Budget doesn’t have to mean brown bag

by Mir | Food + Recipes

Sure, you can pay all kinds of money for a fancy reusable lunch bag, but why would you when there’s Neela Bags. This purveyor of a variety of earth-friendly polypropylene reusables now offers their lunch tote as a $5 standalone product (edited to add: currently...

Organic baby food that could pass for homemade. We won’t tell.

by Carrie | Food + Recipes

My mother was the queen of homemade baby food. And while I admire her commitment and even bought a micro food processor to follow in her footsteps, more often than not I have to reach for something cooked, pureed, and packaged far from my home. I really do want to...

What I lack in wine knowledge I make up for with giftwrap

by Cool Mom Team | Food + Recipes

My wine snob sigOth has gently pointed out to me that it’s tacky to give wine in those mylar wine sleeves they have at the liquor store. Who knew? But when I showed him the absolutely wonderful PopTags wine tags, he smiled and said, “Now that’s...

Sneaky Chef to the Rescue: Cooking for kids with the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” method

by Cool Mom Team | Food + Recipes

When Missy Chase Lapine’s The Sneaky Chef appeared on the scene in ’07, I didn’t think I needed her help since my kids were pretty adventurous eaters. Shoot forward two years though and ho boy, do I need her. With her new book The Sneaky Chef to the...

Putting the ice cubes back into eco bottles

by Mir | Food + Recipes

I absolutely adore our reusable stainless steel water bottles — I love knowing nothing weird is leeching into what we drink, and I love how they look — but I really, really miss being able to put ice in my water bottle without a mallet. Not the worst of...

Everyone will cheer for Hip Hip Purees (even if they groan from the pun)

by Danielle | Food + Recipes

I am a stubborn mom, so I am going to continue to put vegetables on my kids’ plate at every meal, but I am practical enough to realize that they aren’t always been ingested. My son has been known to slide his plate down the table at maximum velocity while...

I can’t believe it’s not butter or eggs or nuts or high fructose corn syrup

by Cool Mom Team | Food + Recipes

I knew that I had found a winner with Home Free’s line of allergy-free treats when I stole the last cookie before the kids came back into the room for more. At that moment, I would never have guessed that there was anything “missing” from these...

Still Tasty – Answering the age old question, Does this mayo smell okay to you?

by Mir | Food + Recipes

I’m going to go out on a limb, here, and say that nothing strikes fear into my husband’s heart quite the same was as those three little words: Honey, smell this. Try as I might to keep track of what’s in our fridge and use it up in a timely manner,...

Plastic gets slightly less un-fantastic

by Mir | Food + Recipes

No matter how conscious we may be about the earth-unfriendliness of bottled water (how does 150 million pounds of plastic waste each year grab you?), we’ve all had that situation where we simply had to buy a bottle of water. For me, it always seems to happen at...

The gift that guarantees an invite at next year’s seder too

by Cool Mom Team | Food + Recipes

You weren’t going to bring a bottle of Manischewitz for Passover were you? Fine, your call. But me, I would be running to my nearest gourmet store to grab a box of Dark Chocolate Matzo from Vosges. It is seriously one of the most incredible things you have ever...

Watch your back, Jacques Pepin

by Danielle | Food + Recipes

My kids have grown up knowing how important food is to me, so it’s not surprising that they are both fascinated by the kitchen. Children’s cookbooks are a frequent gift at birthday and holiday time, but I’m usually very disappointed in how so many of...

Cake mixes for the cake mix haters among us

by Danielle | Food + Recipes

I’m one of those really obnoxious food snobs who turns up her nose at boxed cake mixes. But here’s my secret: I always kind of wished I was the type of person who didn’t. Mixes provide a lot fewer opportunities for giant messes, and they truly do...