Clean Eating

/
Clean Eating

With school back in session for all of us, I am becoming a domestically disorganized mess. Once an expert grocery shopper and menu planner, I seem to have no time or energy to commit to a routine which makes for a lot of rotting produce, last minute burrito runs, and consequently too tight jeans. This will not do. I finally sat down and made a plan over the weekend and we now have a refrigerator full of groceries intended for meals, healthy dinner plans, and a schedule (practices, classes, late work nights). Part of my reinstated food-planning routine will involve clean eating. This sounds like a Whole Foods trend, and it kind of is, but I really love the concept which is basically eating whole, simple foods, using locally sourced produce, humanely raised lean meats, exercising a little portion control and drinking lots of water (something I am prone not to do).  A really easy way to make this eating style easy is to make a lot of whole grains, lentils and beans ahead of time.

Read More

DIY Arrow Project + Video Tutorial

/
DIY Arrow Project + Video Tutorial

I am so excited to share this project with you today! I collaborated with Scotch Colors and Patterns Duct Tape to bring to life this DIY arrow tutorial which features two of my favorite materials: wooden dowels and duct tape. Watch the video below to see how it's done. I've included a materials list and instructions at the end of the post. Enjoy!

Read More

Goat Cheese Macaroni

/
Goat Cheese Macaroni

Oh it's that melancholy time of year. The summer abruptly comes to an end and school starts back up for our whole family. I began my classes on Monday, but for the men in the house today is the first day of school. It's our tradition to make comfort food on the eve of summer break's end, and this time around I really outdid myself- one can brag if their macaroni and cheese is considered "really yummy" and "I want this for breakfast" good. We've found that our dairy-free kid can tolerate goat cheese, so I used a goat cheddar for this dish (found at Trader Joes) and he was able to dig in with the rest of us. Here's our simple recipe that will hopefully become a comfort staple in your house all year round.

Read More

Playful Learning World Tour + Giveaway

/
Playful Learning World Tour + Giveaway

So this is fun...today we get to welcome you to join us where we live as part of Playful Learning's World Tour. As you know I am a contributor to this amazing educational website that offers e-courses for parents and kids on subjects ranging from building writing skills, to conflict resolution. Over the last month bloggers from around the globe have been interviewing their children about where they live and what they like to do. So today the tour arrives in California, and here for the world to meet are my little guys, Jasper and Wylie Jennings.

Read More

Savory Scone

/
Savory Scone

We have a funny little tradition of naming our vehicles in this family.  It started with Adam's old Chevy S-10 "The Green Machine", then my silver Toyota Corolla "Platinum Bomb". Since then we've also named our bike collection: Adam's long suffering "Midnight Blue" beach cruiser, Jasper's brand new "Sergio" orange and black trick bike and my cream colored townie "Cupcake". Wylie rides a little blue strider that he named "Blue Jay", but recently he announced that he'd embellished the name a bit.  It's now called "Lightening-Savory Scone-Blue Jay". You got that right. I'm telling you this little story because we did another remix of the biscuit recipe for Wylie's turn to bring school snacks this week.  This time we used the last of our chard, some over-ripe cherry tomatoes and a smokey cheddar, adding a little whole wheat flour to make a savory version of a scone or a biscuit, really what's the difference? You'd think he would have been so excited that we made actual savory scones in his honor, but I couldn't even get him to take one bite for a picture (and they were delicious). I heard back and most of the kids, including our kid, loved them. So there you have it, and here's the recipe.

Read More