Meal Prep

Single Serving Fried Rice

Single Serving Fried Rice made with leftover rice, chopped vegetables, and seasonings for an easy way to make fried rice for one!

This past spring, our oven and stove cooktop burnt out in a single firework that went “POP!” inside the oven doors.

Being a recipe creator, I was immediately concerned about how to keep the recipe creation going without an oven.

Our landlord proactively supplied us with a portable cooktop so that we could still do a little cooking.

That week sans workable oven, we had fried rice almost every single night.

(Excluding that one one night where we tried to boil pasta and it came out a little crunchy. M still ate it anyway.)

While our cooktop couldn’t successfully keep a roiling boil, it made a mean fried rice, friends.

When the new oven rolled in the front doors, I was a little sad to let the induction cooktop that heated a pan to temp on command go.

That’s OK, because I’m sharing with you the secret of Single Serving Fried Rice with you, today.

Why single serving, Lauren, you might ask?

Well, on the small induction cooktop, the burners were tiny so M and I made our fried rice in his and hers skillets to maximize our cooking.

So while this was savvy for our temporary cooking situation, it also dovetails nicely in the real world.

Like those instances that you have a small amount of rice left with no plans for.

Or the night you’re cooking for yours truly and no one else and just want one serving only.

Hello, Single Serving Fried Rice, the easiest way to make fried rice for one with leftover rice, chopped vegetables, and seasonings!

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Coconut Curry Rice Bowl

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Coconut Curry Rice Bowl made with curried coconut Jasmine rice topped with charred vegetables and seared tofu in a chili garlic sauce.

This week we checked out a new coffee house in our area on a weekday morning before work.

It felt like a bit of a hassle at the time, because we (read:I), get into these routines that feel nonnegotiable.

Like, how am I supposed to brave the Maryland traffic without a coffee at 7 AM?!

The horror.

To be fair, I do have a successful morning routine at home which involves coffee, meditation, gratitude, movement, and planning my day.

Oh, and of course getting to at least level “Amazing” on the NY Times App Spelling Bee game, because Genius is just too much work.

Next I walk with M and Flora and then we eat breakfast and I set up for my day, either a photoshoot, recipe testing, or computer day.

It’s true, we have fine-toned our mornings to achieve the intersection of maximum productivity and enjoyment.

However, I think it’s important to remember that we’re actively *choosing* this routine, or otherwise everything just becomes a chore.

That’s why breaking the routine for something like a coffee date felt so disruptive, rebellious, and in the end, fun.

So, your assignment for the week from your friend Lauren is to disrupt your routine a little.

Because you create your routine, your routine doesn’t create you.

And you always have the authority to change it.

For example, perhaps this week we turn our rice a vibrant yellow.

You rebel, you!

This Coconut Curry Rice Bowl is made with curried coconut Jasmine rice topped with charred vegetables and seared tofu in a chili garlic sauce.

It’s delicious for a cozy dinner as the weather transitions from summer to fall!

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Apple Butter Crumble Bars

By Flora & Vino 1 Comment

Easy apple butter crumble bars made with just 6 whole food ingredients. Perfect for a quick breakfast, snack, or healthy dessert.

Where did August go, friends?!

I just chastised M after I saw that the calendar in his room still read, “April”.

But I feel like that 5-month gap in page turning is a pretty good representation of 2025 so far.

It started out slow, and now here we are somehow barreling into Fall.

This month, we took Flora to the beach for the first time.

We were surprised to find Flora initially terrified of the roar of the tide and the consistency with which it threatened to wet her paws.

It chased her back and forth until finally, on our last day there, she got brave and walked in salty water.

We cheered and praised her and my heart swelled because she looked like such a small animal standing in such a large ocean.

And that’s really all that can be said for any of us, right?

Just drops in an ocean, but, just like Flora, we can do hard things!

Speaking of hard things, this month I also completed another weekend of my 300 hour YTT program.

This weekend we started to learn how to cue a mandala-style vinyasa class, where you turn students on the mat.

The back of the mat becomes the front of the mat and visa versa so you’re shifting directions and perspective while you flow.

It’s this shift in perspective that makes it fun to adopt a beginner’s mindset, or allowing each experience to stand on its own as a fresh start.

And that’s really what Fall feels like for me.

A fresh start, a chance to make new routines, an opportunity to set new rhythms, an invitation to grow, learn, change.

My favorite foods are full of seasonal fall favorites, like these Apple Butter Crumble Bars.

These easy apple butter crumble bars are made with just 6 whole food ingredients.

They’re perfect for a quick breakfast, snack, or healthy dessert.

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Blueberry SunButter Breakfast Cookies

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Blueberry SunButter Breakfast Cookies made with oatmeal, SunButter, and blueberries. Bake them in advance and grab for an easy breakfast!

