Labor Day has come and gone, and summer is almost over. That means that the peak season for mint is about to pass us by too. After visiting my grandmother's house this weekend—and raiding her garden, which mint has practically taken over—I decided to take advantage of the current abundance of one of my favorite herbs.

Of course, I had to use some of my mint stash for fresh mojitos—the refreshing cocktail made from rum, mint, lime, sugar, and soda water. If made properly, it is hands-down one of the best drinks ever.

For the rest of my mint, I wanted to stay away from desserts, in which mint is commonly used, and try something new. I settled on lemony-mint rice.

Rice laced with mint is a Greek dish that has many of the same flavors as dolmas, but without the grape leaves. The ingredients are not overpowering, which is perfect for a delicate type of rice like basmati.

At first, the mint in the rice seemed rather strange to me. Almost a dessert rice but not quite. But after a while, when the flavors came together—of course, I didn't let the rice sit long enough for that to happen before I started chowing down—it turned more to the savory side. The garlic, oil, salt, and pepper stood up to the mint and complemented it well.

Some people are cringing while others are cheering because football season is here again. Tonight is the NFL's season opener, and how can you watch football without a greasy, deep-fried, cheezy snack in your hand?

Last year I featured Game Day Potato Skins, which were topped with melted vegan cheese and soy bacon pieces, but this year I'm going to spice it up a bit with Hot! Hot! Hot! Jalapeño Poppers.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I was at my grandmother's house this past weekend and loaded up on fresh items from her garden. In addition to the mint I used here, I brought home a whole bag of jalapeños.

Supermarket jalapeños are rather lacking in heat these days, so I wasn't expecting the scorching heat that came from homegrown peppers. Yes, I'll admit that I can't handle my food too hot, but these peppers almost set my mouth on fire. To balance out the heat, I stuffed the peppers with vegan cream cheese and coated them with the thickest layer of cornmeal batter I could get to stick.

If you're making these as a game-day treat, you can adjust the filling and add various spices or even soy bacon bits. Enjoy the recipe—oh, and go, Saints!

I'm obviously on a comfort food kick these days. Thursday's post featured fried jalapeño poppers, and today I'm going with soy cream cheese and "bacon" stuffed mushrooms. I guess that's what football season will do to you.

This recipe is a very straightforward veganized version of a very popular recipe on All Recipes. The only difference is that I threw vegan bacon pieces into my soy cream cheese mixture—oh, and that I used soy cream cheese rather than a dairy product.

You can get fancy and use tempeh bacon or something similar, but I chose to use Bac-Os (yes, they're vegan), and it was delicious.

Enjoy!

Many vegetarians shy away from consuming too many faux meat products, which is totally understandable. Almost all of them are highly processed, which is something I, too, try to avoid. But I do think it's fun to try them all out at least once—especially the really weird ones.

While cruising through Trader Joe's the other day, I noticed a package of new (to me, anyway) soy chorizo. Of course, I had to try it.

It wasn't clearly marked as a replacement for Spanish or Mexican chorizo, so I decided to go in the Spanish direction and use it in a paella/risotto-like dish. Most recipes for chorizo Spanish rice call for sautéing the chorizo as the first step, but soy chorizo crumbles when heated and can easily become overcooked, so I threw mine in at the end. I also went with the poor man's saffron, turmeric, instead of the expensive stuff. The result was a rich dish with some kick from the spices in the soy chorizo.

I know vegan chorizo isn't that weird, and there are stranger faux meats out there. So, tell me about them! What have you tried? Did you love it, or did you hate it? Let us know.

Eating at a Lebanese restaurant last spring sparked a mild obsession with all things Middle Eastern for me. Since then, I've been unable to get enough of hummus, falafel, grape leaves, fava beans, and eggplant in just about any form, and it has inspired me to research lesser known dishes of the diverse cuisines. One I've found is a sweet potato salad that is both savory and salty.

Many of the sweet potato recipes I've come across involve cooking the sweet potatoes with cumin, ginger, and paprika, throwing in a healthy dose of oil and olives, then serving warm. I like to stick with most of this plan, but prefer to serve it chilled.

The sweet potato salad recipe below uses most of the ingredients mentioned above but also has yellow tomatoes, parsley, and lemon juice to lighten things up a bit. And when served chilled, it's the perfect end-of-summer treat. Enjoy!

Lentils—they don't seem like the most exotic ingredient to cook with, they don't scream "flavor!," and they have a bad rap as being hippie-ish '70s vegetarian food. But you should push all of those ideas out of your head because lentils, when used properly, can actually be the base for a delicious dish.

