black bean & scallion quinoa

black bean & scallion quinoa

The Minnie Chef
Sides

This is my signature quinoa.  I made it for the first time a couple of years ago, and ever since, I’ve been making it regularly for dinner, lunch, as a side at parties, etc.  If you haven’t noticed yet, I love cumin.  I think it’s such a great spice that goes so well with so many different flavors.  I just love the flavor of the cumin along with the black beans in this dish.  And what’s especially great about this dish, aside from the flavor and all the protein from the quinoa and the beans, is . . .

orange blackberry muffins

orange blackberry muffins

The Minnie Chef
Sweet Treats

Everybody needs a good muffin recipe in their life… and one that’s healthy is just a bonus.  There’s nothing like baking up a fresh batch of muffins and eating them fresh out of the oven.  Whether it be banana bread, chocolate chip, blueberry or lemon poppy seed, I don’t think I’ve ever met a muffin that I didn’t like.  But who has, right??  

I’ve never been the biggest blackberry fan—not that I disliked them or anything, but strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries have always been my staples—but I was . . .

cereal killer doughnuts

cereal killer doughnuts

The Minnie Chef
Sweet Treats

In case you don’t already know, I’m completely in love with doughnuts.  But not just any old doughnuts will do… deep-fried vegan yeast doughnuts have my heart and they are a hard thing to come by, at least within a 250 mile radius of me.  😩  Sigh.  There’s this one amazing bakery in Orlando, Fl.  (a three and a half hour car ride away from me and yes I may have driven up just for some doughnuts a couple of times 😳) that makes the most delicious square, deep-fried, vegan, yeast doughnuts.  Unfortunately for me, I’m not the only one aware of just how amazingly delicious these doughnuts are.  Nowadays there’s usually . . .

avocado mousse

avocado mousse

The Minnie Chef
Sweet Treats

Who doesn’t love a healthy little treat that can be enjoyed as breakfast, dessert, or even a midday snack?!  Well, here's one more dose of green just before St. Patrick's Day.  This avocado mousse is an incredibly simple and healthy way to satisfy a light sweet tooth craving and is so versatile that it can be served in a number of ways!  You can enjoy it instead of yogurt, layered with fruit and granola, making it a breakfast parfait.  Or you can sneak in an extra tablespoon or so 😉 of maple syrup or agave and enjoy it as . . .

green pancakes

green pancakes

The Minnie Chef
Breakfast

Why, oh why, did this idea not come to me sooner????  I should have taken notes from Dr. Seuss sooner, but I guess I had to be in a festive mood and get inspired to make all things green.  🐸 So thank you, St. Patrick’s Day, for giving me the idea to put spinach in my pancakes!  🍀 Ok, so maybe the idea of spinach pancakes doesn’t actually sound all that appetizing, but, really, you can’t taste the spinach.  Like at all.  Extra vitamins, extra nutrients, and extra downright goodness packed into a stack of yummy, wholesome pancakes! 😋

And the best part is (you know, aside from being vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, etc.)... Drum Roll, please... These babies are . . .

bangers & mash

bangers & mash

The Minnie Chef
Meals

☘ St. Patty’s Day ☘ For me, it's always been all about the pub grub 🍔, the beer 🍻, and the all green errrryythang 🍀.  It's also my grandfather’s birthday… 🎉 So, every year we've always had a good excuse to celebrate! 

I've spent a lot of St. Patrick's Days at local pubs and bars drinking beer and scarfing down lots of heavy, greasy bar food--the kind that tastes so so good, but makes you feel sorta like you got hit by a truck afterwards.  This year, I decided to pay homage to my Irish roots (partial roots anyway, but enough to have blessed my baby girl with a head full of red hair 😉) this year and come up with a less greasy, not fried version of some good, old-fashioned pub food.  And in true St. Patrick’s Day (and Minnie Chef) spirit . . .

kale caesar

kale caesar

The Minnie Chef
Salad

My love affair with Caesar salads started at a very young age.  Growing up, we had a little French bakery and café across the street from our neighborhood.  On Saturdays, my dad made it sort of a tradition to take me out to lunch for a Caesar salad and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert—my all time favorite treat when I was little. 

