The kids and I have been establishing new routines this year. We’ve shed the lazy weekends that used to feel so empty and instead started packing Saturday and Sunday tight with grocery shopping at the good store, cooking, library time, church and family dinner with our extended family. Though I thought the structure of weekend routines would be a burden, it’s really made the weekends feel longer and more fulfilling. I guess it goes to show that change really is good.

Since Sundays seem to be our most packed day, I usually try to make a fast, homemade meal for lunch that can double as lunch for Will during the week. It makes life easier during our early morning rush and also means that we don’t have to rely on sandwiches for school lunch. Variety is a good thing.

This recipe, adapted from Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut “Pesto” in The Food Matters Cookbook, was perfect for that. It takes about five minutes to make. Total. You simply whirl the ingredients in the food processor — garlic first, then with the walnuts and sunflower seeds, then with the basil and red peppers and finally with the olive oil. Season it, stir in the cheese and you are good to go. If you can successfully operate your food processor, you can totally make this. Read the rest of this entry…

Thank you to Kraft Foods for offering me the opportunity to recreate a recipe with PHILADELPHIA Cooking Creme. Please click here to learn more about all the PHILADELPHIA Cooking Creme flavors and recipes. 

Oh pasta, what a wonderful comfort you are … especially creamy ones like this easy alfredo-wanna-be. We’ll get to the recipe in the sec though.

First, can I tell you something? I agreed to work on this project with Philadelphia Cooking Creme (via Clever Girls Collective), but I wasn’t confident it was going to go well. Actually, I was downright worried it would be a terrible experience. Why? Because I don’t like cream cheese. At all. Unless it’s in cheesecake — but that’s totally different.

Yep, so I didn’t have high hopes. Still, I was willing to give it a try. You are probably wondering why I said yes. Well, for one, the kids love cream cheese, so I figured this would almost certainly be up their alley. And two, I am all about being open minded about food. It’s what I have taught my kids, and I believe in practicing what you preach. It’s a good thing too. This turned out to be pretty darn good.

The recipe I was assigned was Shrimp and Broccoli Fettuccine using Savory Lemon and Herb Philadelphia Cooking Creme. The kids and I adore shrimp, so this sounded right up our alley — despite my uncertainty. Cream in pasta? Love. Cooking cream-iness in? I could do that. Before I started, I made two quick changes to the recipe: I used penne instead of fettuccine (it’s easier for the kids to eat and therefore less messy) and I added some freshly grated parmesan. Read the rest of this entry…

For a minute there this morning, as my alarm blared, I couldn’t move. Buried beneath my warm blankets, the sleepiness of sheer exhaustion tried to lure me back to sleep, if only for a few minutes. But the violent, loud bleeping was annoying and today wasn’t a day to give in. I had to wish and will my muscles into action, mentally reminding myself that it’s Valentine’s Day and I had to rise. There were heart-shaped lunches to make and special muffins to serve to my little Valentines. So, I turned off the alarm in a herculean effort and forced myself out of the bed, stumbling to the kitchen where Paige was nursing a hot cocoa and Shawn was getting ready for work. Will had yet to rise, but followed soon after me.

Don’t worry, I’m not ill (that was the first question a friend asked when I told her how tired I was this afternoon). No, this is just the result of too many late nights. I’ve been working long hours and taking on a lot. I have to — it’s how I ensure that our family remains comfortable. But the less I sleep, the longer it takes to do things and the more time it takes to get to that end point when I can crawl into my warm, soft bed and relax. Sometimes, I feel like I will never have a lazy day or full night’s sleep again. But I also know that it won’t always be like this. This is the ebb to the flow, the part that I have to push through to get to the good times again. And I will get there (I hope that made as much sense to you as it did in my head.)

Today, it’s just caught up with me — the weeks of pushing myself to do more and stay up later to ensure everything is completed just so. All I want to do is collapse into bed without a laptop, camera, Blackberry or anything else. Today, I just need to rest. So, once I finish this post and hit publish, you can guess where I am headed. I need to do this for myself so that I can continue at the breakneck pace that my busy freelancing life runs at right now.

Do you ever feel like this? Am I the only one who goes for weeks without getting more than a few hours of sleep a night?

Now, about this sandwich. It’s my favorite. My absolute, hands-down, want-to-treat-myself favorite. A crusty, slim baguette is drizzled with olive oil and then layered with creamy fresh mozzarella, salty draped prosciutto, bright basil and sweet sundried tomatoes. Read the rest of this entry…

Popcorn, anyone?

On movie night (every Friday in our house!) popcorn is practically a requirement. I mean, how can you dig into a good flick without a big buttery bowl of popcorn? There’s something big to be said for traditions like that. The kids get so excited for our Friday movie and popcorn.

‘Course, making popcorn in our house mean really making it. No microwave popcorn here. After reading the ingredients list, I just couldn’t — too many unpronounceable things. But give up popcorn altogether? Never. Instead, we usually pop it in our air popper. That’s not always practical though. Sometimes you want easy — easy cooking and easy cleanup

This week’s recipe from The Food Matters Project was popcorn, which actually worked out really well because I learned a whole new way of making popcorn at home. And it’s super easy. The popcorn recipe in The Food Matters Cookbook call for it to be either cooked on the stove top or in the microwave. I opted for the latter since it didn’t require oil or anything. Read the rest of this entry…

Recently, I was digging through old posts when it occurred to me that I used to do a lot more baking. I can’t put my finger on why I stopped baking so much. Maybe it’s because the kids got a little older. Maybe it’s because I need to devote more time to work. Maybe it’s because I thought the baked goods were hurting my waistline. Really, it could be any of these things. But realizing that I am baking less was a little sad for me. I love having homemade treats for the kids when they get home from school.

