gwendolyn faith is not a crayon.

I threw together a sweet, fresh Strawberry Caprese Salad with Balsamic Reduction for dinner in less than 30 minutes, including the time I took to make another round of balsamic reduction after I scorched the first batch.

Simple, healthy and delicious — and destined to be even more delicious when tomatoes are actually in season! (Duh, Gwen.)

Lentil Ginger Coconut Soup | Adapted from The Bold Vegetarian Chef by Ken Charney

Making a more delicious or flavorful lentil soup may be humanly impossible. It’s that good, y’all.

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 T grapeseed oil
• 3 celery ribs, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 T minced fresh ginger
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t pepper
• 1/2 t each: ground cumin, coriander seeds, caraway seeds, paprika, ground mustard and ground cloves
• 1+1/2 c. lentils
• 1 can (14 oz.) unsweetened coconut milk
• 4 c. vegetable broth
• 1 T tomato paste
• 1 T apple cider vinegar
• 1 T lemon juice
• Hot sauce to taste
• Unsweetened grated coconut to serve

1. In a large soup pot, cook the onion in the grapeseed oil over medium heat until very soft and lightly browned, seven to ten minutes. Add the celery, carrot, ginger, salt and pepper. Continue to cook another two minutes.
2. Add the spice mix and cook, stirring, 10 to 20 seconds or until fragrant. Add the lentils, coconut milk, broth and tomato paste. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook, covered, for 30 to 40 minutes or until the lentils are soft.
3. Stir in the vinegar, lemon juice and hot sauce. Simmer another three minutes. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. Garnish the soup with grated coconut if desired.

I used Gourmet Garden ginger, the ginger in a tube you might’ve spotted in your grocery store’s refrigerated produce section. (“Our herbs are organically grown and are simply washed, chopped, blended and packed into tubes to maintain all their fresh taste and nutrition.”) At first I felt like a sell-out using tubed fresh spices, but the convenience factor won me over. And the ginger is grown without pesticides and has no artificial flavors or colors!

Jenna at Eat Live Run calls this salad her favorite salad. After one bite, I can say the same thing. A bed of greens topped with white balsamic vinegar, tahini sauce, Sriracha, crumbled veggie burger and goat cheese, an unexpected flavor combination that totally rocks Jenna’s my your everyone’s world.

Note: Be careful with the Sriracha! The red hot sauce looks gorgeous on the green salad, but you won’t care how pretty it looks when your mouth is aflame. And if you can’t find tahini sauce, mix 1 c. straight-up tahini with 1/4 c. lemon juice, four crushed garlic cloves, 3/4 c. water and salt to taste.

caramelized brussels sprouts, another way to prepare my favorite vegetable. next time i’ll cut back on the brown sugar; i used a half-pound of brussels sprouts with the two tablespoons of sugar the recipe called for, but the dish was still a little too sweet for my taste.

I went a little lot produce-happy when I grocery-shopped a few weeks ago, which left me scrambling to make dishes like baked orzo with roasted fennel and red pepper, mushroom rutabaga crema with roasted poblano pepper and pesto eggplant rollatine with roasted garlic tomato sauce before the vegetables expired — and scrambling to actually eat the dishes I’d made before the food got old. (I didn’t quite succeed with that last part.)

I almost gave up the ghost on the final dish I’d been planning to make, a gratin of cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. I didn’t feel like cooking. The cauliflower and Brussels sprouts were pushing their prime. Maybe I could just reheat the pesto eggplant rollatine for yet another night?

Then I remembered I love Brussels sprouts. And I love Ina Garten, the author of this recipe. And I love freshly-grated Parm and Swiss, which I’d bought for the gratin. So I powered through. I made the Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts Gratin. It was the best decision of my day. My week. I’m actually excited to eat the leftovers. I wish I were hungry now, just so I could eat the gratin again. Try it!

Notes: I used Swiss instead of gruyere because I’m a poor college student, and I cut back on the bread crumbs and ruox so I wouldn’t feel quite as guilty.

After weeks of waiting, I finally made Martha Stewart’s tomato cobbler: fresh cherry and Campari tomatoes and caramelized onion topped with rich Jarlsberg biscuits. (The original recipe calls for Gruyere, but I couldn’t justify spending $16 on a block of cheese. I hope there comes a day when I can!)

Preparing the biscuits made me miss my dad, who makes biscuits from scratch almost every Saturday when my brother and I are home. I love you, Daddy!

creamy quinoa primavera.

it’s what for [lunch and] dinner.

Bet you never thought lentils were pretty. But they are! Clarification: Lentils are pretty when Natalie Perry, the mastermind behind my favorite food blog, photographs them — like you see above. When I photographed my BBQ Lentils, they looked like monochromatic earth-toned mush, flattened down in a messy skillet with burnt bits falling over the edge onto the stove.

But that’s not the point. The point is: Spicy, tangy lentils that taste like BBQ baked beans!

And speaking of lentils, try Trader Joe’s Masala Lentil Dip! At some point, I’m going to recreate the dip in my own kitchen. I’ll keep you posted!

And speaking of Trader Joe’s, I don’t want to go back to a life without it. When I leave Chicago for Columbia, I’ll also be leaving affordable Zucchini & Butternut Squash Quinoa and frozen gnocchi, two of my current favorites. (I’ll just have to try my hand at gnocchi again and again. I’ve got a Smitten Kitchen recipe bookmarked!)