Recently, a friend forwarded me an article (or was it a blog post?) written by a man who took control of his spending and started paying close attention to how he spent money. After years and years of living frugally, he cut himself some slack and realized that the habits he’d created were now ingrained and he didn’t need to log every single receipt or account for every penny in money management programs.

It was inspiring. It was promising. It was so interesting … and if I could remember who sent it to me and where I read it, I would totally share it with you. Sorry. I can’t.

In any case, where that writer was in terms of habits is not where I am. After a few weeks of trying to lighten up on My Spending Diet, I have fallen into old habits. Though my spending is down still, I have been too lax. We’ve gotten take out when we really didn’t need to. I’ve spent on days other than my designated day. It hasn’t been bank-breaking, but it’s enough for me to realize that I need to curb it. My good efforts could easily slip away if I don’t go back to the full-on spending diet. So, that’s what I am going to do. I just have to.

So, tomorrow I will do the shopping for the week. I will fill my gas tank and get every last thing we need. Then I won’t spend a dime until next Saturday. It just has to happen.

As for my meal plan … It will be posted on Sunday, if you want to check it out.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Photo credit: mconnors from morguefile.com

When I wrote that I was making Caramel Corn today on the Sarah’s Cucina Bella Facebook Fan Page, I didn’t expect the huge response that I got. Really, I didn’t. New voices chimed in to inquire about the recipe and share their experiences and likes … it was absolutely awesome.

So, I scraped plans to write about something else and instead decided to just share this recipe today. It’s adapted from a recipe a found on Tablespoon (where, in full disclosure, I write for the TBSPblog). I made some small changes, such as removing the nuts from the recipe and adding a little more salt … and it was fantastic.

It was also … and I fear that I say this too much … so incredibly easy. It’s so easy, and so much better than the store-bought stuff, that I will never buy it again. Seriously. Totally worth it.

Are you a caramel corn fan?

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Yesterday, I was having one of those days where no matter how much I got done, there seemed infinitely more to do. Work needed to be tended to, the kids needed attention, the dogs wanted lots of petting … and in the middle of all the chaos, I decided to take a cooking break.

It might sound a little strange: having so much to do and just stopping for something that wasn’t on the must-list. But sometimes stopping is just what you need to keep going. Know what I mean?

So, while the kids looked on and asked many, many questions (I love their thirst for knowledge and understanding!), I whipped up these bars. Though the recipe might seem a little on the long side, it’s actually really speedy to make. And it’s also super easy.

The results were these delicious bars with layers of graham, almonds, toffee and chocolate. The sprinkling of sea salt at the end really took these from really, really good to OMG great. In fact, I did something I never do yesterday: I emailed a friend and told her that these were so good and she had to make them too. Her immediate response? Asking for the recipe.

And yes, the whole family devoured them as dessert last night. They are just amazingly good.

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When I served our salad last night, I was a little apprehensive. Shawn isn’t a big fan of lemon so I wasn’t sure he’d even try this dressing. But he tasted it on one piece of lettuce and then dressed his whole salad with it. “Rosemary is really the star,” he remarked … and it is.

My whole family adores rosemary. The woody herb, with its pine-like needles, grows outside our front door in the summer time. I love being able to send the kids or Shawn out for a fresh, just-picked snippet. It was only natural that when I wanted to make a new dressing the other day, I would turn to rosemary.

Lemon and rosemary are a natural fit for each other, making a tart-bright dressing that holds its own against sharp ingredients. Shawn suggests grating some sharp provolone over a salad with this dressing. This would also be fab with feta, Kalamata olives and cucumbers on a bed of romaine.

I made this in my mortar and pestle, but if you don’t have one, it could be made in a mini food processor too. Just be sure to blend the rosemary, garlic and salt well before adding the lemon juice and oil. You may also want to pre-mince the rosemary, if you do it that way, to ensure that it gets sufficiently broken down.

Do you make your own salad dressing? What’s your favorite blend? Read the rest of this entry…

Will is a boy who loves food, loves making food and loves planning things related to food. So do I, but he’s only four. This evening, he decided that he wanted a part in the dinner planning. “Mommy, can we have pasta for dinner tonight,” he asked.

I plan our meals on the weekends, so dinner was already settled tonight. But switching out the planned couscous for pasta really wasn’t a big deal this time. Six out of seven days, my kids request pasta for one meal or another. I’d be lying if I said that I agreed all the time. We actually only have pasta once or twice a week. But sometimes, I am all for giving them what they want. Tonight seemed like a good time for that.

“We’re having Lemon Oregano Chicken and salad. I guess we could have pasta too. What do you want on it,” I asked him, half planning in my head how I might mix in some feta and lemon zest.

Will thought for a minute. “That green stuff.” Obviously, he meant pesto … don’t all kids love pesto? Well, mine do.

“Sorry, we’re out of pesto.”

“Ok. Then we can have it plain with things mixed in,” he replied, very matter-of-factly.

“What kind of things mixed in, Will?”

“Hmm. Tomatoes. And cheese. And maybe that yellow cheese. Write it down so we don’t forget,” he replied. I had to giggle when he suggested I write it down … but I reached for my pencil anyway and made a list.

