Asian Shrimp Noodle Salad
I like the food I cook and eat to have lots of color, lots of health, and lots of taste. Whenever we have a meal that consists of brown rice, roasted cauliflower, and oven roasted whole chicken, it all tastes great and is healthy but it all sort of melds together in a shade of {Asian Shrimp Noodle Salad}
Monthly Meal Plan
Even though I meal plan every week (for many reasons – here are 11 reasons why I do it), I don’t meal plan for a month at a time – I’m only sharing it once-a-month here. With a busy family schedule and teenagers who are always springing a “Oh, didn’t I tell you???” on their {Monthly Meal Plan}
How to Make Chicken Broth
Remember when I told you that if you roast a chicken at home you can feed your family 3 times? The first night, you enjoy the homemade oven roasted chicken. The next night, you dine on a simple curry chicken salad. Then, you make homemade chicken broth and use the broth in a soup. Or, {How to Make Chicken Broth}
So Simple Curry Chicken Salad
Whenever I cook a whole chicken for dinner, the next night’s dinner is always something with leftover chicken (if there is any with two teenagers!). This is one of my favorite uses of leftover chicken: chicken salad sandwiches with vegetables and curry. It’s good on a sandwich but you can also just serve a scoop {So Simple Curry Chicken Salad}
Oven Roasted Whole Chicken
When there’s a sale at my local grocery store, I like to stock up. New Season’s Market recently had their whole, organic chickens on sale and I bought several to freeze and roast later. Oven roasting a whole chicken is easy to do, tastes great and once you follow these steps, you’ll never want to {Oven Roasted Whole Chicken}
Smoked Salmon Spread
This is my family’s favorite spread. I have even heard elaborate explanations of why this smoked salmon spread should be eaten with a spoon out of a small bowl. “But, it has dairy and fish. That’s really good for me to eat,” is what I hear when I bust my husband or kids tucked into {Smoked Salmon Spread}
Weekly Meal Plan
The trick with having beans on the weekly meal plan so often is to make them taste good and be good for us without adding lots of salt. Honestly, I’m trying to make them taste great and not just good! What I do is vary the flavor of the bean centered meals and cook them {Weekly Meal Plan}
Weekly Meal Plan
The last of summer 2012’s tomatoes got thawed and devoured this week. I made the mistake of thinking the sauce could be used for two dinners but it was so good, we all had second helpings! All that was left was a very small container that I tucked into the freezer. It will make a {Weekly Meal Plan}
Weekly Meal Plan
If you ever wonder if I try and trick my family with meal planning the answer is yes, I do. With weekly meal planning, I’m able to keep track of how many times a week we eat fish, greens, and meat. Weekly meal plan #48 and weekly meal plan #49 each included 6-days in a {Weekly Meal Plan}
Weekly Meal Plan
Remember when we had to get rid of one of our backyard chickens last year? It was hard and I don’t want to have to do it again but one of our hens hasn’t laid an egg in months. At the top of the pecking order, she’s quite mean to the other hens who are {Weekly Meal Plan}
Weekly Meal Plan
When someone tells me they don’t meal plan because they don’t cook elaborate or fancy meals but instead simple ones, it makes me smile. There’s nothing fancy about the meals that are being cooked at our house but I still meal plan. It’s a money saver, time saver, and keeps me on track for using {Weekly Meal Plan}
Weekly Meal Plan
This week’s meal plan includes “Super Bowl Sunday” and with the football game shown on network TV and not just on paid television, we were in business. I don’t really care about watching the actual football game but I do care about what we’re eating and I do most of the cooking because it’s generally {Weekly Meal Plan}
Homemade Vanilla Extract
Vanilla extract, which is in practically every baked good recipe on earth, should have 2 ingredients in it: alcohol and vanilla beans. If your vanilla extract has more than these 2 ingredients, consider how unnecessary the other ingredients are. Plus, this is so easy to make, you’re never going to buy vanilla extract again. Homemade {Homemade Vanilla Extract}
Weekly Meal Plan
“What do you NOT feel like cooking this week?” is what I try and ask my teenagers every week before I make our weekly meal plan. While I gave up ages ago trying to get them to look at a cookbook, choose a recipe, and make a list of ingredients, I do like to get {Weekly Meal Plan}
Weekly Meal Plan
We’re beginning to run out of food we grew or picked this summer. It’s all in our basement freezer and every time I use the last of the berries or the last of the tomatoes, I think about how it’s time to start planning for the next growing, picking, and preserving season. We still have {Weekly Meal Plan}




















