This kid-friendly slow cooker chicken chili is one of the easiest dinners I’ve ever made. But it didn’t start out that way. Back when this chicken chili was a Barefoot Contessa recipe, there were more steps, fewer veggies and certainly more spices. But this DELICIOUS version couldn’t be simpler, or a bigger hit with my whole…
Corn Chowder with a Healthy Twist: Our Kids Call it “Rainbow Chowder”
That’s right, a healthier version of corn chowder with all the creamy goodness, plus a ton of fresh vegetables. What’s special about this corn chowder with a healthy twist Instead of cups of cream, we use chicken stock plus a cup of milk. But don’t worry! It’s still really creamy, thanks to those naturally starchy…
Look what happens when you change 1 thing About a Barefoot Contessa recipe: Bird’s Nest Macaroons!
Want an adorable dessert for your Easter table? How about one that’s actually a cinch to make–and the kids can even help? These coconut macaroons are adapted from one of my favorite Barefoot Contessa recipes, as part of our Barefoot for Babies series where we update the amazing Ina Garten’s ideas (along with a few…
How to Make Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese in 1 Hour
Have you ever made Marcella Hazan’s bolognese sauce? It’s amazing. But it takes almost 4 hours. If you have one, two, four or nine small kids at your house like I do, this just won’t work. So as part of my quest to introduce our kids to delicious food made from fresh ingredients, with tons of…
Ginger Peanut Noodles with Bell Peppers
These cold noodles are a summer staple. Because they are awesome. At least some of our kids think so. Use any shape of pasta your kids like and don’t worry about the flavor of whole-wheat pasta taking over because in this salad, that nutty whole-wheat taste holds up perfectly. Even better than regular pasta. These noodles are a simpler…
Low-Sugar Hummingbird Cake
It’s already been a year! We celebrated Violet Agnes’ first birthday in exactly the way you’d expect. With balloons, grandma visiting from the West coast and of course, a low-sugar birthday cake. This one is our version of a “hummingbird cake”, which Wikipedia calls “a banana pineapple spice cake common in the Southern United States”. My mom…
The tiny way we improved the already moist (and healthy!) cornbread our kids love
Is bacon. These bacon-topped cornbread squares are a riff on our already beloved makeover of Ina Garten’s cornbread. As with all of our Barefoot for Babies recipe makeovers, our version is healthier, sweetened with honey and packed with either wheat germ or ground flaxseed. But there’s also lots of plain yogurt and milk in there, resulting…
applesauce zucchini muffins
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU 12 CUPS OF SHREDDED ZUCCHINI, FRESH FROM THE GARDEN, YOU… If you’re a crazy person like me, you hit the kitchen and make zucchini muffins. Lots of muffins. Now these are not our first healthy zucchini muffins. (So far we’ve done zucchini spice muffins and a zucchini chocolate cake.) But they’re some of…
15-Minute Homemade Macaroni & Cheese
OBVIOUS CONFESSION COMING… I’M TOTALLY OVERWHELMED. Have I mentioned that before? It turns out that managing four kids under the age of six is hard, especially when you don’t get to sleep at night. I know you know that. The silly thing is, I didn’t know that. Or, I guess somehow I thought it wouldn’t be….
moroccan couscous made kid-friendly
REMEMBER WHEN YOU USED TO EAT ETHNIC FOOD? If you haven’t had a zesty international flavor from somewhere other than Taco Bell since before the kids were born, this one’s for you. I actually love Moroccan food but wondered how all those unfamiliar spices and unexpected ingredients would go over with my three knee-highs. So we…
low-sugar muffins with berries & ricotta cheese, a Food 52 Makeover
MOTHER’S DAY IS A TRICKY ONE. At least for me. I know the customary “gift” is something along the lines of breakfast in bed, but the only time I’ve eaten breakfast on a tray since becoming a mom has been inside a hospital, right after giving birth. Otherwise it’s off to the races starting around dawn ever since….
coconut pineapple mini-muffins, a Serious Eats recipe makeover
WE’VE BEEN MAKING A LOT OF LUNCHES around here. Foodlets Friday Lunch is a teeny, tiny pilot program that we started this spring. Every Friday I make lunch for the kids at Phoebe’s preschool and parents who are keen to buy one simply cover the costs. It’s not catering, not yet, but I hope it…
roasted lemon chicken with vegetables, the perfect make-at-nap-time dinner
RIGHT AROUND 5PM THINGS GET ROUGH at my house, maybe even 4. There’s too much whining and not nearly enough wine. That’s why I love to make dinner earlier in the day and let it just hang out — or in this case, roast away — until we’re ready. When the cranky hour arrives I…
super simple turkey pot pie (and yes, I cheated)
WHEN YOU HAVE A FRIDGE FULL OF TURKEY and a house full of guests, the best way to handle both is a big casserole of turkey pot pie, just like this one. It’s a new riff on the Barefoot Contessa’s chicken pot pie recipe we made over once (and still the number one recipe of…
tomato, basil & spinach soup with cheese tortellini (and bat croutons)
Dear Ina Garten, you know I love you and your amazing recipes, but I can no longer spend 45 minutes roasting tomatoes BEFORE the soup making process begins. That is because there are three small crazy people living in my house now. I can however, make a simpler (and healthier) version of your wonderful Roasted Tomato…
Ina Garten’s gazpacho becomes kid-friendly watermelon gazpacho
SOME RECIPES FOLLOW YOU wherever you go. The Barefoot Contessa’s gazpacho is one of them, and I’ve been making it longer than I’ve been a parent. Maybe even longer than I’ve known Paul. There were big batches blended up in small New York City apartments, at least as many in Rome and now our first…
peach crisp so good (and good for you) you’ll eat it for breakfast too
IF YOU WANT TO SCORE POINTS WITH THE RASCALS, serve them dessert for breakfast. Make it this dessert and you won’t even have to feel weird about it. It’s basically fresh fruit, oats, nuts, a little honey and yep, wheat germ.
Little Bit o’Spinach Shortbread Cookies for St. Patrick’s Day
OUR KIDS HAVE BEEN MISBEHAVING. I’m sure this never happens at your house, but this has been one of those weeks. We’ve had a whining, crying, tantrum-throwing, Pull-Up-removing time of it for days now. But this morning when Paul and I mentioned working toward a picnic dinner at the playground tonight, as in, we only…
Sauteed cabbage
I’VE EATEN CABBAGE QUITE A FEW TIMES, BUT ENJOYED IT EXACTLY TWICE. The first delicious cabbage I ate was many years ago when a friend with Irish roots (and her own Grandma Curley, just like I had) spent a full Saturday making “Boiled Dinner” for St. Patrick’s Day. Despite my own fairly Irish roots, I’d…
Lower-sugar, lower-fat golden yam brownies (An Allrecipes.com makeover)
THIS REQUEST CAME IN FROM ALASKA. Tricia, who is a mom to three boys living waaay up north, sent me a link via Facebook to these decadent treats with a healthy sounding name, Golden Yam Brownies on Allrecipes. She asked if I could do a healthier makeover. “My family LOVES it but it’s loaded with…