Parmesan Crusted Baked Zucchini Fries

It’s important to me that you guys know that not every single zucchini I lay my hands on is turned into zoodles.
Sure I make A LOT of zoodles but I actually make a lot of other cool stuff with zucchini, such as patties, fritters, parmesan bake, crisps. Just to name a few.
Saying that I make only zoodles with zucchini it’s simplistic at best. And I don’t accept it.

To prove you wrong today I made some very yummy Parmesan Crusted Baked Zucchini Fries.
These are incredibly good. No like seriously incredibly good.
Not to mention low-carb and completely gluten-free.
Which means you can splurge on their cheesy, garlicky goodness and not feel guilty at all.

3-Ingredient Fudgy Chocolate Blender Brownies

Fudgy brownies or cakey brownies?
A question that has plagued many throughout time and that has sparked lively debates around kitchen tables, potlucks, and bake sales.
I know that opinions are opinions, but as far as I’m concerned I believe that the only way to make a brownie is a fudgy one.
If you want chocolate cake, make a cake.
Just don’t ask me to believe that your airy and light chocolate dessert is a brownie. That’s just chocolate cake, actually it’s a non-tall chocolate cake cut into squares (or a squared too short cake.)

(Vegan) Easy Red Curry Lentils

It’s sprrring people!
No, it’s not really. I lie.
It’s actually the 8th day of April and it doesn't feel like spring at all.
So far it’s been pretty chilly, which is very unusual and to be honest it's really testing my patience:
like an itch I can’t scratch,
like slow walkers,
like a popcorn kernel stuck between my teeth,
like when people don't say "thank you" after you've gone out of your way for them,
like when the cord on my headphones gets stuck somewhere, and the headphones get ripped out of my ears,
like pens that don't work though you can see that there is still ink in it, you shake it, then do the doodle to see that it works. But once you start writing again the pen just goes "HAHA TRICKED YOU!" and stops working again.
I think you got the idea of how infuriated that it’s not warm and sunny as it should be...

Homemade Blueberry Muffin Lärabar Balls

A great many people rightfully find the “make your energy bars at home” trend both unnecessary and incomprehensible.
Why spending (read this as wasting) time making like 100 bars when you can just buy the one you want in a easy-to-carry single-serving package?
I totally get it.
But I believe that there’s a time and place for everything and for me that time and place (currently trying to save a few bucks) is right now.

15 Delicious Vegan Recipes

Just in case there was anyone still out there mistaking me for some sort of food nazi dictating what others should eat and what they should call themselves based upon their diets, you should know that when it comes to food I really don’t care about labels or semantics.
Sure, lots of my recipes (more like a ton, okay, maybe all) are labeled as this OR that OR this and that OR this but not that. But my one and only concern is that the the food is real food, made from fresh ingredients and - more importantly - that it’s delicious.
Take these 15 recipes for instance, they’re vegan (and almost all are paleo) but what matters is that every single one is so yummy you won't even realize they're healthy too.

Say you enjoyed a few too many heavy meals over the past couple of days, time has come to lighten up a little with some wholesome meals, sweets, or snacks.
And for even more vegan recipes, check out my vegan recipe index.
If you make any of these recipes, please snap a picture and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #TheIronYou. You guys have NO idea how stoked I get when you do stuff like this!

So without further ado, here are 15 delicious vegan recipes:

Easy Zoodle Pie

If you haven’t been introduced yet to the concept of spaghetti pie/frittata let me break it down to you: a delicious mess of leftovers spaghetti, scrambled eggs, some Parmesan cheese, some mozzarella, and a handful of herbs.
Simple food at its best.
No fuss no muss.
Spaghetti pie is proof that leftovers can be used to make a second great yummy meal.

