I have adored Elsie and Emma’s blog A Beautiful Mess for a long time. It is bright and cheery and their DIY projects are fantastic. I have never cooked something from the blog, although why that is I have no idea (take a look at this). On Tuesday night, I ventured into the kitchen to cook Emma’s honey roasted veggies with gnocchi. All four of the teens at the table loved it. It even had a vote of confidence from one of two preschoolers.
Read MoreI spotted the recipe for Spicy Greens with Creamy Parmesan Bean Stew while perusing Pinterest one day a couple of weeks ago. It looked amazing. In an uncharacteristic move, I actually read the ingredient list and most of the recipe prior to selecting it for our weekly meal plan. At the very bottom, I noticed that the recipe had been adapted from Bon Appetit. I clicked. I looked. The Bon Appetit version, Spicy Beans and Wilted Greens, looked a little too green.
Read MoreA few months ago, one of our kids decided to give up eating meat temporarily during a food unit at school. Temporarily turned into permanently. And then she decided to also give up gluten.
The meat piece of the equation was pretty easy as we try to eat seafood around here and I am usually pretty good at using beans. It was also easy for me to prepare dinners as usual with some form of substitute for Lauren to get her the protein that she needed. The gluten piece combined with the meat piece has posed some challenges. The primary challenge is how to get her protein without vegetarian substitutes that contain gluten. Many of the gluten free recipes that I have come across are meat based. I keep finding that I can take out one item but not the other. When I do find something that is both gluten free and vegetarian, often times it is not something that my husband, who is a firm believer that there should be meat on the table at dinner, really wants to eat. And let’s be honest. Seafood for eight people (in a land locked state) is not cheap.
Read MoreI have had the recipe for this tortellini soup for a long time. Since November of 1997 if you must know. I was in law school at the time and didn’t dream that I would ever be writing something about it. Or cooking it for a family of nine. I was single and in my twenties, for crying out loud. I have no idea why I was buying Cooking Light instead of Vogue but I was. Let’s face it - I was probably buying both to avoid reading my civil procedure homework.
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