These red and green enchiladas are inspired by my trips to Santa Fe, New Mexico! I love visiting Santa Fe for my fill of saucy burritos, enchiladas and breakfast dishes. Whenever the server asks if I want red sauce, green sauce or both, the answer is always both. They call it Christmas-style or divorciadas (divorced).

Coming to you just in time for Christmas or Christmas Eve dinner, these enchiladas are a festive and delicious main dish. They’re stuffed with vibrant vegetables, spinach, black beans, and enough cheese to qualify as a holiday meal.

I’ve been keeping this recipe on reserve for the holidays, and I just now realized that I poured the enchilada sauce in the wrong fashion. In Santa Fe, they split the sauce down the middle of the enchiladas, so each enchilada features both red and green sauce. Although, my way may be a little easier to distribute (and you can always just eat two enchiladas to get one of each)!

Do as you wish—the ingredients and quantities will remain the same. You’ll find side dish suggestions to round out your meal below. Wishing you a healthy and happy holiday season!

Watch How to Make Christmas Enchiladas

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I used to be skeptical of vegan lasagna—could it really be that good? This recipe is proof that yes, it really can. This vegan lasagna tastes as good as it looks.

My husband, who has a major weakness for creamy pastas, also found the concept of a cheese-less lasagna questionable. I figured this recipe would convince him, so I brought some home and put it in the fridge. I soon found the man in the kitchen, going back for seconds. Then thirds.

If you’ve been paying very close attention to my recipe substitution notes over the years, you may have tried this technique already. It’s based on the vegan variation of the cheesy roasted eggplant lasagna in my cookbook, Love Real Food (page 163). I shared the concept in my classic vegetarian lasagna recipe, too.

Today, I wanted to show you the results with photographic proof. If you’re in the mood for a dairy-free alternative to traditional cheesy lasagna, this recipe is for you.

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Have you ever tried roasting your mushrooms? I discovered during the making of my cookbook that roasting not-so-fancy mushrooms condenses their flavors into gourmet territory. They transform from spongy raw fungi into tender, richly flavored umami bombs along the way.

I understand that mushrooms aren’t for everyone (sometimes, they’re not even for me), but I’m into these roasted mushrooms. For those of you who are on the fence when it comes to mushrooms, I hope this recipe brings you over to my side.

This recipe is a great side dish or light meal. First, I roasted up some cremini mushrooms, also known as baby bella mushrooms (they’re young portobellos—get it?). Then I served the roasted mushrooms, with all of their delicious mushroom juices, on a bed of herbed quinoa. A squeeze of lemon juice and sprinkle of pepitas rounds out the flavors and textures.

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Hallelujah! I finished my cookbook. Photos are finalized and uploaded; every sentence has been double-checked for accuracy. We even made “Cookie + Kate” bigger on the cover, thanks to your feedback. I can’t wait for you to see it on May 16th!

The minute I sent off the final draft of my book, I started plotting my next vacation. I’ve felt tied to the book project for the past year and a half, both mentally and physically. As rewarding as it’s been to produce a book that I’m 100 percent proud of, it’s been way too long since I got a break—a real, true, mind-clearing break.

On my list for this year? A yoga retreat in Morocco (booked!), exploring Costa Rica with Grandma Virginia (she’s been dying to go), and who knows, maybe Southeast Asia or Iceland for good measure. Is that too much? The answer I’m looking for is, “No!” I’m suffering from a serious case of wanderlust and a palpable sense of urgency to go now—right now, post-cookbook, while I’m still young and fancy-free.

To appease my travel cravings for now, I’m cooking up some exotic recipes in my kitchen, including Vietnamese pho. It’s hot, comforting and fresh, and fills the house with warming aromas of cinnamon, anise, cloves and ginger.

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Did you grow up with green bean casserole on your Thanksgiving table? I actually did not. If we were at Grandma’s house, she made her usual green bean side with home-grown green beans, bacon and onions, which I refused to eat because I only liked canned green beans. C’mon, little Kate. If we were at our house, Mom heated up canned green beans with nothing else, which was exactly how I liked them.

Turkey and Great Grandmother Lucille’s twice-baked cream cheese mashed potatoes recipe were constants either way. I really need to figure out a more redeeming version of that recipe, because it puts all other mashed potatoes to shame.

My first experience making green bean casserole was in college when I signed up to make it on our Friendsgiving menu list, for reasons that I still can’t explain. This was before I knew how to cook, so I Googled the recipe and went with one of the top picks.

Canned mushroom soup, canned green beans, canned fried onions. Easy enough to manage, but I was put off by the canned mushroom soup. I didn’t like the final result much, but my friends did, probably because that’s what they had grown up eating.

That’s the extent of my green bean casserole story, until now! I have a mostly homemade green bean casserole recipe for you that’s made with fresh green beans and mushrooms (over 2 pounds of them). I love it. The rich mushroom flavor really shines through and makes this vegetarian casserole dish taste spectacular.

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If you’re in the market for an awkward experience, try editing mushroom risotto pictures on an airplane. I caught the sweet older gentleman in the window seat eyeing my screen while I zoomed in and out on ambiguous brown mush. I hunched over and tried to use my hair as a shield. Didn’t work. I hope he likes risotto?