10 Minute Magic Italian Salsa Verde

Strangers from distant lands, friends of old let me introduce you to 10 Minute Magic Italian Salsa Verde.
A bold green sauce comes together in a flash and that it's loaded with parsley, capers, garlic, and some unlikely ingredients like eggs, anchovies, and vinegar.
I know it sounds weird and you might be thinking “Hold on a sec buddy, capers, eggs, and anchovies in a parsley based sauce? Really?”
Yup guys, you have to trust me on this one. This is sauce is really magic — or I wouldn’t have called it that.

(Paleo) Apple Pie In A Jar

The world of pie making abounds in legend, myth, tradition, and even cautionary tales.
Cracking the code on how to make the perfect pie crust is almost as complicated as solving the Sphinx's riddle or untie the Gordian knot.
Pie scientists will tell you that it’s all about the crust. Sure there’s the gooey sweet fruit that fills the cavern of your pie, but the best filling in the world won’t save a poor crust, turning an otherwise tasty pie into dishonorable failure.
It has to substantial enough that it doesn't sog-out from a juicy filling, but tender enough that it flakes in your mouth into buttery shards.

Spicy Honey-Garlic Roasted Cauliflower

Another day, another side dish.
This one’s epic.
So epic I will go as far as saying that this might be one of my favorite ways to enjoy cauliflower.
Which is kind of a big deal to me.
Because as you might know I eat a lot of cauliflower, like a LOT — to the point where I crave it like an addiction.

Honey Glazed Roasted Carrots

In the grand scheme of food blogging things, a recipe for standard roasted carrots may honestly be not that relevant.
Boring, mushy cooked carrots that you can find alongside every winter roast. Ho-hum.
But wait a sec!
These are anything but. And they certainly deserve better than to be passive-aggressively labeled as mundane, dull roasted carrots.

California Chicken Avocado and Red Quinoa Bowls

In the never-ending cross-country rivalry, the West Coast wins hands down when it comes to the weather — because you know of all the sunshine and low humidity.
And though I love me a good old cold snowy winter, whenever I see on social media a “friend” grilling outdoors wearing shorts, a tee, and a pair of flip-flops in February/March, I realize that The Mamas & Papas were right all along when they were singing: “I'd be safe and warm If I was in L.A.”
Seriously people, I feel the desperate need to flee the rain, the cold, the darkness. I want some sun-induced warmth. I want to be outdoors. I want to barbecue something. Anything really.

TIY's 15 Most Popular Recipes

The Internet is a strange (but awesome) place.
I’ve been at this blogging thing now for over four years and I still don’t understand many things that happen on TheIronYou (i.e., my blog).
I feel like I’m starting to know you guys better and that I’m able to predict the kind of recipes you’d like to see on here.
So I really don’t understand why one recipe goes viral while another one — that I believe is just as awesome — doesn’t.
It’s a mystery that I won’t ever really comprehend. I just have to accept it for what it is: some recipes become popular, others don’t. That’s just the way it is.
Still, when the Internet speaks, my job is to listen.
So without further ado, here, in order, are TheIronYou’s 15 most popular recipes of all time.
Not surprisingly there’s a lot of cauliflower crust, some curries, a couple of casserole, and even a pudding.
From 1 to 15, here they are!

Almond Flour Coconut Sugar Cookies

I guess I consider myself not a cookie kind of guy.
Since I was a kid, while my sisters would all line up for the first batch of fresh cookies out of the oven, I couldn’t have cared less.
Sure, I would put up a pretty good fight for a second serving of vanilla ice-cream; but cookies? Nah.
Don’t get me wrong I appreciate an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie just as much as the next guy but I’m not one of those people that goes crazy over cookies.
Still, for someone who’s not a cookie-holic I have to admit that I have a fair amount of cookie recipes on my blog.
Nothing crazy, but still you would need more than one hand to add it all up: Chocolate chunk, almond butter, gingerbread, thumbprint, stick, hazelnut, and shortbread, just to name a few.

Garlicky Potato and Spinach Patties

Happy Friday guys!
Does anyone else need a can (or a 12-pack) of beer?
I definitely do. I dunno about you, but I did a lot of dumb things this week.
Starting from losing my debit card.
This was a new card, my second in a year.
Every time I lose a card (anything important really) I’m like "This is it! This is the last time! I will be responsible and awesome from this day forward."
And, well, you know how that story ends...

