Kathy Hester's Blog, page 32

Quick and Easy Tofu Superfood Stir-fry: Made with an Eat Smart Sweet Kale Salad Kit

It can be hard to throw together a great weeknight meal. When you think of salad mixes or kits, you probably think of lettuce and not something to throw in a stir-fry. I’m really into the new Eat Smart Gourmet Vegetable Salad Kits because they are full of superfoods like kale, green cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, chicory, and other veggies that are wonderful raw or cooked.

Please note that this post was sponsored by Eat Smart as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central an...

Roasted Butternut Squash Burgers with Sabra Spread

I figured if you can have a cauliflower steak, I could make Roasted Butternut Squash Burgers. There’s nothing in it but seasoned butternut squash slices and you can freeze the extras or cut them up and use them in salads.

Just so you know, this post is sponsored by Sabra. I’m lucky to be one of their Sabra Tastemakers for the year and get to create fun recipes for them. 

Sabra has a new line of spreads and 2 of them are vegan! I used the garlic herb on my butternut squash veggie burger and I...

Vegan Blueberry Blintzes from Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking

Photo by Annie Shannon

I was so excited to get a review copy of Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking. I love The Shannons blog and always enjoy their recipes.

They do interesting recipes and make the steps simple and easy to understand, so that all cooks can give them a try.

I love the way they dive into old ways that people cooked vegan, like depression cakes when home cooks had no dairy or eggs available to them to make cakes.  There is also a price per serving on the recipes which is a great...

Veggie Quinoa Drop Biscuit from The Easy Vegan Cookbook

Photo by Ann Oliverio

Another Tuesday and another recipe from my new book, The Easy Vegan Cookbook, that comes out September 1st! This time it’s the recipe for my Veggie Quinoa Drop Biscuits.

I love making these whenever I have some leftover quinoa. In fact, I make a little extra quinoa just so I can make these biscuits. They even have carrots and greens added in for both color and nutrition.

It takes no time to whip up the batter and there’s absolutely no rolling involved! Just scoop the dou...

Creole Okra Corn Soup from The Easy Vegan Cookbook

Photo by Ann Oliverio

Here’s another recipe from my book, The Easy Vegan Cookbook. This is the perfect time of the year to make this Creole Okra Corn Soup while there’s still fresh okra and corn at the farmers market.

But don’t worry – you can make it in the dead of winter too. It works great with frozen corn and okra. You could even freeze some right now to beat the winter blues!

Make it on the stove-top or cook it all day in your slow cooker. This soup is just full of options.

The Easy Veg...

Enchanted Vanilla Pancakes with Chai-spiced Peach Compote

I seem to have made Fridays my “what’s for brunch” posting day. Honesty, I start thinking about weekend brunch on the deck from about Wednesday. Tomorrow I’m ready to make my Enchanted Vanilla Pancakes with Chai-spiced Peach Compote. I got fresh peaches in my CSA and they are ready to go!

These pancakes are enchanted with the nutrition of beans – which should make you rest easy feeding them to your family.  They also have whole wheat, oats, and ground flax-seed.

Why call them enchanted? It’s...

Mint Infused Vodka

This easy Mint Infused Vodka is adapted from Joni Newman’s Vanilla Mint Vodka recipe from Vegan Food Gifts. You can also infuse rum instead of vodka and have it mojito ready!

It seems too early to start making holiday gifts,  but summer is when the best herbs are ready to be used. Plus you get to have all your holiday gifts ready before the leaves start to change.

You could make a ton of variations on this recipe. Try making lemon vodka by using lemon verbena or lemon balm in place of the mi...

15-minute rustic pasta from The Homemade Vegan Pantry

Photo © 2015 by Eva Kolenko

I gave you a sneak peek into Miyoko Schinner’s new book, The Homemade Vegan Pantry, and shared a recipe for her amazing vegan ribs.  THen I noticed that her 15-minute rustic pasta recipe hadn’t made it to the blog tour yet and I knew I had to let you in on it!

(Disclaimer: I organized the blog tour for The Homemade Vegan Pantry and received a complimentary copy of the book. However, I was not paid to write this post and all the opinions are truly my own.)

It’s alwa...

Instant Pot Vegan Menu Plan: Quick Back to School Meals that Wow!

Even if you aren’t going off to school or don’t have kids, back to school time is great to start some new habits. It always feels a little bit like New Years, in that you get a clean start. It can be a busy time if you do have kids or classes, but this week’s menu plan should have you in and out of the kitchen in a flash!

This stress-free Instant Pot Vegan Menu Plan is my back to school present for you. The meals come together fast because they are all made in your Instant Pot!

I’ve also swi...

Make Your Own Fresh Blackberry Syrup

I used to love a blackberry green tea frappuccino from Starbuck’s. Of course, it’s long since discontinued. I’ve never been able to find a blackberry syrup at a store that came close, so I decided to make my own fresh blackberry syrup!

Unlike the store-bought ones that I thought tasted like weird chemicals, this recipes makes a syrup that tastes like real blackberries – imagine that!

You can make this in the dead of winter with frozen blackberries and even give a few bottles for holiday pre...