Get started now on your holiday baking. A few tips for freezing cookies, baking with your kids, figuring out what to make first and having fun while you do it. Get the Christmas music ready, it’s time to bake! Tomorrow it will be December. (If you just recoiled at that thought, I’m with you.) That means just 25 days until Christmas. To me, that’s 25 days to get a whole load of baking done and accomplished and crossed off my list. It also means the start of the busy holiday season,... more

Rethinking ideas for the school lunch box from sandwiches to wraps to crackers and cheese and fruit on a stick. Let’s talk for a minute about this business of school lunches. Just one more time, I promise. We’re a week and a half in. I’ve sent hard boiled eggs with my kids three times. In my defense, my sweet kindergartener asked for them today while batting her long lashes and looking cute in her little red and blue dress, picked out specifically for “red” day. The... more

This 15-minute macaroni and cheese is one of the school lunches I fall back on easily. I only make it once in a while, but it’s a kid favorite, the creamy cheese sauce keeping the pasta hot until lunchtime. Our day starts as the sun rises. Alarms blare. (To my neighbors, I apologize for Ole’s alarm. He leaves the windows open and then takes a good 20 minutes for the blaring to awaken him from his comatose state. It’s obnoxious, I know.) The smallest member of our household usually... more

An easy-to-make baked apple puff pancake is perfect for breakfast for dinner or a late Saturday brunch, and it’s just the thing to get the whole family involved and cooking in the kitchen. My very first memory took place in a kitchen. A tornado was also involved. When I got older (as in past the age of one), I started making my way up on top of the kitchen desk to where the cookbooks were lined up, taking them down and turning their pages. Up there on that shelf was Betty Crocker’s... more

I remember reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to my sister when she was growing up, and it was one of the first books I purchased for my first child as well. There hasn’t been a moment in my kids’ lives where this book wasn’t front and center and at the top of the bedtime reading list. It is Magnus who is currently fascinated by its bright illustrations and the pictures of food. For the very hungry caterpillars in my own home, it’s important for me to teach them how to... more

The following post is from Janice Newell Bissex, MS, RD and Liz Weiss, MS, RD from Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen and is the fourth guest post in the Breaking Picky Eaters series. Thanks so much to both of you for sharing! Picky toddlers and preschoolers are nothing out of the ordinary. But what do you do if your finicky eaters never outgrew their pickiness? How many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bowls of plain pasta with butter can a mom possibly make, and is it even possible to get teens... more

The following post is from Aimée of Simple Bites and is the third guest post in the Breaking Picky Eaters series. We’ll start to look at different reasons why a child might be picky and solutions and methods to try with your “particular eaters” at home based on what has worked for all of us, what hasn’t worked and what might work for you later this week. I am no stranger to the fussy eater. If I looked back and evaluated my journey as a mom so far, coping with my two picky... more