst.

Did I tell you that I’m writing a cookbook?

If you’ve been following me on social media, you might have heard the news about my first book.

Because the cookbook is meal prep inspired, I’ve been living the meal prep lifestyle here at home.

This means reserving time on Sunday and stuffing lots of fresh food into Tupperware and mason jars.

You might not equate the holiday season with meal prep, but honestly, it’s one of the times I crave stability the most.

Amongst a string of holiday commitments and festive food, it’s easy to feel a bit frazzled and malnourished.

So, it’s amazing to have a fresh meal from the fridge to balance things out between all of the happy chaos.

These Moroccan Mason Jar Salads are so easy to prepare for a portable lunch that’s packed with raw vegetables, herbs, and a zesty Moroccan inspired dressing.

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Roasted Cabbage Steaks

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

Vegan cabbage steaks that are oven roasted and served over quinoa with tahini. Perfect for an elevated weeknight dinner or date night in!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve, friends!

How are you preparing for the big day?

It just hit me this week that this is the first Thanksgiving ever that I will prepare the entire meal by myself.

At first it seemed a little sad-ish, but then it became super exciting.

This year looks a little different, but let’s choose to see it as a chance to make the holidays literally whatever we want them to be.

It’s the perfect opportunity to start and solidify new traditions.

I’m taking off work today, and planning to spend most of the day tackling all of the Thanksgiving side dishes for tomorrow.

My refrigerator is packed with produce, and I can’t wait to coax everything into a cohesive meal.

I know you’re probably saturated right now with holiday dishes, but I wanted to share something with you today that you can bookmark for all winter long.

These Roasted Cabbage Steaks are the perfect, cozy, plant-based meal for colder weather!

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Nut-Free Macaroni & Cheese

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Nut-free macaroni and cheese made in one pot with your favorite pasta, steamed root vegetables, SunButter, and a crunchy sunflower seed topping.

Friends, I finally picked my pumpkins for Halloween.

And by “picked” I mean I ordered two pumpkins on the Target app and picked them up in the Curbside pick up spot on the way home from outdoor climbing yesterday.

There was something so calming about a nameless Target employee in a red bullseye shirt picking out my gourds this season.

Picking out the “perfect” pumpkin can be a bit frustrating, can’t it?

Darting from pumpkin to pumpkin in the patch, grabbing them by the stem and rolling their bulbous body over only to find a rotting or flattened backside.

Gah.

Since all forms of decision making feels hard right about now, I was more than ready to let a stranger decide the fate of my front step decor.

Luckily, whoever it was picked me out two really solid pumpkins; round and red-orange with a stocky sturdy stem.

I literally can not wait to carve them up this weekend!

I also can’t wait to share this Nut-Free Macaroni & Cheese with you.

It’s the perfect cozy companion for your table this fall made with veggies and seeds.

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Flatbread Tortilla Pizza

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Easy flatbread pizza made with gluten-free tortilla, sweet corn purée, late summer produce, and herbs. Perfect for a lightened up pizza night in!

I had family Zoom call this week with all of my extended family.

It was weirdly comforting to see the rectangles glow yellow when familiar voices trailed from my Mac Book Pro.

Then my aunt put on a slideshow of old photos that she clicked through with the group.

There was one of me in my signature bowl hair cut about 4 or 5 years old.

I’m wearing a polka dot jumper with a can tucked under my left arm, looking dubiously at the camera.

What made it even funnier is that the soda can kind of looks like beer.

(But it wasn’t, guys.)

Then there were the photos of my parents circa 1988; my dad long and lanky; my mom with heavy brunette bangs.

What was really great, though, were the old snaps of my great and great great grandparents.

Blurry black and white photos that capture the early 20th century with a haunting stoic charm.

Photos are so enchanting, guys.

Like the photos of this Flatbread Tortilla Pizza that draw you in with one beguiling triangle after the next.

This delicious vegan pizza is made vegan and gluten-free with a tortilla base, sweet corn sauce, and late summer veggies.

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The Main Meal

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