So, since adjusting my perspective on my goal of entertaining and keeping an eye toward simplicity… I’ve found that one of my favorite ways to take the stress off of entertaining is either by supplementing my party food with some ready made treats, or by keeping things as simple as possible and literally buying all of my food offerings from Trader Joe’s. Continue reading
nom nom nom
A Favorite Christmas Tradition…
There are so many things I love about the Christmas and Advent season. The marvel of lights, the gorgeous music, the specifically Catholic traditions (I’ve been slowly adding to our nativity scene each Sunday, and when we have a little more space one of my first wish list items is an advent wreath!) Then there are the family traditions which are some of my favorites Continue reading
Festive Halloween Stuffed Bell Peppers
So since becoming a single car family I spend a lot more time at home with my son instead of out at the children’s museum or zoo or even the library (though we are still frequent visitors to our local branch!), So I’ve made a conscious effort to keep things interesting for him on days that I have energy/am not feeling pretty sick. Continue reading
Crockpot Goodness: Pizza Dip
This week is rough. And it is only Tuesday. Luckily I have memories from a really fun Sunday night to hang onto! I had some ladies from my MOPS group over (more on this in an entry later this week) and since I wanted some fun snacks for us but also needed something really easy because I am constantly exhausted these days. Continue reading
Pizza Bowls!
A quick post on a great, super simple recipe. Sadly, pizza sauce is key component so our son could not share dinner with us the night we made these, but we will probably still make this again because they were good, filling, and healthier than ordering pizza! (Also, I think they taste better than ordering pizza- but that’s possibly ?because my Italian family has made me a pizza snob…) Continue reading
Cooking #14: The perfect BBQ side dish
Just a quick post because I wanted to share one of my favorite side dishes in case you need a last minute idea for your memorial day get togethers. These are great for BBQ sides or just a side dish in general. Continue reading
Cooking #13: Zucchini Fritters
When I was planning to roast veggies last week my husband did the shopping and picked up all the vegetables I requested, but since I didn’t specify how many zucchini I wanted he thought I was making ratatouille and would need several when i really just needed one to cut up and roast! So now a week has past and I was worried the other zucchini would go bad so today was the perfect day to try a new zucchini recipe for lunch. Continue reading
Cooking #10 All the Avocado
Avocado is definitely in my top five list of vegetarian’s best friend in the kitchen but it is pretty amazing no matter what your dietary needs are. It binds things, it’s delicious, it’s basically a superfood, and because I live so close to California it is in abundance and affordable at this time of year (which may surprise those of you who see the continually rising guacamole price at Chipotle.) In fact, when talking about how crazy it is that my toddler has yet to experience so many wonderful things in life like falling in love, I once had a friend respond “and he’s had so few avocados so far” so yeah, it’s THAT GOOD. So here are two super simple super fast recipes featuring this culinary superstar. Continue reading
Cooking #9: Chili Adventures
Those of you that read my last cooking post about making homemade tomato sauce know that we recently got an astounding amount of food from Produce on Wheels and have been learning lots of new, fun things to use that food (as well as revisiting some old favorites) Well, included in our produce haul was over 20 green chill peppers… Continue reading
Cooking #8: Italian Feast
We’re interested in focusing on fresh food in our family whenever possible. That way when we’re eating ramen or boxed mac and cheese or even just string cheese and chips during tech week we feel like we’ve achieved some sort of a balance at least. Sometimes that means ordering from Bountiful Baskets, a CSA that we’ve tried a few times. This weekend, thanks to a fellow VBE, we found an even better deal on fresh produce Continue reading
Alphabet Resolutions 