Homemade Taco Seasoning

Make this one time and you'll never buy those store-bought packets again (those things are packed with sodium anyway!). This seasoning is great for tacos, chili, fajitas, or whatever you'd like to make a little spicier. I just filled a jar and keep it in my pantry with the other spices, and it also makes a great gift. The recipe below gives you the spice ratio, and you can make as much or as little as you'd like.

Vegetarian Chili

Tonight was one of those nights where I have a lot of food in the house, but nothing to really make. So, I took a bunch of leftovers and things in my pantry and decided to make a chili. This is really easy (especially because I used a slow cooker), and because I used a meat substitute, your carnivorous friends will enjoy it as well. I made a small volume of chili, but you can multiply the recipe as much as you want! This recipe makes three to four servings.

Roasted Eggplant Rolls

This meal takes a little longer to make than some of the others that I post, but it is totally worth it. It's a great variation of eggplant parm (which I also adore). You can stuff the eggplant with whatever you'd like (in my case, just cheese), and you can serve as little or as many folks as you want. My specific recipe serves two, and is a variation of this recipe.

Vegetarian Biscuits and Gravy

There are only a few meaty dishes that I miss from my non-vegetarian days. Luckily, most of them have amazing meatless substitutes. This recipe definitely fits into that category. It makes 2-4 servings. The biscuit recipe is the same that I've used before and here is the original gravy recipe. Also, I really need to express how difficult to make photos of biscuits and gravy look appetizing. I hope they do it justice, because this was a very delicious dish.

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

I can't stop baking! Seriously. I think it's a problem. Because I still have homemade marmalade from a batch that a friend gave me, and given my baking problem, I decided to make a sweet, orange-y baked good. These were easy to throw together and you could make a lot of variations of it as well. Instead of chocolate chips, you could add cranberries, almonds, walnuts, whatever. This recipe makes about 15 cupcakes and is an adaptation of this original recipe.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

My mom used to always ask me to make these cookies for her when I was a kid, and since I saw her over the holidays, I just had to bake them. Of course, I used to make the prepackaged stuff when I was a kid, but I'd venture to say that the homemade version is even more delicious. This recipe makes two dozen extra-large cookies, or bunches of smaller ones (but I wouldn't know because I made super-big ones). Oh, and here's the original recipe, if you're interested.