This dish may not be a looker, but good gracious, it’s delicious. So delicious that I had to stop myself from inhaling the whole pot of risotto while it was still hot. So delicious that I ate it for breakfast three days in a row because it sounded better than anything else. So delicious that you should definitely make this risotto on date night.

I’ve had mushroom risotto on my list since girls’ night a while back. My friend was out of white rice, so she used short-grain brown rice, which took a LOT of stirring and absolutely forever to cook (seriously, over twice as long as white rice). Fortunately, we had plenty of wine to sip in the meantime. We finally sat down around the table with bowls of mushroom risotto, fresh salads and more wine before us.

That brown rice risotto blew away all the other risotto I’d ever tasted. Brown rice risotto is inherently more flavorful, with a light nuttiness and tender bite that pairs perfectly with sautéed mushrooms.

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This weekend was full of parties and good cheer. It started with a bang on Friday, when my friends surprised me with a birthday party! I thought I was meeting one friend for dinner, but to my shock and delight, eight smiling faces were waiting for me when I arrived.

My birthday is on Christmas and I haven’t had a proper birthday celebration in, oh, almost a decade, so it meant the world to me. I’m actually looking forward to my real birthday now. And, now that I am no longer filled with Christmas baby bitterness, I might stop being a Scrooge and actually pull out some holiday decorations.

My friend Tessa served her version of this quiche at girls’ night a couple of months ago. Two of the four of us are gluten-free, so we often serve simple, vegetarian frittatas that satisfy all four of us. (Add a bottle of wine, maybe a side salad and some chocolate for desert, and we’ve made a gourmet meal with minimal effort.)

That night, Tessa included an almond meal crust, which turned her baked frittata into a quiche. I’ve never been a big fan of all-purpose flour crusts, but this crisp, savory, herbed crust is another story. We all absolutely loved the flavor and texture of the crust and requested the recipe. The best part? You don’t even need a rolling pin to make it. Just smush the crust into form with your fingers.

I’ve been working on a larger scale version that can be baked in a cast iron skillet ever since. My final, favorite version starts with a garlicky thyme and almond meal crust, which is filled with scrambled eggs, goat cheese, mushrooms and arugula. It’s fresh, filling and simple—perfect for a holiday brunch or a simple weeknight dinner.

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I’ve been craving comfort foods lately. Pasta with marinara sauce has been a favorite since childhood, though in adult years I’ve added loads of veggies and, oddly enough, lentils to the mix.

I’ve never been a traditional meatball eater and probably never will, but this lentil “meatball” recipe appeals to me as a hearty vegetarian alternative.

Whenever I take a hiatus from blogging, I tend to overthink the recipe that announces my return. I take that back, I overthink every recipe (from the accessibility of the ingredients to the practicality of the steps, all while struggling with my compulsive drive to try every possible variation), but this one was particularly fueled by perfectionism and procrastination.

I liked the idea of lentil meatballs with lots of mushrooms and a relatively small proportion of gluten-free oats instead of the standard bread crumbs. (I like to make homemade bread crumbs, but it would add several more steps.)

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Sometimes I miss waiting tables and serving drinks. In my busiest moments at the restaurant, my thoughts were consumed with the tasks at hand. I furiously filled drink orders, slinging ice into shiny glasses and pouring liquor by the count in my head, steady as a metronome. I crossed the patio with three drinks in one hand and a water pitcher in the other. I ran to the back to change a keg and dragged the old one out like I had a million times before. My arms were stronger then.

There is satisfaction in a hard day’s work. My shifts were filled with smiles and thank you’s and inside jokes with my fellow waitresses in the corner. Each exchange came with instant gratification because I earned a little something for each drink delivered. At the end of the day, I left work with a wad of money in my wallet and kicked my feet up on the coffee table. I went home and I was done.

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I don’t know where to begin with these enchiladas, so I will say this: holy smokes, they are good. Stuffed with scrambled eggs, sautéed portobello mushrooms and roasted red pepper, and smothered in a spicy, smoky homemade roasted poblano sauce with a hint of cinnamon—they’re better than good. These enchiladas are truly incredible.

Like huevos rancheros, egg enchiladas great any time of day: breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner. The enchiladas do require some forethought, time and effort, but they are worth it tenfold. I highly suggest making them for brunch, say, tomorrow!

These enchiladas were inspired by one of our stops during the Cleveland food tour last month. That Saturday, we ate breakfast in a warm, cozy café called Lucky’s. It’s nestled in Tremont, an eclectic old neighborhood in Cleveland that’s full of great restaurants and art galleries. I had heard Lucky’s had been on The Food Channel’s Diner’s, Drive-Ins and Dives, but that didn’t mean much because I don’t watch TV (I’ve never seen the show). I knew Lucky’s was going to be good when I saw their garden beside the building. It’s built behind the cute patio in raised beds that are handicap accessible for volunteers.

After sitting down and drooling over the menu, the owner, Heather, stopped by our table and shared a bit of her background and her philosophy with us. Part of her mission statement is to “offer our customers an alternative to the mass produced by committing our passion for the craft to creating good wholesome food.” Outrageously good, wholesome food is what we got.

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