These chocolate peanut butter flax granola bars bring me great joy. They taste a lot like a candy bar, but they’re full of healthy stuff (oats! flax! nuts!) and aren’t nearly as indulgent as that blanket of chocolate makes them look. They’re chewy, peanut buttery, sweet and salty, and I keep running out of the ingredients…
Recipes
Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Muffins.
When we lived in Raleigh, one of my favorite places to meet a friend was Sola Coffee. I’m not a big coffee drinker (and a girl can only justify a Sola Shake on special occasions), so my favorite thing to get on a “coffee” date was the pumpkin white chocolate chip muffin. And then I found out those moist,…
Balsamic Chicken in the Crockpot (or Instant Pot).
**This post is brought to you by my sister, Laurie…with occasional interjections by me, so I can brag about my Instant Pot.** Laurie: I’ve made this balsamic chicken several times now and it’s not a fluke. We really like it! That’s basically all the reason I need to add it to our regular rotation. But there…
Salted Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Seed Bark.
I think it’s a food blog rule that you have to post “pumpkin something” the first week of fall. But I already shared my favorite, favorite pumpkin bread…and last year I skipped pumpkin completely and brought you this perfectly dense, cinnamon-y apple cake. So now we have salted dark chocolate pumpkin seed bark…and oh my word. It’s addictive.
Healthy Banana Applesauce Muffins.
Confession: shortly after I posted this whole wheat banana bread recipe, I tried another, similar recipe from Cookie & Kate – and I liked it a teeny bit better. So with a slightly guilty conscience, I kinda sorta switched to usually making that one.
Shortcut Burrito Bowls.
I really wanted to name these “shorty-shorty-shortcut burrito bowls” or something that more eloquently celebrates how many corners you can cut and still have a really good, healthy dinner. We’re trying to plan ahead for quality family time since Jay’s schedule gets a little crazy this time of year, and we decided that Wednesdays we’ll do an…
Six Weeks to a Stocked Freezer.
Are you into freezer meals? Maybe you’ve seen that pin on Pinterest about how to make 30 meals in 30 minutes for $30 (or something only slightly less crazy sounding)? This is not that post – but I do think freezer meals are wonderful, delicious presents you give your future self. Future Self, you seem stressed….
Soy Sauce & Honey Marinated Flank Steak.
For some reason, flank steak had fallen out of our rotation. A couple of months ago, I bought some on a whim at Costco, and that night all the stars aligned, and the combination of sweet and savory flank steak, a baked sweet potato, and roasted broccoli was a freaking home run. Everyone ate everything, people had…
Pesto Pasta with Burst Tomatoes.
The irony of this post is that it has taken me a Whole Lot Longer to find time (and, you know, 2 hands) to type it than it did to actually make and consume. Pesto pasta is a great summer meal since it’s ready in the time it takes to cook the noodles, which is a…
Five Minute Basil Pesto.
My basil plant is still alive! I haven’t been doing much cooking (because baby snuggles), so I needed to harvest and use a bunch of basil. Pesto for the no-cook, five-ingredient, five-minute win!
Crispy Cheesy Grilled Potatoes.
If you’ve been a reader for long, you know that one of my main goals for summer dinners (besides binging on corn on the cob) is moving as much of the cooking outside to the grill as we can! I love any meat on the grill, and these grilled potatoes go with anything. They couldn’t be…
Blueberry Cheesecake Bars.
Blueberry cheesecake bars are layer upon layer of happiness – buttery graham cracker crust, a layer of cheesecake that’s thin enough to let the other flavors shine but rich enough not to get lost, sweet-tart blueberry pie filling, and fluffy whipped cream. This recipe is from my mom’s mom, so I think these bars could…
Simple Basil Marinara Sauce.
I’m successfully growing basil! (By this I mean I haven’t killed the lone basil plant I bought a few weeks ago. Because my mom waters it for me.) I needed to cut it back a bit, and it was the perfect excuse to make a batch of this simple basil marinara sauce. It’s just a…
One-Pan Chicken Fajitas.
I hope your Cinco de Mayo involves a Mexican restaurant and enough chips + salsa + queso to make your jaw ache and your actual meal unnecessary. But if you’re cooking a Mexican feast at home – or you just need an easy weeknight meal – these chicken fajitas are for you, since you…
Quick & Easy Pan-Seared Chicken.
I’m a meal planner, but I’ve tried and failed to be a meal prepper – taking a chunk of time on the weekend to chop veggies, cook a couple things, and set myself up for success during the week. (If you want to be inspired to do this, check out Shutterbean’s meal prep posts.) Mostly…
Bacon Grilled Cheese.
My Nana (you know her – potato soup, spaghetti sauce, and gingersnaps, to name a few) has a few stories that I’ve heard her tell lots of times, but they never get old. One of them is the tale of ordering BLTs at a restaurant. She and her lunch companions asked for the bacon to be…
Bacon in the Oven.
When I was in college, I ate a lot of things that I thought were amazing that I can’t eat today, because gross. On this list: chicken fettuccine alfredo from a box (every.thing was included, people), a “milkshake” that involved fat-free, sugar-free chocolate pudding mix, skim milk, and a lot of ice cubes, and turkey bacon…
Easy Roasted Apple Grilled Pork Chops.
Grilling season never really ends here in NC, if you have/are a committed griller who doesn’t mind bundling up and braving the cold and dark through the winter – and thankfully, Jay is willing. And although I’ve internally cursed and externally whined about DST and the we-still-haven’t-recovered havoc it wreaks on my children’s sleep habits, I…
Citrus Kale Salad.
This is the first salad recipe I’ve ever posted, and there’s a reason for that: I’m the sad, sad queen of letting bags of leafy greens turn to slime in my fridge, because salads don’t excite me enough to make the effort to, you know, put them in a bowl. Until now. I’m not exaggerating when I…
Shepherd’s Pie.
This week, to help you celebrate two important holidays (that would be today, 3.14, aka Pi Day, and St. Patrick’s day), I bring you shepherd’s pie! This version has a saucy ground beef mixture full of carrots, peas, and corn and is topped with a layer of fluffy, buttery mashed potatoes.
Bran Muffins.
These bran muffins are one of my favorite breakfasts – slash morning snack, slash muffins all day, e’ryday. They’re very tender, but they also have good chewy texture, and they’re pleasantly whole-grainy without being dense/boring/dry. The muffins themselves are lightly sweet, and the raisins add an extra little burst (oh, they’re optional,…
Pot Roast.
The summer after I graduated from college, I lived at home and taught at my church’s day camp in the mornings and worked at a gym doing personal training in the evenings (have I even told you that was my pre-kid job?!). I had a really interesting variety of clients (words that do not begin to…
Taco Meat
**This post is brought to you by my sister, Laurie!!** This is a super-easy recipe, made with pantry staples. It comes together quickly and can easily be doubled for a crowd. (And I think it even fits Bet’s Faster-than-Fast-Food rules.)
5 Awesome Real Food Snacks.
When I gave up my ice-cream-every-night habit, I had to replace it with something. We try to eat dinner as a family at 5:30, and I’m just not going to make it to bedtime without a snack most nights. And especially at first, it was hard not to cave and have the sweet treat I was craving….