GOT LEFTOVER CHICKEN? Looking for ways to make cooking dinner easier (an endless pursuit around here)? We grilled up half a batch of chicken earlier in the week and saved this part for another dinner tonight as part of our 2-in-1 Dinners series. We’re cooking once, eating twice. I always eat leftovers for lunch but otherwise my…
2 Dinners in 1: Grilled Chicken Becomes Creamy Lemon Pasta and Peanut Ginger Stir-Fry
MAKING DINNER EVERY NIGHT ISN’T EASY. This, we know. One of my favorite new techniques for getting food on the table is actually cooking less. Yep. By cooking one base I can make at least two meals. We’ve done it with ground beef, rice and tomatoes in Stuffed Red Peppers, which later became the base…
want kids to eat more veggies? try a 3-dip taste test
SOME KIDS LOVE EATING VEGETABLES. And, this may totally surprise you, some don’t. But almost all kids love condiments. Sweet, salty, gooey? Check, check and check! For a fast vegetable dish or a nutritious snack, I set out a bunch of organic baby carrots plus three “dipping sauces”. These can be anything. From hummus (homemade or from…
Simple Seafood, a recipe excerpt from “100 Days of Real Food”
{Excerpted with permission from “100 Days of Real Food” by Lisa Leake} One great thing about having fish for dinner is that it doesn’t take long at all to cook. Served with a couple easy side dishes (such as roasted veggies, a salad, and/ or baked potatoes), this dish could quickly be whipped up for…
Mango Sorbet, a recipe excerpt from “100 Days of Real Food”
{Reprinted with permission from “100 Days of Real Food” by Lisa Leake. Enter to win 1 of 3 copies right now!} Sorbet is an extremely refreshing dessert, especially when it’s made with only a few simple ingredients, including fresh fruit. This is the perfect treat on a hot summer day or as a follow-up dish to…
Apple Sandwich, a recipe excerpt from “100 Days of Real Food”
{Reprinted with permission from “100 Days of Real Food” by Lisa Leake} If you’re looking for a way to make over your kid’s lunch (or your own!), here’s the answer. Sandwiches are no longer a bore if you just switch out the regular bread and use Cinnamon-Raisin Quick Bread, waffles, or even apples! Apple sandwiches…
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….
easy pasta with zucchini, tomatoes & fresh mozzarella cheese
THERE ARE TIMES WHEN I NEED TO MAKE DINNER FAST. Before the Clifford video runs out. Before 2-month old Violet starts wailing for her own dinner. Before I turn from Pretty Nice Mommy into Awfully Frazzled Mommy. That’s where a quick pasta dish full of fresh vegetables like this comes in handy. There’s also the…
1 dinner 3 ways: stuffed peppers with beef, tomatoes & rice
LAST NIGHT’S DINNER WAS A DISASTER. Sometimes I use a lot of smart strategies for making dinner quickly and easily, but not last night. There I was at 5:30pm, stirring a pot on the stove to make a vaguely Mexican dish I saw somewhere online. You know, the kind that’s not too spicy for the kids but still…
zucchini spice mini muffins
THERE IS A CERTAIN ZUCCHINI PATCH in my yard that is going totally crazy. Yours too? As a first-time gardener I am constantly amazed that more and more zucchini just keep appearing day after day, like magic. But now, after eating sauteed zucchini for dinner more times than my family would like, and baking five or…
oven baked barbecue chicken drumsticks
MY KIDS MAY LIVE IN THE SOUTH NOW, but they still aren’t huge fans of chicken. Not fried chicken, not BBQ chicken, not chicken in general. Chicken just isn’t nearly as big of a thing in Rome, where they were all born. Fast forward to our move to the States and these Euro-rascals, the ones…
peaches & creamsicles
REMEMBER HOW I HAVE MORE PEACHES THAN our kids have partially dressed baby dolls thrown all over the house? We’ve done a health(ier) peach crisp, no sugar peach roll-ups, and a whole-wheat pancake with wedges of juicy peaches lining the top. Then we got serious. Into our trusty blender went fresh peaches, half & half plus…
healthy chocolate zucchini cake
WE’VE BEEN MAKING THIS HEALTHY CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE (and chocolate zucchini muffins) every week. Each time I pluck a couple of zucchini from our garden, they’re shredded and bound for batter. The recipe is easy, delicious and packed with veggies, which is more than you can say for most cakes, right? It’s a riff on the…
lettuce wraps with steak & carrots
THERE ARE TIMES WHEN I JUST WANT TO TRY SOMETHING NEW. Despite how the kids might react. When I made lettuce wraps with steak and carrots, I knew there would be resistance from the knee-high critics but sometimes, every once in a while, I don’t care. If we agree that a win is when everyone tries a bit,…
peaches & cream fruit leather
IT ALL STARTED WHEN I ACCIDENTALLY BOUGHT 1 MILLION PEACHES. Or something close to it. Paul’s family was visiting from Florida over the 4th of July weekend. There were many conversations about who was getting peaches between his mom, his sister and me and here’s the shocker, I mixed up the info. One trip to the…
shrimp, feta & corn pizza
I KNOW, I KNOW. What’s wrong with pepperoni? Not single a thing. We just happen to have a 5-year-old major shrimp lover at our house, so when I saw a similar idea in a magazine recently, I gave it a shot. As usual, the adults liked it more than the kids, except for the one, but…
Whole-Wheat Baked Pancake with Fresh Peaches
I LOVE MARTHA STEWART, I JUST DO. Always have and I’m sure I always will. A version of this delicious pancake appeared in a recent issue of her magazine and with a bushel of peaches awaiting their orders in our garage, I was inspired to make a big pancake of our own–and think back to happy…
sauteed swiss chard with garlic & lemon
I KNOW. YOU THINK YOU DON’T LIKE THIS. And you’re probably SURE the kids don’t. But they just might! Ours do, and I’m as amazed as you are. This Swiss chard recipe is based on one of our favorite side dishes from Italy, bitter greens sauteed in olive oil. The kids love it. Plus there’s…
melon & mint ice pops
IF YOU HAVE A TEETHING TODDLER, you’ll know why I made frozen melon ice pops last week instead of just serving the little rascals a few wedges of cantaloupe. These cool treats certainly aren’t limited to those walking around with three fingers stuffed in their little mouths though. Our preschoolers were cheering when they saw these pops come…