The Caesar salads at this place were not just your average Caesar.  They were served in these heavenly, warm, freshly baked baguette bowls.  Every time mine would arrive at the table, I would take the cut out top off, place it crust down in my hand and pile it high with my salad.  I would fold it over and start by devouring my little Caesar salad sandwich.  Next, I’d dive into the salad.  Then after my salad was finished came the best part. . .

sauteed kale and hummus english muffins

sauteed kale and hummus english muffins

The Minnie Chef
Breakfast

I’ve been really into savory breakfasts lately and I’ve been on a HUGE English muffin kick ever since making those Tofu Benedicts and trying Ezekiel Sprouted Grain English Muffins for the first time.  I love them so much, I just can’t stop eating them!  😋😋😋  I just tried them for the first time a couple weeks ago and I’ve already enjoyed them in so many different ways with so many different toppings.  And this 👆 was one of my favorite ways, right up there with the Benedicts.  So good, that I just had to share…

It’s a great savory breakfast option that’s so quick and easy to put together… All you need is . . .

tofu benedict

tofu benedict

The Minnie Chef
Breakfast

Am I going to seem like a creepy obsessed super fan 😁 if I start talking about 💀 The Walking Dead 💀 again??  Well, if I do, it’s because I am!  And I got no shame in my game.  So last Sunday night, when I was watching 📺 the mid-season 6 premiere of the show, I got a little emotional over the “W” man scene in the episode.  It was really the first time in the show where we got an emotional connection to a supporting role villain 👿 through a main character’s storyline.  And just when we wanted to hate this villain the most, he risked his own life to save the life of one of the good guys (who he had just minutes before taken captive).  And in case we thought there were selfish motivations behind his actions, moments later, after he is shot several times in the gut, instead of falling to his death, he selflessly makes one final heroic move to grab a walker 💀 and allow his prisoner to make a run to safety.  👼 Given the overall intensity of this episode, I got a little emotional during this scene (and pretty much every other one, to be honest 😩) and was beyond excited, maybe even relieved, when the actor who plays the “W” man, Benedict Samuels, appeared on The Talking Dead. 🙌

Ok, now I know what you’re thinking… And I promise you this isn’t just some creepy . . .

cauliflower crust pesto pizza

cauliflower crust pesto pizza

The Minnie Chef
Meals

🍕 Pizza… In honor of Glenn from The Walking Dead because he’s supposed to be delivering pizzas right now, not being swarmed by a herd of flesh-eating zombies… 💀 Yesterday was 💘 Valentine’s Day, but more importantly it was the mid-season 6 premiere of the most amazing show to ever air on television…📺

I seriously don’t know what it is about this show, but I’ve never been so emotionally invested in a TV show before.  I literally get anxiety in anticipation of new episodes and sometimes even cry through them!  I know, I know, it’s jut a show… Trust me, I tell myself this all the time—I’m really trying to drive this point home.  But if you’re a Walking Dead fan . . .

 

Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate Caramels

The Minnie Chef
Sweet Treats

Fun Fact: The runner-up name for Zoey was Lucy after the much beloved Lucille Ball, America's favorite red head… I’m a HUGE fan of ‘I Love Lucy’ and have been since I was a little kid.  So much so that I wanted to name my firstborn after the star of the show! But her dad vetoed that idea…. And of course, as irony would have it, Zoey is a red-head!  

So anyway, there’s this one episode of the show in which Lucy and her partner in crime, Ethel, decide to swap roles with their husbands.  The ladies go out and get jobs, while the men stay home and do the homemaking.  Lucy and Ethel end up getting placed at a chocolate confectionery and, of course, their experience ends in complete comedic disaster.  The ladies fail at every task they’re assigned to.  Lucy had a go at dipping chocolate.  Thinking it would be a walk in the park, she aloofly mimicked the seasoned chocolate-dipping veteran next to her until . . .

Cookie Dough Bites

Cookie Dough Bites

The Minnie Chef
Sweet Treats

YES YES YES YAAAAAAAAS! Healthy things do come in scrumptious, decadent packages!  Now here’s where you’re gonna have to trust me.  Ok?  Look at that picture up there 👆… You know you want a bite of that… So, don’t go turning the page on me when I tell you that the main ingredient in this cookie dough is… dun dun dun . . .  

Load More