I keep a long list of blog post ideas in my phone, all organized by season and event. I was scrolling through the list last week and an idea for buffalo roasted chickpeas I was saving for the Super Bowl jumped out at me. Life is short, and if this year has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t make plans that far in advance. So I grabbed life by the chickpeas and said let’s jump on this idea right now! Instead of serving them as a stand-alone snack, I roasted them and served them over a rice bowl with crumbled blue cheese, scallions and celery. I also mixed in a little leftover shredded chicken that I tossed in the same buffalo sauce, but you could easily omit that to make it a vegetarian meal. I love a little spice this time of year, but also pulled some of the chicken and chickpeas aside to serve buffalo-free for a kid-friendly dinner too. Get the full recipe below!
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There’s a chill in the autumn air and I am welcoming soup season with big open arms! I was digging into my recipe archives to pull out my favorite soup recipes to start cycling through them on the weekends, and thought I’d share a round up of 5 popular soups that I come back to year after year. From hearty potato leek to veggie-packed sweet squash soups to spicy sausage and tortellini, there’s a soup for everyone — scroll down to see my favorites!
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If I’m ever stumped about what to make for dinner and ask my husband if he has any ideas, 100% of the time he answers with “what about tacos or fajitas?” It’s the perfect answer because everyone is happy when tacos or fajitas are on the menu! I like to take some inspiration from #DomestikateGrazingBoards series and turn taco night into a big, serve-yourself, DIY fajita salad board so that everyone can pick their favorite ingredients and assemble their own fajita salad bowl, served on top of my favorite Little Leaf Farms lettuce!
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We did the autumn in New England thing last weekend and hit the orchard for some picturesque apple picking! It was perfect weather and so early in the season that the trees were bursting with big red apples. Every year we come home with a big bag of apples, and I stare at them wondering how we’ll manage to eat them all! It’s a great creative challenge though, to brainstorm ways to use them in smoothies and crumbles, baking them into pies and turning them into sweet apple butter. This year I decided to work on an apple muffin recipe and managed to sneak some shredded zucchini in for a certain veggie-resistant toddler. The muffins were topped with dark chocolate chips, a peace offering for sneaking that zucchini in! We’ve been grabbing these for snacks and breakfast all week long; scroll down for the full recipe.
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I am craving alllllllll the fall flavors, and I may have found a way to jam pack them into a single bite of this flatbread pizza! The inspiration for this tasty autumnal slice was leftover goat cheese I had taunting me in my fridge — what to do with it, what to do with it? I’ll tell you what I did with it: I popped it in my food processor and blended it with pumpkin puree and honey to make the most deliciously sweet pumpkin goat cheese that I spread out over the flatbread crust. For the crust I used a pre-made flatbread (this brand!), but any crust would work. Then I topped my creamy pumpkin-goat cheese base with crumbled sausage, sautéed onions, roasted delicata squash, and some fresh sage to finish it off. The best part is that it was easy to make, perfect for a shareable weekend snack or easy weeknight dinner! 
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I shared a picture on my instagram page recently of my end-of-summer veggie garden bounty, and the thing that I’ve been most proud of are the eggplants I grew this year! Also in my garden basket was a handful of leaves cut from freshly planted kale and a few last juicy summer tomatoes. The combination of ingredients plucked fresh from the dirt was my inspiration for this dish. I crisped up the eggplant with a light breading and then layered it with a flavorful, seasoned parmesan and ricotta combo. Then I topped it with the burst tomatoes and kale that had been sautéed with garlic. It was so simple, so good, and I love how the dish brought out the flavors of each of the veggies (the crispy eggplant — that I’m so proud of — was the star of the show). Scroll down for the full recipe!
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One of my favorite publications, EatingWell magazine, is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary issue this month. I love the magazine and have had the pleasure of collaborating with them before so I’m super excited to be joining in the anniversary celebrations and sharing some of my favorite features and recipes in the issue. 
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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Shaw’s Supermarket. All opinions, images, and content are my own.
I love to serve a giant, overflowing, themed grazing board when I entertain friends and family. But these days, “entertaining” obviously looks quite different. If we have gathered at all in the past few months, it’s been in very small groups with lots of considerations for safety and social distancing. I’m always up for the challenge of getting creative with gatherings though, no matter how small or different they may be from what we’re accustomed to. My friends at Shaw’s Supermarkets shared some of their exclusive Open Nature® line with me, and it felt like the perfect opportunity to rethink my large-scale grazing boards for our new normal.
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With summer coming to a close (ugh!) I’m making use of every last second of the season by grilling and eating al fresco as often as possible. I have been honing my grilling skills this summer thanks to my new Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub – see my green goddess grilled chicken recipe and my mango-peach grilled pork tenderloin – and have been trying to expand my menu with new grilled dinner ideas. The tomatoes and basil in my veggie garden are still going strong and served as inspiration for this bright, fresh dish: grilled cedar plank salmon with pesto.
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If you have been around here for a while, you have heard me tout my love for al fresco chicken sausage. It’s a staple in our fridge for quick weeknight dinners when I don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen (a little secret about being a food blogger: when you cook all day for work sometimes the last thing you want to think about is what to make for dinner!). When my friends at al fresco chicken shared their first taste of their new line of chicken burgers I was eager to give them a try. We’ve been making an effort to cut most red meat out of our diet this year to lessen our impact on the environment, so a chicken burger swap for summer grilling was a welcome menu addition! 
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