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While everyone was stuffing their faces with cheese dip and pizza on Sunday, I was shopping for bathroom tile.  Being an adult = rough stuff.  The weekend wasn’t  total loss though, because I had my vegi-versary dinner party on Saturday.  (Side note: how many of you are wishing I’d shut up about my vegi-versary already?  It’s almost as bad as a birthday for me!)  There were some big highlights in the dinner (okay and one low light — these maple bourbon Brussels sprouts because I didn’t cook off any of the bourbon.  Each bite was like taking a shot, oopsies.  Follow the recipe as written and don’t try to take a shortcut and bake off the bourbon in the oven.  Doesn’t work). On to the highlights those.  These. Brownies.  I already...

Apologies in advance for a short post.  I’m feeling pretty not stellar and in desperate need of a nap.  I’m writing this post on Thursday night, but I’m assuming by the time anyone reads this, I’ll have emailed the winner of my 1 year blog-iversary giveaway!  So congrats whoever that is, I’ll probably put their name up in glitter or something whenever I get around to it 😉 This dip.  This.  Dip.  My friend made it for his New Year’s Eve party and I’ve never seen people clamor over veggies the way everyone did trying to get some broccoli drowned in this dip.  It’s like Ranch’s extra delicious cousin.  I immediately knew I had to get my hands on the recipe and then turned around and lightened it up.  Plus,...

Last call to enter my 1 year blog-iversary giveaway!  Ends Thursday, January 30th at 11:59 pm. While we’re talking about happy things: cupcakes.  I had a chocolate malt cake for my dad’s or my sister’s birthday in 2010 or 2011.  I thought about it almost every day until Josh’s birthday, 2012 when I made a chocolate malt cake.  Over a year after that, I’ve been LONG due for a chocolate malt cake.  Neither of my previous experiences with this cake have been terribly healthy, and I don’t think that cupcakes should always be 100% healthy.  Have to live a little, right?  Calories don’t count on birthdays, holidays, or Fridays.  Everybody knows that.  So, I split the difference and made this half healthy. Half healthy?  What’s half healthy?  Umm.. Well.  I used...

Ugh, Mondays, right?  I’m never ready for them.  In fact, I spend all day Sunday dreading Monday morning.  I love sleeping in and being lazy for just a little while.  When you’re lazy like me, a slow cooker is your best friend every day of the week but especially on Mondays.  I normally  use mine to make breakfast so I can sleep in just a little later, but I love making dinner too. The idea for a healthier slow cooker mac and cheese came to me last week when I needed to make something for a work potluck.  I hate work potlucks.  I either just bring my own food and go to be social or I try to bring something substantial enough that I can eat only that when there’s inevitably no other...

Shameless plug for my 1 year blog-iversary giveaway!  Go enter.  Win stuff. Not sure why, but I’ve been extra snacky lately.  Sometimes it’s sweet snacks, sometimes it’s salty snacks, but it’s always crunchy.  And preferably something I can eat by the handful without feeling too bad about it.  So… piles of cookies are out of the question.  Pretzels, on the other hand, are perfect. For my sister’s birthday party, she made Ranch flavored pretzels to put out.  As I inhaled a ridiculous amount of them (and watched everyone else around me do that same), I thought about making my own.  Honey mustard pretzels are always something I’ve enjoyed, but it’s so gross to look down the ingredients list in the store.  Plus, I’ve never found them I whole wheat form, so I...

Today’s a very exciting day for me — my 1 year blog-iversary!  I never guessed a year ago how much fun I would have with this little blog and how many fantastic other bloggers I would meet along the way.  More important to me than my blog-iversary, my 14th veg-iversary is on January 30th.  Yup.  FOURTEEN years.  If you count it back, you can figure out that I was 11 and it was Super Bowl Sunday 2000.  Weird day to pick?  Probably. The question I (and probably EVERY vegetarian in the world) get the most is “Why?!”.  This is something I never like getting in to — people either get offended or just straight up don’t want to hear the answer.  I will say that, now, my reasons are rooted...

You know when you start thinking about someone you haven’t spoken to in months and then suddenly they call you?  That’s how I felt for this month’s Recipe Redux.  I had just finished eating this pizza when I finally got around to checking the theme — pizza!  It was a sign that I should share this recipe, no matter how simple it may seem. How this seemingly weird pizza combo came to be:  Josh loves Brussels sprouts.  He regularly asks for this vegan buffalo mac and cheese, in part because it’s packed full of Brussels, but I secretly think that the fact that it’s vegan plays a part.  He loves cheese, don’t get me wrong, but he knows that I’ll never say no to a dish that tastes cheesy while...

I’ve had the idea for this pasta probably 40 separate times.  Whenever it popped into my head, I would think about how delicious and creative it would be — a quick Google search will show you, hundreds of other people have thought the same thing.  I promise you though, that this doesn’t make it any less delicious. While I love spinach and artichoke dip, it has always seemed like “We should have a vegetarian appetizer at this party — bring out the fatty, cheesy, dip!”.  I’m really, honestly not the kind of person that can turn down a dip, especially a cheesy one…. so I’m not really sure if I’m complaining here.  Let’s just read that as:  Kelly has eaten a LOT of spinach and artichoke dip.  (Note: don’t take that...

Mark it in your calendars – Josh gets an “I told you so”.  Ever since I met him in 2008, he has been going on and on about something called tater tot casserole.  The idea of something that is just ground beef, condensed cheese soup, and potatoes sends shivers up my spine.  Tater tots are definitely something I can get behind, though.  Fun fact:  I once received a bulk-sized package of frozen tater tots for Christmas.  They may or may not have included a note that said “Napoleon, give me some of your tots”. I probably should stop there.  But I’m going to keep going.  That was the year I was taking high school Chemistry.  We were paired up with a random classmate to make VSEPR models and for some reason,...

First, I want to apologize. I originally made this “chicken” salad back in August and have made it many times since then. The reason it hasn’t made an appearance yet is because I immediately inhale it before Josh can take pictures. Honestly, probably before I even assembled a decent looking sandwich. At least half goes directly into my mouth, no bread, no lettuce, no nothing. Don’t let tempeh scare you away. I know it can look pretty terrifying, but it really doesn’t have much flavor on its own, so it works pretty well in this salad with so many flavors. If I keep up the honesty from earlier, I should tell you I’ve never had real chicken salad. I’ve tried lots of recipes for vegetarian chicken salad, but they’re almost...