This was a delicious, healthy dinner that I made up on the fly. I knew I wanted something with lots of green, spring veggies, and I had a bit of leftover arugula pesto to use up. Plus, you can’t go wrong with a sauce made of wine, marscapone, butter, parm, and lemon! So I put my thinking/chef’s cap on and came up with the combo of pesto farro topped with creamy veggies. Perfect!

So many delicious flavors and textures in this meal! Layer 1: Lemony, garlicky Greek yogurt. Layer 2: Farro and kale. Layer 3: Spiced chickpeas and zucchini with thyme. Layer 4: Suuuper crispy feta. Layer 5: Fresh dill. So, so good!

Vegetarian burrito bowls for dinner! This meal was SO GOOD: Mexican farro (farro cooked with onion, garlic, spices, tomato, and chicken broth — plus corn, peas, and carrot), saucy beans (black beans cooked with onion, bell pepper, hatch chiles, garlic, spices, and tomato — plus cheese melted in), and spicy roasted cauliflower… all drizzled with spicy mayo sauce.

I topped a few salmon filets with leftover arugula pesto, and roasted them alongside halved zucchini sprinkled with parm. On the side, a big patch of farro mixed with grape tomatoes, fresh mozz, olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes, and balsamic.

Farro is my favorite grain — and it is especially good when simmered in chicken broth infused with garlic, red pepper flakes, oil and butter, thyme, and lemon zest. This risotto also has shredded zucchini, kale, lemon juice, parm, and fresh mozz cheese that I stirred in at the very end to melt. SO GOOD!

Tonight’s dinner: beans + greens + polenta! (See also: lemon, garlic, olive oil, parm, capers.) I love how comforting a big pot of creamy, savory polenta is, and the combination of cheesy polenta with bright and zippy lemon-spritzed kale, garlicky beans, and tangy capers is to die for.

Tonight’s very green dinner: farro, veggies (asparagus + zucchini), and our favorite homemade arugula pesto. This is a repeat meal, since we loved it so much the first time! Tonight we used asparagus and zucchini, but use whatever you have on hand — green beans, peas, grape tomatoes, spinach or kale would all be good!

Tonight was one of those lucky nights where I threw a bunch of ingredients together and came out with one of the BEST meals I’ve ever made. The stars of the show: butter and olive oil; shallot, garlic, and red pepper flakes; asparagus, kale, and peas; white wine; lemon zest and juice; and marscapone and parm.

This is the definition of comfort food for me. Buttery, parmesan polenta topped with creamy beans and greens and a flavorful Italian salsa verde. I could eat this every day.