Loaded Potato Salad with Bacon I swear, camping trips with friends is the only way to go. You split meal making and fire starting and kid wrangling. Someone remembers all the things you forgot. Someone else is ready with a pot of coffee when you haven't slept. Kids keep each other busy, and adults keep each other laughing. Conclusion: camping solo is for the birds. We eat meals in a wandering sort of way. Breakfast at one site, dinner at another. Snacks tossed out whenever kids are hungry (which is always). One of my favorite little memories of a recent trip is sitting around eating this potato salad with the adults while our kids rode bikes in Keep Reading
Caprese Skillet Eggs (one-pan, gluten-free recipe)
Caprese Skillet Eggs (gluten-free recipe) Most of my summer afternoons are spent around our half-deflated kiddie pool. Four little bodies splash and shriek, while I watch behind my sunglasses and hold a magazine (I never actually read it, I just look at the same sentence over and over). Their life is pretty much the kid version of an all-inclusive resort. I am the nurse-lifeguard-chef-concierge. I'm not sure why 5 o'clock surprises me every single day, but it does. We're out by the pool, doing our thing, and suddenly all these little people think they are starving. I am out of snacks. It's time for dinner. Fast. This dish is one of those summer Keep Reading
Basic Fruit Muffins with Streusel (great way to use fresh berries)
Strawberry Muffins with Streusel Topping I talked about how we can be frugal shoppers and a conscientous consumers all rolled into one. You may lean more to one end of the spectrum or the other, but there is definitely room in the zoo for a happy combination of both. In that post, I made the observation that, "Buying bum produce, no matter how cheap, is a waste of money." Michael Pollan calls it "voting with your fork." In other words, we send a message every time we buy food. Like most of you, I strive to buy quality produce in season. Generally this isn't a problem. No problem, that is, until those cartons of ridiculously red strawberries Keep Reading
Simple Kale Salad with Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette
Simple Kale Salad with Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette Back in January, I read that kale was so last year. Apparently this will be cauliflower's turn in the spotlight. Seriously, who decides this stuff? Is there some powerful vegetable lobby group in Washington? An Anna Wintour of the produce world? Some marketing experts doing vegetable focus groups? These are the questions that keep me up at night. So I set out to do some serious research Google it. It's true: cauliflower is the new kale. Just ask your friendly global culinary trendologist. I love a humble head of cauliflower as much as the next person, but I'm not ready to kick kale to the curb Keep Reading
Rhubarb almond cake recipe
Rhubarb Almond Cake My rhubarb will soon pop up from its winter hibernation. I love the bright splash of color it adds to the garden this time of year. Growing rhubarb is not a difficult task so it's great for beginning gardeners. It's one of those low maintenance, high yield plants that makes you look like you know what you're doing. Last year it was more like an ornamental shrub in our raised beds, though. I didn't use it in one single, solitary recipe for some reason! I'm determined to change that this year. And this recipe is a great place to start (Strawberry Rhubarb Pie is a good place to go next). It caught my eye as I was flipping Keep Reading
How to Make Homemade Chicken Stock
Homemade Chicken Stock Making homemade chicken stock is a super simple, versatile skill to have in your kitchen tool belt. In fact, if I had to pick just one frugal habit that consistently saves a significant amount of grocery money, while delivering a superior product, making homemade chicken stock would be it. If you are on a tight budget, trying to figure out how to cut back on expenses, food is a tough category. Your family is probably kind of attached to the whole 3-meals-a-day routine and beans & rice only get you so far. To make those grocery dollars stretch as far as possible, try this: At the beginning of the week, roast 2 chickens Keep Reading
Roasted Vegetable Winter Salad (gluten-free, dairy-free recipe)
Roasted Vegetable Winter Salad (gluten-free, dairy-free recipe) I used to be terrible at feeding myself lunch. I'd whip out lunch plates for my family like a short order cook at rush hour, but when it came to my own plate I rarely sat down to eat a real meal. I'd peck at some nuts and seeds or nibble on cheese and crackers like some kind of bird, while throwing in a load of laundry, emptying the dishwasher, and responding to three emails. Then I couldn't figure out why I was snappy and shaky and eating a fistful of chocolate chips at three in the afternoon. For the past month or so, I have been making a focused effort to eat a filling, nutritious Keep Reading