(Vegan) Easy Chickpea Tikka Masala

I had a group of friends over for dinner on Saturday night. One of the guests was vegan, which I actually love because it’s always a bit of a challenge.
As I was planning the menu, I knew right away I wanted to make my super delicious Easy Pumpkin Masala that wins rave reviews and sometimes even a standing ovation (seriously, I am not kidding!)
I also wanted to make some tikka masala. But I couldn’t make my award-winning chicken tikka masala. Because, you know, chicken and THEN the gravy (made with yogurt or cream) - so yeah, not vegan at all.
But then I thought that it’s such a shame that vegans miss out on something delicious like tikka masala.
So I got down to it and made this delicious and vegan Easy Chickpea Tikka Masala.
Chicken is replaced with chickpeas (the meatiest legume ever) and coconut milk is used instead of heavy cream.

Grilled Vegetable Quesadillas with Kale Pesto

You guys probably don’t need a recipe for quesadillas.
A quesadilla — just like a grilled cheese — requires few ingredients and basic cooking technique.
Chances are, you probably already know how to make it without measuring out any ingredients.
Step one: Tortilla + cheese + stuff you like + a bit more of cheese + another tortilla.
Step two: griddle in butter.
Step three: wait, there’s no step three.
The only tricky part is flipping the quesadilla without it falling apart.
How many times have you tried to flip it over to cook on the other side and all the filling came out?
A hundred times? A thousand times? A million times?
Hold on a sec: how many quesadillas have you cooked in your life?

Vietnamese Pan-Grilled Sesame Beef

A couple of weeks ago, when the polar vortex — something that ought to be the name of a new breath mint, but is unfortunately anything but — descended upon us with its mighty fury, I made a Vietnamese dish for the first time in my life.
I know that the two events are totally unrelated and that anyone smarter than myself would bake something bubbly when the cold temperatures hit.
But that’s just not the way my brain works.
My thought process is so erratic and fragmented when it comes to cooking. It's a miracle that I can run an (almost successful) food blog.

Easy Baked Honey-Teriyaki Chicken

My love for teriyaki is real, runs deep, and it will never die.
Chances are you probably love it as much as I do.
If this is the case then I’m here to tell you that I’m willing to bet that you have right now in your pantry the ingredients to make this Easy Baked Honey-Teriyaki Chicken.
Bet accepted?

Pineapple Coconut Smoothie

It’s been a long while since I have posted a smoothie recipe here.
Too long, five months to be precise.

And I don’t want you to get the impression that I don’t care for smoothies anymore.
I still love smoothies and I make one nearly every day, even in this freezing cold February.
February, a month that I find rather difficult to fully embrace.
I don’t know if it’s because it has an inconsistent number of days. Normally, there are 28 days (already annoying), but then there's the leap year rule where an extra day is added every four years, so 29. Confusing.
February is also the last full month of winter, but it can be just as cold as January. Maybe even more so.
It teases us with warm days here and there and a little hope enters our hearts, but cold spells are still in the forecast. And when it does, it stings a little harder.

My Fave Breakfast Recipes

You probably already know that I’m not a morning person.
Never been. Never will.
I know that the way you start your morning off sets the tone for the entire day, but I’m not one of those persons who wakes up energized, refreshed, charged up, and ready to take on the world.
I, instead, wake up feeling grumpy and grouchy. I push the snooze button at least a hundred times. Seriously.

The only thing I love about mornings is breakfast.
Breakfast may be my favorite meal to cook because there’s nothing fussy about it.
Most of the time, I start my day with a fantastic smoothie (such as my awesome Immune-Boosting Blueberry Smoothie); sometimes I just want some solid food (apple + almond butter).
But then there those time when I want breakfast to be — you know — awesome, when that happens I turn to one of these ten recipes and start my day in the most legit way possible!