IT ALL STARTED IN ITALY. When my husband and I moved to Rome four and a half years ago, I didn’t speak a word of Italian (yet) and found the grocery stores mystifying. A bit more produce, infinitely more cheese and much less in the way of processed foods, almost none that I recognized anyway….
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:…
how to get kids to try new foods: 5 questions with Melissa Lanz, author of “The Fresh 20”
I’LL ADMIT IT. I’m not great at planning a menu in advance. Buying a bunch of sweet potatoes then getting home to realize that we already have a pile in the pantry? I’m pretty good at that. Figuring out how to use that third leek, the one that always seems to come in the bunch?…









