Around our house evenings get hectic when school is in session. By the time your kids get their homework done, and you run them to all their extra evening activities, it’s a challenge to put a healthy meal on the table. I like to try to be prepared ahead of time, so dinner preparation during the week can be a quick process.

Here are a few things I do to make our week nights a little easier:

Break out the crock pot. In the fall when the weather starts to get a little chillier I enjoy soups  and meals I can throw …read more

Small changes in your diet over time can have big results on your health. If those changes are negative, like eating more junk food, skipping the vegetables, or eating while you’re stressed, they can have a negative impact.
If you work at making small positive changes to your diet you can have a huge positive result long term. Doing things like tracking your food intake, menu planning, or trying new fruits and vegetables can help you start healthy new habits one step at a time.
Many people try to do an all or nothing “diet” and completely change their way of life …read more

Managing mealtime madness becomes crazy once the school year starts up. You can save time by thinking ahead. Instead of looking for what to cook, know what you’re going to cook. Designate mealtime menus – loose menus, nothing fancy. I’m not saying plan each dish, just plan a type of food.

For example: 

Monday: Chicken, rice, and veggie night
Tuesday: Soup, bread, and salad night
Wednesday: Fish and veggie night
Thursday: Left-over night
Friday: Pasta and salad night

This is flexible enough to be open to interpretation; for example, you could buy cheese or Spanish rice for Monday, and have fruit salad instead of veggie salad on …read more

I used to write for magazines and some other businesses that wanted magazine-like stories, which means I had a lot of magazines hanging around – you know, to learn the style of the magazine and all that, but I didn’t love that sort of writing, so I quit to blog full-time.
Then however, I had all these magazines left over. What to do? I don’t like reading them, so that’s out. I actually came up with lots of ideas about what to do with my old magazines, but my most used idea is my cookbook idea.
A lot of those magazines were …read more