So yesterday, with a mere 40 minutes before school pick up time, I tossed together these easy, fast cookie bars. They came out of the oven just in time for me to run to school — good timing, right? Read the rest of this entry…

This dish is uncomplicated. It’s simple — just a few basic ingredients prepared without fuss. It’s a dish that proves that good food doesn’t require a lot of steps, ingredients or time.

Really, it doesn’t. Food can be amazing just by preparing it in a different way than you are used to. Tired of boiled? Try steamed. Tired of raw? Try sauteed. Or roast! Roasting is a perfect way to switch up your vegetable routine without getting fussy. Read the rest of this entry…

Coffee cake is one of those things. It’s comforting and familiar and perfect for breakfast. This one, made from a recipe from the 1930s, has a dense crumb and an irresistible buttery cinnamon sugar topping.

No, it’s not that impossibly fluffy and almost-dessert-sweet coffee cake from the grocery store. But it doesn’t want to be. It’s a totally different coffee cake — one that stands up to the fork without squishing into oblivion and that can be eaten by hand without crumbling all over. And it’s really great with a hot, steaming cup of coffee.

It is coffee cake after all.

Making this, I wasn’t sure if the vintage sensibilities would make it a winner for us. But it was. Hugely.

I whipped it up for a brunch with friends last weekend where the cake quickly vanished. Seriously, not a trace was left behind. Good sign, right? And it was so good that I baked another just for our family.

Back to the brunch for a second. Though I adore brunch, I don’t have people over (or go out) for it nearly enough. So I was thrilled to have a little one at my house. The brunch menu was simple — bagels and lox with all the fixings, scrambled eggs, berry and pineapple fruit salad and this coffee cake. In the course of conversation, I shared that this was a vintage recipe — something dug out of my great collection of early 20th century cookery books, pamphlets and recipe cards.

This recipe comes from the third edition of All About Home Baking, published in 1936 (the original was published in 1933) by the General Foods Corporation, a now-defunct company whose products (Calumut baking powder, Post cereals, Maxwell House Coffee and General Foods International Coffees, to name a few) live on. I bought this hardcover book off eBay a while back. Read the rest of this entry…

When Shawn and I used to eat out (a frequent occurrence in our pre-children days when money was plentiful and bills were not), I would order Buffalo Chicken Salad whenever it was on the menu. I loved the crunch of the fried chicken, the spice of the buffalo wing sauce and the creamy coolness of the blue cheese. When you put a variety of flavors and textures like that together, it’s almost certain to please my senses.

Actually, if we are going to be super honest, just the mere act of putting buffalo wing sauce on salad at all makes me super happy. Something about the spicy tang flavor wrapped around the cool, crisp lettuce just does it for me. When I was fresh out of college, I would sometimes pack buffalo wing sauce as dressing for my lunch salads at work.

What?

Read the rest of this entry…

Last year, Will repeatedly came home from school requesting “eggies” for lunch. Aside from being clearly somehow related to eggs, I had no idea what he was talking about. I tried to have him describe the eggs he wanted, but I was just baffled. Finally, I emailed the mother of the girl who was bringing the “eggies” and asked what they were. Hard-boiled eggs. Who knew?

These days there are a lot of eggies in our house. We eat them a lot — on salad, chopped in sandwiches and all sorts of things. In fact, the kids had them for breakfast today with clementines and toast. Based on their clean plates and excited woots, I think they liked them a lot. But these eggies on an open-face sandwich? They are all for me … just don’t tell the kids. Oh, but we don’t call them eggies. That just seems silly. Read the rest of this entry…

Do you ever peek in other people’s baskets at the grocery store? It’s probably a little voyeuristic, but I totally do. I just find it fascinating what people buy. I notice the folks who buy a ton of frozen meals and the ones who stock up on meats. I notice the ones with tons of snacks, and the ones with just fresh foods. And then there are those who buy like two bananas, a gallon of milk and chips — and then I wonder if that’s dinner.

If you were to check out my grocery cart, you’d think I love yogurt. Like totally adore it. On any given week, I buy at least three varieties of yogurt — Greek fruit on the bottom yogurts for my husband, those little yogurts with cookie crumbles to stir in for Will and yogurt drinks for both Will and Paige. Sometimes there is even more yogurt since Paige adores yogurt too. Sometimes I eat some of the ones with the mix-ins too, but more often I leave the yogurts to everyone else.

But with the new year here, I’ve decided to give Greek yogurt another try. In the past, it just didn’t appeal to me with its thicker texture and tang. But things change. We grow, adapt, live and learn … and guess what? When I decided to use Greek yogurt in the parfait I have been thinking about for days … I really liked it. The whole dish is just delightful … like a chocolate covered strawberry and strawberries and cream all wrapped up into a single guilt free package.

And hey, if I can add a little healthy decadence to breakfast, it’s totally worth it. Read the rest of this entry…