Food allergies never take a holiday, and after last year's smaller quarantine Thanksgiving , you may be trying to figure out how to work an unfamiliar food allergy into your meal planning for extended family. Fear not, intrepid chefs! As…
I tend to get meal planning burnout this time of year and fall back on easy recipes, with the same ingredients, which can get a little boring. So in an attempt to breathe some life into my meal planning adventures, I have decided to try …
I adore pumpkin spice but may have maxed out on it this year after enjoying it in everything from coffee to bagels to Cheerios ever since the first leaf turned red. But that doesn't mean I should back off on enjoying pumpkin on its own s…
Lately I've been on a journey to find easy sauces that work well for both meat lovers and vegetarians. Because though my family isn't always on the same page about meals, one thing I've learned from having a picky eater is that becoming …
It's been a busy week at my house: kids coming and going, appointments, schooling...my energy level for cooking has been (ahem) low. In fact, I'm currently testing different, exciting ways to tell my family, " Leftovers , again!" So, wit…
Whether you spend a day apple picking in the orchards or just can't resist the bags of apples at your local farmer's market, it's easy to get overrun in apples at this time of year. And after making pie, crumble, crisp, and even trying a…
With all the anxiety surrounding back-to-school , the last thing I need to be worrying about is coming up with 180 days of school lunch ideas, especially for my sandwich-averse teen. ( Seriously child? What's wrong with sandwiches?!? ) B…
It feels like life comes at us fast and hard at back to school season. The lazy days of summer are winding down, and there is an amped up level of stress as routines start back up. One thing that helps make things way less stressful for …
A few months ago, I decided to join our Cool Mom Picks WeTime project and plant my own vegetable garden. My rookie mistake was planting 6 mounds of zucchini seeds. I truly do not understand the remarkable ability of this little plant to …
My dad grilled up the most delicious, juicy burgers on his charcoal grill for July 4th, and he inspired me to plan to grill all our dinners next week. Cooking outside keeps the kitchen cooler. There's almost no cleanup. And, of course, w…
It's officially summer, as in officially too damn hot to cook out west where I live, so I'm thrilled to be sharing my actual menu plan for next week, which includes 5 weeknight meals for a heat wave. These are ideas you can use all summe…
My kids finished school two weeks ago, and I have comfortably settled into the slower pace of summer. To be honest, I'd rather spend my afternoons at the pool with the kids than meal planning , so I'm working on setting up meal rotation …
It seems a little surreal that we are heading into the last week of May! This time of year always seems so busy and overwhelming to me and having a week of meals planned out , including recipes that come together quickly , removes one th…
One of the simple things we can do to make the earth just a little healthier is to bring more plant-based foods into our diets. And I say this as an avowed burger eater. So in honor of Earth Day (but not just for Earth Day!) consider cho…
It's time to get that meal plan together for next week and I'm excited to share my meal plan ideas with you. And yes, this is my actual plan for my family of four will be eating. Maybe you make them all, or maybe they just give you a few…
You guys, it's light outside! After 5:00 pm! I can't believe it. I'm so excited, that I'm taking my family to the back porch for dinner every night this week, if possible. So I wanted to plan some easy dinners for the family that we can …
For this week's weekly meal plan, I'm going to be honest -- I've lost a bit of my passion for being in the kitchen over the last year. I know a lot of us are in the same boat. There have been no long, leisurely dinners in restaurants to …
Last week we were all about hiding veggies in our kids' dinners so they didn't even know they were eating them, but this week we want to focus on protein too. Do your kids pull all their toppings off pizza and just eat the crust, or snea…
I really wanted to write about tofu recipes for kids, because I know so many families who are trying to work more plant-based foods into their meal-planning these days. I also know it can be daunting; when my family switched to vegan-at-…
We have a lot going on in our family over the next few weeks, and I'm not going to be as available as I usually am to cook dinners. So I've been flipping through my recipe collecting and looking online for some of my favorite prep-ahead …
It seems like all the parents I know are looking for vegetarian meals for the family these days to incorporate more plant-based foods into their meal-planning. I mean hey, it's Veganuary right? Um, have you heard of Veganuary ? I know, i…
One of bright spots of 2020 is that I have discovered so many amazing new recipes for my family, stemming mainly from my newfound love for meal planning . Yes, meal planning! Who would have thought? Pre-Covid, I really was more of a wing…
Budget slow cooker dinner recipes are my whole mood right now. I don't know about you, but I'm short on time with the holidays here, not to mention all those holiday gifts taking a healthy bite out of my budget. So for this week's meal p…
So this week, seems I got my second wind, y'all. After struggling through a bit of a cooking slump last week (Thanksgiving tends to do that to me), I finally turned a corner and got inspired to test a few new recipes to add into my rotat…