When I was living in Kansas City, my favorite place to eat was a luncheonette called Happy Gillis. Mismatched s&p shakers, great sandwich bread, epic chocolate chip cookies and the world's greatest chicken salad. I do not consider myself a chicken salad person. At all. But I love to ask what the staff loves and someone recommended this and I've never looked back. It's INCREDIBLE. I included a vegetarian option too!
I loved my Overnight Oats with Blueberry Milk so much that I started to get creative with more fruit milks in my overnight oats. And this tropical delight was a big WIN!! Mangoes are in season right now - you can use frozen ones or chop up fresh mango if you prefer. Cool oats are especially good in the summer when you don't want a bowl of hotness to start your day!
Rainy spring days have me wanting healthy soups. Not the dense soups of Fall but something both warm and bright. Enter SOUPA GREEN! A vegan Spring soup that uses the veggies of the season that just all happen to be green. Note - the peas and the splash of lemon juice MAKE this soup. I add beans for protein and some bite, you could also add a small pasta in this soup if you'd like to make it even heartier.
When asparagus is in season, this salad is a MUST. The bitter of the arugula goes so spectacularly with asparagus and the lemon makes every ingredient in here pop. Shrimp is a super easy protein to prepare, is amazing with avocado and has a lot of bang for its buck. Vegan friends can use a can of rinsed garbanzo beans and it’s an amazing, hearty salad for all!
This is a riff on a favorite recipe of mine that I make every week. Sometimes I change up the legume or the greens, other times I change up the grain. This version uses barley, a high-fiber (with decent protein!) grain that is most commonly used in soups but has a nutty flavor that makes it amazing in salads. These salads feel like "shoulder season" salads to me, where I'm ready to move out of the heavier foods of winter but not quite ready for the light salads of summer.
I held off for YEARS on making overnight oats. I didn't get it, oatmeal just doesn't take that much time or effort to cook and why would I ever want to eat oats cold anyway? I came across a recipe that included nut milk blended with frozen blueberries and since they are in my top 3 fave fruits, I finally bit and made my own version just to see if overnight oats are worth all the hype.
TikTok made the pasta version of this dish popular so I couldn't wait to give it a try and put my own spin on it by adding chickpeas, peppers and preserved lemons to the feta and tomatoes. You can eat this straight from the bowl or serve over pasta, a grain or with lavash, like I had it.
This bowl hits all the marks of being satisfying, healthy, easy, delicious and even gluten-free. Cauliflower rice is sautéed in coconut oil and combined with massaged kale for a strong veggie base. Add rotisserie chicken (or leave it off for a vegan version!) for a protein boost and then add the party of apples, cranberries and almonds. I added some cayenne-spiked date syrup to my usual balsamic dressing for this one but that may be hard to find. Consider adding a dash or two of cayenne powder to your dressing for a similar effect!
