THIS DISH SAVED THE SLOW COOKER from sudden death by way of donation or yard sale, whichever came first. After tons of weird soups and stringy meat dinners, I finally came up with a great slow cooker recipe that uses real food ingredients (no cans of soup, no gravy packets). With a recent move from Rome…
zucchini chocolate chip breakfast cookies
YEP, ZUCCHINI. Barbara Kingsolver wrote in her amazing book, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”, about the windfall of zucchini she had after planting her first garden. They had piles of the stuff everywhere, on every surface of the kitchen. That’s when her daughter decided to get drastic. Bake them into cookies, she said. And that’s just what…
a healthy twist on green eggs and ham
THIS IS ONE OF MY TRICKS. Since I try to cook (almost) every night, I take a shortcut and make breakfast for dinner about once a week. It’s always easy, usually inexpensive, handy because the ingredients are in the pantry–and best of all, the kids love it.
Our Most Popular Casserole Recipe Ever: Sausage, Rice, Zucchini & Cheese
PHOEBE WASN’T EXACTLY PLEASED. Suddenly my four-year-old is opposed to everything being combined into a one-pot dinner. “Only one thing?”, she asks as incredulously as only a preschooler can. And to that I say (at least in my head), “When you start doing the dishes my dear, we can use all the pans for every…
just add almond meal. a new (healthier) chocolate chip cookie recipe!
LIKE CAKE, COOKIES CAN ONLY BE SO “HEALTHY”. And that’s not really the point of them anyway. A treat is a treat, but with all the birthday parties and special celebrations going on during any given week, most of us are deeper in the throes of “cupcake creep” than we want to be. Enter the…
Michael Pollan’s vinegar chicken made easier and ALMOST kid-friendly
PROJECT “CLEAN OUT THE PANTRY” is officially underway! That’s right. We are finally, finally, at long last and just in time, moving into our new house. Which is good because I was going to pack up anyway, headed straight for the loony bin. Six months of temporary living among too many moving boxes and too…
one-pot roasted lemon chicken with green beans & potatoes
RIDICULOUSLY GOOD. And easy. And all the kids eat it. That’s what I have to say about this chicken recipe, the one making the rounds on Facebook right now (have you seen it?) that’s actually from Real Simple. And also this: We’ve had this recipe twice in the last week and might have it again….
homemade whole wheat apple bread
MUFFINS, YOU MAY HAVE MET YOUR MATCH. My mother-in-law sent us home from a recent Florida visit with a bread making machine, and boy have we been baking. I know it’s very 1996 to say it but, I love making bread in this thing! All you do is dump in ingredients, then wait. Um, I…
my 2 favorite recipes for kale chips
WE WERE LIVING IN ITALY WHEN IT ALL STARTED. The kale craze. I kept hearing about kale–how healthy kale was for kids, how skinny you’d be if you ate kale, how Gwyneth Paltrow and Tracy Anderson ate nothing but kale and look at how skinny they are. I couldn’t quite figure out how to say…
Chocolate Fudge Pops with Bananas & Avocado
WE HAD A LITTLE PREVIEW OF SUMMER for a while, and when the sun came out, we made these. To our chocolate-avocado-banana pudding, we added honey and milk then froze the whole thing in Popsicle molds. The taste is rich and creamy and the ingredients are only good for you.
making mac & cheese even kid-friendlier, definitely healthier
MY GOAL IS REAL FOOD. Less boxes, more produce. But all of this only matters if someone’s willing to eat it. And before all the “mmms” and “Thanks Mom”-ing can begin, some brave soul must be willing to make it. This is where I (try to) come in. With the mind of a mad scientist…
flourless black bean chocolate cake. yep. We
I HAVE A LIST OF TOP 5 FOODS. In fact, on one of our first dates, I asked Paul about his. With a sort of deer-in-the-headlights look, he shrugged and explained that he didn’t have such a list (he politely left out saying anything like “because I’m not 9”). No matter. Mine, I announced, were:…
pan-fried chicken Milanese, a family-friendly recipe from “The Fresh 20” by Melissa Lanz
THE THING ABOUT COOKING DINNER IS, the whole process can get complicated. Even daunting. What to make, when to get to the store, what to do with the rest of that huge bag of kale… One of the things that I’m enjoying about Melissa Lanz’s book, “The Fresh 20” (which you have an opportunity to…
how to make homemade baby food: my favorite 2 methods
IT’S SO EASY. Making baby food is not complicated but it is a little time consuming. Meaning, it takes longer than throwing a fistful of pouches into your grocery cart. And when it comes to buying baby food, there are certainly great options available these days. Organic and full of interesting combinations–carrots, apples and parsnips…
no-sugar strawberry apple fruit roll-ups (a homemade fruit leather recipe)
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN PHOEBE’S FAVORITE food was a “bar”. Any bar, as long as it came in a crinkly package with neat edges. I don’t have a small factory set up in my kitchen (though sometimes it feels that way), so when it comes to competing with packaged snacks my strategy is this:…
strawberry lemonade tiramisu, a dessert recipe from “The Yummy Mummy Kitchen”
SPRING, MEET A DESSERT MADE IN YOUR HONOR. Fresh from the pages of *The Yummy Mummy Kitchen, a beautiful kid-friendly cookbook, and the same one that we just happen to be giving two copies away (hint: enter now!), I’m delighted to share this pretty little treat by Marina Delio. So simple to prepare–it’s mostly stacking–I…
Homemade chicken strips
PICNIC FOOD DOESN’T GET better than this. I’ll just fess up immediately though: this pan-fried technique is more involved than the baked chicken nuggets we made a while ago. There’s oil popping and smoke billowing all over the place. Or maybe that’s just me. But this is for sure: the color is much darker, and…
10 kid-friendly ways to cook with quinoa: I asked, you answered!
IT STARTED WITH A DINNER FAIL. I tried to spice up what was a delicious quinoa dish full of sweet potatoes and roasted chicken–except this new version was terrible. Instead of chicken and sweet potatoes, I used pork and apples (you know, pork chops and applesauce?) and tried to combine everything into a handy one-pot…
kid-friendly crudite: personal veggie cups with dip
THANK YOU, PINTEREST. I loved this idea the moment I saw it. They did it for a party, I did it for dinner. Which meant my kids ate a bunch of vegetables for dinner. And they did it with smiles.
We have a Muffin Madness 2013 winner! The muffin recipe of the year is…
SO MANY DELICIOUS CHOICES, so few baking opportunities during nap time. Over the last few weeks, we tried something new in hopes of finding something new. New muffin recipes to be exact and with this six-pack we hit the jackpot.