are tacos not the perfect meal??  you can eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner... even dessert! i swear i think i could live off tacos.. and it's always taco tuesday in my house.  🙌 these are my new favorite tacos and i can't stop making them or eating them!  they've got a little bit of savory, a little bit of heat and a little bit of sweet and the flavors of the sweet, nutty butternut squash and those from the savory beans and creamy, nutty avocado complement each other so well.

what's even better . . .

this has been one of my favorite go to meals lately!  it's so hearty, satisfying, healthy and so easy to make.  i can even make this for lunch in about 5 minutes if i save a half of pre-roasted squash in the fridge from the night before.  but this is one of those meals where the oven literally does all the work.  cut the squash in half, give it a quick season and throw it in the oven.  then just pile on the toppings, plop it back into the oven for another few minutes and enjoy!

Two ramen recipes back to back?? I know, I know, it's a lot, but you know that feeling you get when you discover something new that you really like?  Well, that's how I feel about these noodles.  They were such a great Costco find! 👏  So, yea I got inspired.  And I started craving stir fry/lo mein the other night, so I figured that these noodles would be a great healthier option for a veggie lo mein dish. . . 

Ok, don't we all have that one period of time in our lives where we practically lived off ramen noodles?  I used to love bringing a cup of noodles in my packed lunch during high school.  During lunch, I'd heat up a cup of tap water in the microwave in the college guidance office and pour it over those shriveled up dehydrated vegetables (if you can even call them that) and buttery noodles and mix it up with the most artificial seasoning packet there ever was.  And it was damn good. 

The Hurricane Bowl... Given the huge bullet we dodged this month that was Hurricane Matthew and the vibrant orange and green colors that represent my alma mater, The U, I couldn't think of a more appropriate name for this Autumnal dish. 

I have been obsessing over sweet potatoes and pumpkin seeds lately and have been adding them to anything and everything I can!  From oatmeal to sauteed greens, and salads to. . . 

This sauce though… 🙌  Back in high school I practically lived off of chop chops from chicken kitchen.   Someone tell me I’m not the only one who used to dump about 5 containers—more or less, probably more—of the Mustard-Curry sauce over my dish before devouring it… 😳  I mean, come on, it’s all about the sauce! 

The other day I was tinkering around with some ingredients in the kitchen to make a sauce for some kale and quinoa I had just made.  And with a jar of curry powder in hand . . .

☘ 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 . . .

🍕 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 . . .

Sooooo… this recipe has gotten rave reviews in my household.  My other half said that this falls into the category of his top five favorite meals… EVER.  And he eats a lot of pretty decent meals quite often, if I do say so myself.  😉 He said it reminds him of a vegetarian burrito bowl from Chipotle, but better… and I’d bet it’s significantly healthier too. The original recipe was made with white rice as a base, but recently I have tried it with brown rice and quinoa.  While I happen to prefer it with quinoa (it has the same great taste and I feel better about eating it knowing that it’s a little healthier than the rice), the general consensus in my household . . . 

Ok, so we're about to ring in the new year and that means New Year's Resolutions are coming our way quick!  So before we all start fresh in our commitment to eat healthy and exercise more, let's go out with a final shebang! Creamy. Pasta. Alfredo. 🎉

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m going to go ahead and let you all know right now that I did not intend to make an Alfredo sauce when I was concocting this recipe.  I was out having dinner with a friend recently, at one our favorite vegan spots, and she ordered a side of mac n’ cheese.  It wasn’t very good, and tasted nothing like my idea of mac n’ cheese.  She also told me about some boxed brands that she had tried with high hopes, but was let down by those also.  So the night after our dinner I got to thinking about . . .