Last week I was lucky to see the Glass Animals perform live in Richmond, VA.

It’s the longest distance I’ve ever travelled for live music!

The energy was palpable and we spent the entire show standing, dancing and singing to the beats that I knew, craved, and loved.

Attending the show meant *so* much to me, and even more so because I missed seeing them last year when they were in Maryland.

Last year, I forfeited the tickets last minute because we had just brought home Flora, who was cute enough to make me forget even my most admired artists.

I joke that the Glass Animals helped me survive 2020, but truly, their album “Dreamland” felt like a lifeboat amidst divorce, pandemic, and solo living.

It also helps that the singles played on the radio became the unofficial soundtrack to my budding relationship with M.

“Heat Waves” and “Your Love” were always on when I made the drive to Maryland to pick up M for a day date.

So I feel very satisfied and fulfilled that I was able to see them live after all these years.

Naturally, we packed up the pup and took her with us, and although she couldn’t actually attend the show, she waited up for us at the Air B&B like an angel.

Because this was a 24 hour kind of mid-week trip, I wanted to keep things super simple and easy with packing, and, particularly food.

That’s where these Blueberry SunButter Breakfast Cookies come in.

These Blueberry SunButter Breakfast Cookies are made with oatmeal, SunButter, and blueberries.

Bake them in advance and grab a few for an easy breakfast, no matter where you are!

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Viral Tiramisu Chia Pudding

By Flora & Vino 1 Comment

Viral Tiramisu Chia Pudding made with Organic Chia Seeds and espresso topped with cacao. Perfect to meal prep for breakfast or a snack!

This year, we got our hands on our first espresso maker.

We purchased it second hand so there was no pressing urgency to use it religiously.

While I have used it bagel (0!) times, M has already gotten our money’s worth and then some with all of the espresso he has experimented with.

The addition of the espresso maker inspired a kitchen reorg with the creation of “coffee corner”.

We now have a whole corner of our precious counter space dedicated to coffee related things, including but not limited to:

Our coffee grinder, bags of beans, the coffee scale, the new espresso maker, and all of it’s accoutrements.

With the new workspace, he’s tried pretty much every bean from our favorite local roaster to dial in the best ‘spresso.

So, naturally, he was delighted when I requested that he make me espresso shots for today’s recipe.

Tiramisu has been a long time favorite dessert of mine, but one that I’ve yet to make vegan.

So I’m excited to share my version of the Viral Tiramisu Chia Pudding.

This chia pudding incorporates all of the layers and flavors of tiramisu, without all of the hard work.

It’s Tiramisu in pudding form!

My version of the Viral Tiramisu Chia Pudding is made with Organic Chia Seeds and espresso topped with cacao.

It’s perfect to meal prep for an energizing breakfast or a snack!

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Vegan Viral “Salmon” Bowl

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Vegan Viral “Salmon” Bowl with marinated tofu, diced cucumber, and kimchi served with nori strips and organic sesame seeds.

If you can’t tell, I’m on a bit of a sushi kick lately.

It’s a craving that only gets better when it starts to get warmer outside.

But today’s recipe is one that you might recognize from social media.

Like so many people, I was fascinated by Emily Mariko’s Viral Salmon Bowl on TikTok.

I was captivated by the ease of the ingredients and the frequency with which she made it.

And the fact that it went viral *must* mean it’s pretty good, if so many of us like it, right?!

I also love that the bowl is essentially deconstructed sushi, complete with a side of nori for wrapping.

For years, I’ve come back to the idea of creating the recipe…and making it vegan!

Here is my version of the Viral Salmon Bowl, with a few plant based tweaks and a lot of deliciousness.

This Vegan Viral “Salmon” Bowl is made with marinated tofu, diced cucumber, and kimchi served with nori strips and organic sesame seeds.

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Easy Vegan Pasta Salad

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Easy Vegan Pasta Salad made with your favorite noodles and raw vegetables in a simple red wine vinaigrette. Perfect for summer meal prep!

This coming weekend is the second meeting of my 300 hr yoga teacher training, which also is technically my *first* weekend because I missed the first due to sickness.

I’ve found myself planning, replanning, and agonizing over the details of work, life, and yoga this week, wanting everything to be *just so* for a successful weekend.

I’m nitpicking at my clothing, my accessories, my gear; the small things that I bring that I feel are in my sphere of control.

The training is forcing me out of my routine, out of the state of Maryland, out of my comfort zone.

In a sense, it feels very much so out of my control.

But I try to keep reminding myself that there is no perfect yoga pants, morning routine, or notebook that will make this weekend EASY.

And it’s good to do HARD things frequently in life, right?

The one thing I know that I’ll need is a quick healthy lunch that doesn’t need reheating, assembly, or fussing.

