Spring salads are coming! Spring salads are coming! Depending on where you live in the country, you might be starting to see more colorful produce and interesting vegetables at your market. But if spring produce hasn't yet made its way to you, never fear. There's an easy way to amp up your seasonal salads by adding a dramatic pop of color and delicious crunch: black sesame seeds.

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Looking for something a little different from the usual crostini hors d'oeuvre? How about a sweet potato — sliced into rounds, roasted, and topped with a zingy miso sauce. It's a flavorsome little bite to whet the appetite, plus it's perfect for gluten-free and vegetarian folks.

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Party appetizer rut? Trying to impress the coworkers? Want to elevate date night to a whole new level? It may be time to break out the waffle iron. 

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"Go ahead and lick the spoon — there are no worries when you bake vegan!" As a guilty spoon-licker myself, reading this made me laugh out loud. I had to concede the point. These are the exact same decadent, caramel-drizzled, chocolatey, creamy desserts we know and love, but made without a single egg or drop of dairy milk entering the picture. Chloe Coscarelli won Food Network's Cupcake Wars with her vegan Chocolate Orange Cupcakes (yes, the recipe is in the book!), and with Chloe's Vegan Desserts, she shows us that cupcakes are just the tip of the iceberg.

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I just love a good egg salad sandwich: the creaminess of the eggs and mayo, the crunch of celery, the faint but not overwhelming tang of raw onion.  So perfect!  I go for egg salad when I want the simple, unchallenging comfort of nursery food.  Unless of course I'm feeling a little reckless, in which case out comes the curry powder. But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's nail the classic, uncomplicated egg salad recipe first.

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Remember when Odwalla's Superfood smoothie was the only green juice around? I'd buy it in the big jug size and marvel at just how tasty drinking my vegetables had become. But then I looked at the sugar content. Made from mostly fruit juices, it wasn't quite the health tonic I had hoped for. These days green juice packed with vegetables is all the rage, and can be made with a variety of ingredients, from the trendy kale to collard greens, mango, and cilantro. Read on for five recipes worth trying. More

Dinner parties don't have to be grand, formal affairs. Nor do they have to center around a big platter of meat. This easy, vibrant vegetarian spread feels special without the need for culinary fireworks. All you need is a few friends, a few chairs, and a free evening to bring everyone together.

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For many people, 2000 calories is around the number of calories you should consume in a day. But what does that even look like? BuzzFeed made a simple video to illustrate how many — or in some cases, how few — servings of various types of food equal 2000 calories. Ready to be surprised?

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A simple puréed soup is something I turn to often, usually relying on a creamy tomato, but lately I've been relying instead on a lightly-spiced cauliflower soup. Cauliflowers are easy to come by and quite inexpensive at the markets (in Seattle anyway), so as you sit and wait for true spring produce (peas, favas, asparagus!), this is a good recipe to tide you over. 

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Whether you choose the toppings or let your guests join in on the fun, pizzas and flatbreads are great crowd pleasers. I'm especially fond of socca, a chewy, crispy, gluten-free flatbread made from chickpea flour. As an appetizer or main course socca can be served plain or topped, like this one for spring. It features an herby, lemony pesto and fresh salad — plus it should even satisfy the worst dinner guest ever! 

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