Recipes, projects & products that don’t suck.

Welcome potluck guests! Have you had to change your shirt from all the drool yet? Today I am participating in the Virtual Vegan Potluck, which is basically a string of 100+ blogs all linked together with “forward” and “back” buttons/links to guide you through an online plant-based progressive dinner, if you will. You’ll be taken through eight courses, with several bloggers participating in each course. You are currently in the first course, Appetizers, which will be followed by Beverages, Bread, Salad, Sides, Soups, Main Dishes and Dessert. You’ll find links to the previous dish/blog and the next dish/blog at the bottom of this post. Most often on 86 Lemons, I test other people’s vegan recipes and report to my readers, letting them know if it’s…

Sometimes I get in a rut with salads and then I get sick of them. I need to change up the ingredients more often. Throw in a more fruity version like this one once in a while. Unless you’re like my dad who doesn’t like fruit in his garden salad. Then you’re just missing out, I guess. This post isn’t a recipe for a salad (it’s pretty easy to figure out the ingredients: spring salad mix, sliced strawberries, blueberries, cooked asparagus, pecans). Rather, I’m sharing the recipe for the magic ingredient–the DRESSING! This is a sweet, tangy, creamy dressing that is so easy to make. Just throw the ingredients into the blender and you’re done. Boring salad crisis averted. I found a similar recipe from…

This has nothing to do with this recipe, but can we just talk about The Bible miniseries on the History Channel for a second? Have you seen it? I had been hearing a lot about it. Last night, after getting home from a trunk show, I decided to go straight to bed because I was out of gas. Then I remembered this series and found it on On Demand. Hubs and I started watching it and couldn’t turn it off! We got about an hour into Episode 1 before we finally decided to call it a night. This five-part miniseries (10 hours total) debuted on March 3, so two of the episodes have already aired, with the third airing this Sunday at 8/7C. Also, the…

Just before Christmas, one of my friends from college gave birth to her second baby girl (a real doll, I might add!). This friend is among a group of five of us who all lived in a tiny blue house not too far from campus. Fortunately, we all still live within an hour or less from each other, so we manage to get together for dinners and beach days now and then. We’ve been through the college years together, then weddings, now kids. Of the five of us, four of us each have two kids. I, of course, am the exception with no kids (by choice). Actually, getting together with them and hearing about their lack of sleep, their frustrations with parenting, their constant feelings…

RECIPE: Vegan Mediterranean Rice Salad FROM: www.savvyvegetarian.com Our small group had a Mediterranean-themed potluck last month. When I googled something like “vegan mediterranean recipe,” I stumbled upon this awesome salad. And I’m SO glad I did! I’m also glad I found Savvy Vegetarian, which is full of really great vegetarian/vegan advice, recipes, articles, etc. Check out this link for useful vegetarian/vegan cooking tips. I love this salad so much that I’ve made it three times already. I mean I REALLY love it. I’m not a big fan of leftovers, but this salad is an exception. It keeps well in the fridge for a few days and tastes even better on day two. This is a great recipe to make ahead for a potluck, then serve…