One of my favorite uses for lentils is in small, crispy cakes, and one of my favorite recipes for these is from VegCooking.com. You form the cakes with rice, veggies, and bread crumbs or flour, and then pan-fry until browned on the outside.

Many recipes for lentil cakes have an Indian flare, but this recipe goes in a different direction by omitting some of the usual Indian spices and by topping the cakes with a creamy horseradish-red pepper sauce that definitely has kick.

Most of us have tried lentil soup, but if you haven't tried lentils in any other recipes, then I suggest this one. Go ahead—give it a try!

There are few things I love more than chickpeas. For some people, that intense food love is reserved for chocolate or avocados, but for me it's chickpeas. I even love them in recipes that some would consider strange—wasabi-barbeque chickpeas, anyone?

I've realized my Asian-American hybrid chickpea dish really isn't that strange, because chickpeas are adaptable and can go well with just about any sauce. They work smothered in a light vinaigrette, in only olive oil and salt, in a little barbecue sauce, and especially in coconut milk or curry. A diverse little bean it is.

The curried chickpea recipe below is an extremely easy-to-make yet flavorful dish. The curry packs a punch, and the broth and cumin really add to the depth. Enjoy!

The transition from summer to fall in the South does not go unnoticed. It's the first time in months that you can go without AC and not break into a sweat immediately. It's the first time in months that you can even think about wearing a sweater. It's the first time in months that the words "I'm kind of chilly" have crossed your lips. After months of intense heat and humidity, these little moments stand out, and they all happened to me this weekend.

Here in Atlanta, we saw the first signs of fall, and they were beautiful! Of course, I took this as an opportunity to embrace foods I think of as "fall foods," such as soups, stews, and chilies. The first on my list was butternut squash soup.

The recipe below includes a step for creating your own vegetable broth—which I'll admit I never do because of cooking laziness—which was definitely worth it. The broth was fresher and not salty like prepackaged versions.

The spices in this recipe are very minimal—just salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste—so feel free to play around with it and add others. I can imagine a hint of sage might go well or even a hint of cinnamon. I'm not so sure about, say, cayenne or chipotle, but you never know!

Pasta salads can be made out of just about any ingredients you'd like. The only real requirement is that it has—you guessed it!—pasta as the base and some type of dressing. With even the word "dressing" open to interpretation, that means you're open to a seemingly endless list of possibilities for your pasta.

But even with about a bazillion options available to me, I still prefer to keep my pasta salad plain and simple. To me, there is little that is more satisfying than pasta with good olive oil, herbs, and salt, so I decided to turn this delicious combo into an easy pasta salad recipe over the weekend.

The ingredients and methods won't shock you—there's nothing outrageous here, just a simple recipe that has flavors that work incredibly well together.

Enjoy!

Today's potato recipe is sort of a Spanish variation of home fries. The potatoes are boiled until just tender—not too mushy or falling apart—then pan-fried with spices until nice and crispy.

Most home fries recipes I've seen contain just a few basic ingredients, like salt, pepper, oil, garlic, and onions, but this one uses other ingredients that are more common to Spanish cuisine—paprika, parsley, and turmeric. OK, saffron is technically the ingredient common to Spanish cuisine, and turmeric is just an inexpensive way to cheat.

The spices in this recipe give it a little more kick than most home fries, and the parsley adds unexpected freshness. Don't worry, though—the comfort of your typical home fries isn't lost. It still comes through because of the deliciously crispy and seasoned skin on the potatoes. Enjoy!

After asking my friend Michael what delicious recipe I should feature on the blog for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, I received, literally, five e-mails packed full of ideas. They ranged from round challah to mock gefilte fish to date honey. Surprisingly, the simplest recipe of the bunch stood out the most to me.

The idea of making my own vegan honey in order to replace that made from bees is something I've never even considered doing because store-bought replacements, like agave nectar, are now readily available. But with the start of the High Holidays here, I thought this would be the perfect time to give it a try.

The recipe I used to test the whole homemade-vegan-honey thing came from Leah at The Lilith Blog. It was surprisingly easy and quick to make, but the result wasn't how I remember honey being. And that isn't a bad thing.

The result was more of an apple-butter-like dip that was the perfect accompaniment for the apple slices I served it with; the combination is common to Rosh Hashanah feasts, and they signify the start of a sweet new year. You wouldn't want to add this to your tea—stick to the agave nectar for that—but it definitely could be used in baking. I bet it would even help with the binding in vegan recipes made without eggs.

Enjoy!