Grain-Free

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnut Butter Sauce

Roasted brussels sprouts served with a spicy oil-free hazelnut butter-based sauce and sesame seeds. Perfect for a delicious winter side dish.

This weekend I became a plant mom.

The main level in my new townhouse has a bright white vibe with three sets of windows that let in lots of natural light.

With the moving boxes finally gone, I started to dream up ways to customize the space.

I don’t have any art on the walls yet, and my furniture budget is at a definite minimum.

What I do have, though, is space for a few plants.

Naturally, as with most big decisions, I polled Instagram first, asking what indoor plants are low maintenance.

Or, in other words, which plants do you really think I can keep alive?

Equipped with responses, I drove to the nursery with my friend and adopted three succulents, a snake plant, an aloe plant, and a croton!

They’re perched on plant-stands as I type this post, both calming and comforting in their stoic stillness.

To echo all of my newfound green, I made these Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnut Butter Sauce today.

You just need a bag of brussels and a jar of hazelnut butter to get started!

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Chocolate Chip Almond Butter Skillet Cookie

By Flora & Vino 22 Comments

Chocolate Chip Almond Butter Skillet Cookie with almond butter, almond flour, coconut sugar, and paleo chocolate chips.

Remember when I said to wake me up when September ends?

Well, it’s September 30th and I still feel like snoozing.

That being said, I think (read: hope) that things will calm down a bit here in October.

I remember looking ahead to September on my giant office wall calendar, snorting at the idea of that blue cursive ink scrawled across dates coming to fruition.

But it did.

In September, I moved my life, my business, and my fridge, started yoga teacher training, traveled for a trade show, and somehow lived to tell about it.

And here I am, tired, and ready for dessert.

This Chocolate Chip Almond Butter Skillet Cookie is vegan, paleo, and grain-free without any added oils or refined sugars!

You just need 6 ingredients, a small caste iron skillet, and a love for gooey cookies.

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Rainbow Veggie Noodle Bake

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

Quick 1-pan meal with three kinds of veggie noodles, chickpeas, and yogurt dill tahini sauce. Perfect for meal prep!

Are you binge-watching any good shows lately?

I recently started Lucifer, which has been thoroughly entertaining to me during the move!

It was the first comforting thing I watched in the new place, surrounded by takeout and piles and piles of freshly moved *stuff*.

With the “move” is technically over; all of said *stuff* is in one place but mentally I still feel like a moving truck with boxes waiting to be unpacked.

Which means dinner needs to be something that DOESN’T require a lot of unpacking, you feel me?

This Rainbow Veggie Noodle Bake is warm, comforting, and so easy to throw together for weeknight dinners!

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Root Veggie Chip Arugula Salad

By Flora & Vino 3 Comments

Root Veggie Chip Arugula Salad with crumbled cashew cheese, and caramelized onions. Perfect for a light autumn lunch or side salad.

Today I left the house at 7 AM in shorts and felt 60 degree breeze hit my bare thighs.

I proceeded to jump into the car and blast the heat and seat heater, because how else do you get warm in September?

It’s definitely starting to feel like fall here in Virginia; colorful leaves cascading off of trees and a definite chill in the mornings and evenings.

With the first “official” day of fall in just a few days, all I can see are shades or sepia and burnt orange and gold.

When I think of fall, I immediately think of ruby-colored root veggies.

How about root veggies in chip form?

You’re going to love this Root Veggie Chip Arugula Salad for a light autumn lunch or side salad this season!

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Paleo Sweet Potato Snack Bowl

By Flora & Vino 5 Comments

Paleo sweet potato snack bowl with cinnamon, chopped nuts, dried fruit, and pecan butter. Perfect for a fall snack or breakfast!

I’m *really* trying to get back into the habit of preparing my own food after my move.

It’s been a lot of Whole Foods hot bar and Cava trips and Chinese takeout and I for one am over it and ready to get back to regularly scheduled F&V programming with a fridge full of chopped veggies and a kitchen I can walk through without fear of tripping over a half-unpacked box and stumbling to my death.

I keep telling myself that it’ll happen “when the counters are clear” or “once I clean the dishwasher” (it smells bad…LOL)…but I’m pretty sure that those are all just excuses for being uninspired.

Change is hard, and all I want to do these days is curl up with something to eat that’s safe, known, normal.

So I’m taking it back to the ultimate comfort food base for occasion– sweet potatoes.

