The lead-up to Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of year. As a kid, I would spend hours sketching various possible designs for my Jack-o’-lantern, my mom would help brainstorm and create my costume, and my friends and I would swap tips on the best trick-or-treating routes. As I’ve gotten older, my love for Halloween remains, but mostly in a nostalgic sort of way, since my actual ...
garbanzo beans
Chickpea and Apricot Salad
This will come as a surprise to, well, approximately no one, but wow - wedding planning sure involves a lot of work! Things are slowly starting to move along, but I feel like my approach leaves a lot to be desired in the way of logic and order. ...
Mediterranean Rice Pilaf
A few weeks ago, after passing his defense and going from Mr. Cake Pants to Dr. Cake Pants, the fiancé moved to California to start a new job. One of the biggest changes for both of us (in terms of practical matters, anyway) has been making the transition to meal planning and cooking for one. Since I’m finding myself busier than ever, I’m not terribly keen on the idea of making partial recipes and ...
Chickpea Couscous Paella
When I was in high school, my Spanish teacher required all of his students to participate in a certain number of designated, off-campus “cultural events” each semester. Unfortunately, Señor (as we called him) completely dropped the ball on scheduling these events, and by the end of the year, he had only offered a fraction of the number we were supposed to attend. ...
Tzatziki Hummus
Having a routine is often beneficial. Routines provide structure and a certain amount of comfort—those of us with pets or small children know this especially well! But sometimes, routines can turn into ruts, and I find this to be particularly true when it comes to food. In order to prevent food burn-out—like my major aversion to turkey sandwiches, which I mentioned the other week—it’s important to ...
Mediterranean Chopped Salad
It’s always a challenge for me to put together quick, healthy dinners. I’m no good at planning a whole week’s menu and sticking to it, so when I go to the grocery store, I usually buy the ingredients for two or three specific recipes and then figure that I can create the remaining dinners from whatever happens to be on hand. ...
Chickpea and Cucumber Quinoa Bowls
I can’t believe that in the eight months that I’ve been writing this blog, I have yet to post any recipes for Indian food! Indian is one of my favorite cuisines, but of course, given the picky eater I was growing up, this wasn’t always the case. Sometime when I was in late elementary school or early middle school, my dad bought a few Indian cookbooks and would try out recipes on the weekends. ...
Chipotle and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Once while I was waiting in line at the grocery store, a lady behind me commented on the hummus I had in my basket. She said it was her favorite type of hummus but warned me about its addictive properties (and about how she regularly downed an entire package in one sitting) and asked if I’d tried it before. I had, and I mentioned that I like to eat it with vegetables, especially carrot sticks, ...
Milkless Monday: Hummus Salad
The summer after I graduated from college, I moved across the country and in preparation for the program I was about to start, I enrolled in an intensive language program—a year’s worth of material crammed into six short weeks (though at the time, it felt like an excruciatingly long six weeks). ...