And contrary to what I said about doing hard things, I like my food choices and recipes to be without a doubt easy!

This Easy Pasta Salad is made with your favorite noodles and raw vegetables in a simple red wine vinaigrette.

It’s perfect for summer meal prep, camping trips, weekends away, and anytime you’re craving something simple and fresh.

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Vegan Blueberry Muffins

By Flora & Vino Leave a Comment

Vegan Blueberry Muffins made with almond flour, oat flour, and frozen blueberries. Perfect for a nutritious breakfast or snack.

I have a working oven; I repeat, I have a working oven!!!

It’s been *over* two weeks since the oven lit up light a firecracker and died while I was baking a sheet pan meal at 450 degrees.

Since then, we’ve been waiting patiently for a new oven part to arrive and be installed.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on portable induction cooktop.

This is actually my first experience with induction cooking, friends.

While I loved how quickly the pans heated up for a stir-fry, I found it to be lacking when you need to boil a *lot* of water, like pasta.

We survived mostly on oatmeal, homemade fried rice, and air-fried sweet potatoes for the past few weeks.

Which isn’t the worst menu to live on, right?

That being said, I’m super grateful and excited to have a functioning oven again.

Sure, ovens are great for cooking and I rely on it frequently to roast veggies and chickpeas.

However, the one thing I couldn’t stop craving while we were oven-less was baking MUFFINS.

Homemade muffins warm from the oven, bursting with blueberries.

Naturally, today’s recipe is a celebration of that craving.

Friends, I give you, Vegan Blueberry Muffins.

These Vegan Blueberry Muffins are made with almond flour, oat flour, and frozen blueberries.

They’re perfect for a nutritious breakfast or snack!

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Vegan Applesauce Waffles

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Vegan Applesauce Waffles made with oat flour, coconut milk, and unsweetened apple sauce. Perfect to make for a nutritious breakfast!

In our house, I like every item to have a space, a home, a location where we can always find it.

M can attest to the fact that I’m always tidying, organizing, and putting things away.

Which is why whenever he looks for his empty coffee mug to refill it, it’s already in the dishwasher.

Sorry, M!

Anyway, this is especially important for me in the kitchen during busy photoshoot and recipe testing days.

However, being a food blogger, I tend to amass a certain amount of kitchen gadgets that…have no home.

And living in a condo, let’s be honest, I don’t have the biggest kitchen.

So, these kitchen gadgets usually end up in our storage closet or the attic waiting for me to miss them and eventually unearth them 6 months later.

That is, they don’t get to take up *precious* kitchen real estate.

Yes, I’m sorry to admit that the ice cream maker, the air fryer, and the crock pot all live in varying degrees of dust and rumble when not making recipes.

However!

The waffle maker that I told you guys about recently might be the exception to the rule.

Because I just don’t have it in my heart to put away, so it might just have to live on the kitchen counter forever.

I don’t know how M will feel about it blocking the coffee grinder, but we can find out after I share this new recipe with you.

These Vegan Applesauce Waffles are made with oat flour and coconut milk for a nutritious breakfast.

Unsweetened apple sauce is the secret ingredient to making them brown and crispy!

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Tofu “Egg” Cups

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Savory Tofu “Egg” Cups made with firm tofu and sautéed garden vegetables baked in a muffin tin. Perfect for a meal prep breakfast!

As I write this blog post, Flora is asleep in her favorite spot on the linoleum floor of the kitchen.

Every time she lies down to nap on her own (without being crated), I do a little (silent) happy dance.

Yes friends, I consider it a major win that my 9 month Australian Shepherd puppy is starting to rest on her own!

Of all the dogs I’ve bene lucky to have in my life thus far, Flora is by far the craziest, most energetic, and most challenging.

Lately, with spring right around the corner, she’d taken to chasing robins as they hop and skip across the lawn.

She also *loves* eating the dirt of my indoor house plants, so I’m wondering how the future seedlings I plan to sow outside will ever make it.

But when she looks up at you with those piercing blue eyes, it makes all the craziness worth it.

March has felt a bit chaotic with bipolar weather, the time change, and lots of personal and professional commitments.

Something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is the theory that tasks will expand to the time that you allot to them.

With a puppy around the house, naturally, I don’t have all day to get the *perfect* shot anymore.

So I’m learning to be productive and prompt and the anti-perfectionist in my approach to recipe shoots.

9 times out of 10, I am able to finish a recipe shoot in a truncated time-block instead of allowing it to expand into…the whole day.

Not that I don’t want to look at these Tofu “Egg” Cups all day, but we need time to eat them too, right?

These Savory Tofu “Egg” Cups are made with firm tofu and sautéed garden vegetables baked in a muffin tin.

They’re absolutely perfect for a meal prep breakfast to have on hand for the week ahead.

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Meal Prep

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