When he said yellow cheese, I realized that a cheddar sauce would be perfect for this. I used the sauce a bit from my Easy Homemade Macaroni and Cheese as a base, slightly adapted, and threw in some lemon zest to give it a zing. Once the sauce was done, Will mixed everything together …

The result was a creamy, lemony macaroni and cheese dotted with sweet bits of tomato. Loved it. My boy has good ideas. But, if you aren’t a huge lemon fan, the zest can totally be omitted and it will still be great.

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We’re going to skip the recap this week since I gave myself more leeway for spring break. Instead, I wanted to share some fabulous food and frugal living websites that I have recently discovered. The women (all moms!) who write these sites are ones who I recently interviewed for an assignment.

But first …

Something purely amazing happened this week: I started saving money again. It’s been a long time since I was able to pluck money from my income and squirrel it away. But when a received a payment this week, I quickly divided it between the kids’ saving accounts and my own. Although it wasn’t a lot, it was a very big and positive step in the right direction.

Another amazing thing: despite giving myself leeway, I mostly stuff to the rules and kept my spending down. Go me. Read the rest of this entry…

Basil. Garlic. Olive oil. Pine nuts. Parmesan. These are the makings of a fabulous, wonderful, delicious pesto — and believe me, I adore pesto. It’s fabulous on so many things: pasta, sandwiches, baked potatoes, whatever.

When it comes to making pesto, I have always been a food processor girl. Seriously. Every pesto I have ever made has either whirled around in my Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus or in my full-sized food processor.

But recently, when I was working on an article for FabulousFoods.com, I tried something new: making pesto the old-fashioned way with a mortar and pestle. Let me tell you: I may never make it in the food processor again. Seriously. It was fabulous. The flavor was as bright and brilliant — and as good as the fabulous pesto that I buy nearly every week in the summer at our local organic farmers’ market. Read the rest of this entry…

It’s springtime, and I am so done with heavy foods. Aren’t you? Belly-filling, bone-warming foods are great when it’s chilly outside, but when it gets warm, you don’t want to be bogged down like that … or, at least I don’t.

In any case, this salad/lunch is perfect for when you want something lighter.

I started working on this recipe a few weeks ago, and it’s quickly become a go-to lunch for me. It’s light, satisfying and so wonderfully spring-y. I adore rice noodles, seasoned rice vinegar, sesame … basically all the flavors in this … so it’s something that just makes me happy to eat. Shouldn’t food make you happy? I think so.

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It’s Tuesday afternoon and I am sitting in my home office, with The Beach Boys’ Sounds Of Summer playing in the background. Outside my open windows is brilliant blue sky, bright sunlight and the sound of laughing children. It’s enough to make you throw open your arms and yell Welcome, springtime. This is weather that just begs for being outside in the fresh newness.

And what comes with warm temperatures? The strong allure of grilling, of course!

We actually started grilling about a month ago, but now that the temperatures seem more firmly planted in the warm category, we’ll be doing it a whole lot more often. Who wants to heat up a kitchen when it’s so beautiful outside, anyway? Not me!

When I was planning our meals for this week, I spotted this recipe for Grilled Island Chicken in Aviva Goldfarb‘s new cookbook, SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue: Earth-Friendly, Kid-Pleasing Dinners for Busy Families. Grilled pineapple? Marinated Chicken? Sounded perfect. And the fact that the marinade is whipped up in minutes and the whole thing can be cooked in about 10 minutes makes it just perfect for busy nights (and Monday is a notoriously busy night in my house).

So, how was it? Awesome. Will is a really good eater, but typically he stops at one serving (nothing wrong with that!). Last night? He had seconds. So did Shawn and I (and I never ever have seconds of anything!). The flavorful, rich grilled chicken tasted fantastic with the smoky-sweet grilled pineapple … and it all went so well with the rice and salad I served.

Loved it. We’ll be having this again soon. Very soon.

P.S. Looking for some easy chicken dinners? Check out my latest post on Tablespoon for inspiration!

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It’s spring break in the Caron household and we are ready for adventure!

Originally, I had hoped to whisk my kids (and my husband, if he could go) off to Florida for spring break this week. Unfortunately, it’s just not happening. I could blame it on many things (the budget, my work schedule, etc), but ultimately it just comes down to two things: I am not sure that my nine-year-old car is really up for that magnitude of a trip and I am willing to save the cash we would have spent this week for some fun vacay stuff this summer. Hopefully next year we can make it to Florida.

So, instead of that road trip, we are sticking close to home this week and having adventures all over the place. It’s going to be a very active week for us … we have plans for long walks, fun hikes, trips to the park and zoo and so much more.

It’s also a bit of a break week for my kitchen. Although I am still cooking, we are going uber simple for meals. As much as I love creating, I need a little break too. So, instead of a complicated Cooking with Kids recipe, this is our special (but oh so simple) trail mix for this week.

This is a Will creation. I piled a bunch of potential mix-ins on the table and let Will decide what went in and how much of it. He was so excited to be totally in control of the making. And the result? It’s perfect for snacking on the go.

What do you like to take for snacks on the go?
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