These Paleo Sweet Potato Snack Bowl are a delicious fall snack or breakfast idea that you can make in advance and serve warm or cold!

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Apple Chip Nachos with Date Caramel

By Flora & Vino 4 Comments

Apple Chip Nachos with date caramel, dried fruit, dark chocolate, and chopped nuts. Perfect for an elevated snack or dessert.

When you move do you move with perfectly labeled brown boxes or with trash bags stuffed with random odds and ends?

I started out as the former but on the last day, yesterday, I was tossing pots and pans and appliances and silverware into anything I could carry with two hands.

So now I’m in the new townhome and everything is literally everywhere.

I even hired movers to help with the big ticket furniture items, but it’s really the little things that get you, you know?

Anyway, with moving, I have been the hungriest of hungry hungry hippos.

I lunge at snacks the minute the last box is unpacked, ripping apart energy bars and overnight oats and yogurts and all of my pre-packaged favorites.

Not quite ready to jump into learning how to use my new gas-stove and kitchen, I decided to make something easy but upgraded, with all the fall feels.

I’m loving these Apple Chip Nachos with Date Caramel for an easy fall snack plate that you can throw together in under ten minutes!

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Endive Boats with SunButter Sauce

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

Endive boats stuffed with carrots, celery, and sunflower seeds with a creamy oil-free SunButter sauce. Perfect to serve as a plant-based appetizer!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

There are lots of ch-ch-ch-changes happening at F&V right now.

I know, I know, at this point it must feel like I’ve been talking about moving for months, but that’s about about all I can think about right now.

The final push is in the next few days, and the next time I write to you I will be 100% settled in my new townhouse!

The other big news is that I *finally* signed up for a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training.

You can read a little about my decision to sign up here.

I’m excited and more than a little scared about the whole thing; not as much the yoga part but absolutely the teacher part.

Every now and then I look askance at the pile of yoga books I have to read in the next 6 months.

But the truth that this will be the first reach for personal growth I’ve made outside of F&V in a long time, and that in itself feels like something worth chasing.

You know what else is worth chasing?

This new plant-based appetizer recipe that I’m sharing with you today featuring endives.

Grab an endive and let’s sail into the 3-day weekend on these Endive Boats with SunButter Sauce!…

Baked Eggplant Steaks with Beets & Green Beans

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

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

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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Chocolate Dipped Cashew Cheesecake Bites

By Flora & Vino 10 Comments

Easy raw vegan cheesecake bites with soaked cashews and coconut milk coated in dark chocolate. The perfect naturally sweetened pre-portioned treat.

My life is currently split between two homes, each marked by bulging brown boxes.

I’m still primarily living from the condo, because that’s where the food and bed is, ya know.

But more and more I’m starting to feel out my new townhome.

Last Saturday I sat on the carpeted stairs, eating a raw bar and listening to the air conditioner, trying to imagine my whole life and business expanding within the angular white walls.

Each time a friend comes over to see the new digs it feels a little more like home.

The goal is to have everything out by early next week, and by everything I mean everything, from my favorite recliner down to the last Hu Kitchen gem.

So I’m currently accepting moving assistance for Chocolate Dipped Cashew Cheesecake Bites.

We should probably eat them up now, right, in case they don’t survive the move from current to future fridge?

Yes, yes, we should.

Show me your muscles and I’ll show you a raw vegan no-bake dessert with just 8 ingredients!

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Spicy Black Bean Hummus & Banana Chips

By Flora & Vino 2 Comments

Elevate your snacking with this spicy black bean hummus paired with sweet baked banana chips! Perfect for a healthy plant-based snack.

My girlfriends and I have a group text chain we use to keep each other moving, healthy, and inspired during the week.

We chat meal prep, scheduled workouts, water consumption, running goals, and a smattering of wildly appropriate gifs.

If my phone starts buzzing at 6 AM, I know who’s on the other side of the frantic beeps.

A few weeks ago, in said text chain, my girlfriend posed the question, “Best afternoon snack ideas- GO.”

Since food is kind of my job, I felt inclined to go all out.

“Chia pudding, celery and peanut butter, yogurt and granola, raw bar, carrots and hummus…”

I typed a stream of consciousness of safe snacks without pausing.

Then I stopped and looked at my list and thought….my snacking could really use some upgrading.

If you’re not a believer in group text chains, this Spicy Black Bean Hummus & Banana Chips will make you one.

It’s a snack combo that you won’t want to miss, complete with a protein packed black bean dip and no-sugar-added chips!

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