The Reluctant Vegetarian

10/25/2026

The verdict on tonight’s garden-to-table experiments? ALL delicious! 😋🌱
Chef Chew's Kitchen plant-based fried chicken, a cheesy garden okra and tomato bake with a buttery panko topping, and our little eggplant loaded with smashed garlic, herbs, avocado oil, and lemon. Add a creamy garlic-chili dipping sauce, and Sunday dinner is served! 🍆🧄

I love heading into the kitchen with a few ingredients, a loose plan, and an “I wonder if this would work…” attitude. Even better when the experiments turn into something we both enjoy!

Good food, homegrown goodness, and dinner with the hubster. My kind of Sunday. ❤️

10/25/2026

Okay friends, we love Chef Chew's Kitchen in our home!!!!! Our thanksgiving dinner last year was 100% from his kitchen and it was delicious!!!

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10/25/2026

Sunday dinner is turning into a little garden-to-table experiment! 🌱🍆

Chef Chew's Kitchen plant-based fried chicken is on the menu, alongside fresh garden okra tossed with eggs, mozzarella, tomatoes, a little chili pepper heat, and panko—then topped with more panko and melted plant-based butter. Because a crispy topping just makes sense. 😂

And that tiny eggplant? I gave it a little Hasselback-inspired treatment, tucked smashed garlic into the cuts, and added oregano, basil, garlic and onion powders, avocado oil, and a squeeze of lemon. Into a 400-degree oven it went!

Next up: a creamy garlic-chili dipping sauce for the chicken. A little spice, a little crunch, and some homegrown goodness for dinner with the hubster. ❤️

Still cooking…taste-test results to follow! 😋

10/25/2026

Oh. My. Goodness. This vegetarian lasagna soup is SO delicious! 🍅🌿🍷

Impossible ground beef and Italian sausage, fire-roasted tomatoes, spicy marinara, fresh herbs from my garden, and all that cheesy lasagna goodness in a bowl. My little addition? A half cup of red w**e added to the cooking onion and garlic. Yes, please!

The hubster and I have a new one for the dinner rotation. Pretty sure we’ll be looking forward to these leftovers! ❤️

10/12/2026

Enjoyed a weekend in NOLA with my Reluctant Vegetarian this weekend. Brunch with Ruby - Ruby Slipper, 2PhatVegans, Louisiana Pizza Kitchen, and Who Dat Coffee Cafe LLC had amazing food that I totally enjoyed!

10/12/2026

2PhatVegans your service was amazing (someone said my voice should be animated….squee) and the food was awesome!!!! Thank you for treating me like a princess while I enjoyed my Sammie on Saturday. Promise, I will be back!

10/01/2026

Dinner tonight was courtesy of HelloFresh, and I have to say… we’re pretty impressed.

We recently decided to give HelloFresh another try, and so far, every meal we’ve ordered has been delicious. Their vegetarian options have definitely elevated since the last time we tried them, which makes this mostly plant-based wife and her reluctant vegetarian hubster very happy.

Tonight was Maple-Sriracha Tofu & Grains with sweet potatoes, arugula, wild rice, lemon, and Vidalia onion dressing. And naturally, we put our own little spin on it because apparently following a recipe exactly is not how we operate. 😂 The tofu got some extra marinating love, and there was definitely some additional sriracha involved.

But one of the things we’re loving most is the portion size. We order meals for two, but realistically, we’re getting about 2.5 servings—which is PERFECT for us. We both get plenty for dinner, and one of us gets a really good lunch the next day.

No massive casserole lingering in the refrigerator. No eating the same thing four days in a row. No container shoved to the back of the fridge until we’re afraid to open it. Just dinner for us and a bonus lunch for one of us tomorrow.

And honestly, there’s something really nice about sitting down together, trying something different, eating a plant-forward meal we both genuinely enjoy, and not having to figure out what in the world we’re making for dinner after a long day.

When the reluctant vegetarian hubster happily eats the tofu too?

That’s how I know dinner was a success.

09/20/2026

Saturday comfort food.

Tonight’s experiment was slow-braised tofu cooked for three hours with celery, onions, carrots, red w**e and veggie stock, getting lovingly basted with that amazing broth every 30 minutes.

And those w**e-soaked veggies were WAY too good to waste, so I puréed them with more veggie broth and turned them into a rich gravy with plant-based milk, plant-based butter, garlic, salt and pepper. Then poured the whole glorious mess over homemade mashed potatoes.

The verdict? My resident reluctant vegetarian absolutely demolished his dinner. 😂❤️

We will DEFINITELY make this one again—with one upgrade: next time the tofu is getting a full 24-hour marinade before the slow braise. I can only imagine how much more of that red-w**e-and-herb goodness it will soak up.

Saturday night comfort food, plant-based style. And not a single person at this table felt like they were missing the meat.

09/11/2026

French Dip…without the beef. 🍄🧅🥖

Tonight’s experiment was a WIN! Portobello mushrooms and onions cooked down until deeply caramelized, piled onto toasted rolls, covered in melty provolone and served with a rich homemade au jus made from my own veggie broth.

Crispy fries for dipping because obviously. 😂

Plant-forward eating doesn’t have to mean giving up the foods we love—it just means getting a little creative with them. And THIS one is absolutely going into the repeat rotation. ❤️🌱

09/08/2026

It has been an extremely long and emotional week, and tonight I needed good, homemade food that was as nourishing for my brain and body as it was comforting for my soul.

Crispy pan-fried veggie dumplings piled over a huge salad with greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers and carrots, then topped with sesame seeds and a homemade ginger-garlic chili dressing. 🥟🥗

Nothing complicated. Nothing fancy. Just chopping vegetables, whisking a sauce, crisping dumplings in a pan and spending a little time in my kitchen.

Sometimes self-care isn’t a spa day or escaping from everything. Sometimes it’s simply recognizing that your body has carried you through a really damn hard week and saying, “Okay, tonight I’m going to feed you well.”

And this was SOOOO good. ❤️🥢