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.