This month in the Eat Well, Spend Less series I look at how the group introduces new foods to their children, whether they eat the same food, and whether they think any of that is important at all. Lights glare from the bubbles above the dining room table, sending yellowish streams through the room. Typical in the winter, when the sun sinks below the horizon before the food has a chance to be set out and the family called around the table. Banter across the warm oak includes sarcasm and teasing... more

This month in the Eat Well, Spend Less series we are focusing on getting back to the basics of feeding your family. Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Dinnertime is ever evolving in our house. This year we embarked on the path of swim club family, dragging the eldest to and from the pool a mere five nights a week for two-hour-long swim sessions. Combined with basketball, swim lessons for the younger crowd, catechism, homework for four, and time to wind down and... more

Looking for inspiration on what to pack in your kids’ lunchboxes as they head back to school? Here are a few fun lunchbox ideas to get you through the year (or at least the first half of it) in this month’s Eat Well, Spend Less series. I pull the white cotton sheet over my head and pretend the world does not exist. Being woken up to the sound of my husband’s alarm blaring at 5:45 a.m. after having just crawled into bed at 2:17 a.m. is a painful reality. If I can just keep my eyes... more

This month’s Eat Well, Spend Less is focused on the kids and the process of getting them in the kitchen to cook and eat. With summer vacation looming, this is the perfect time to tackle the terrain. When I was seven I cooked my first meal. I opened up a worn copy of my mom’s Betty Crocker Cookbook for Girls and Boys, and I made roast chicken, green bean almondine, and yeast bread shaped like a turtle. (The turtle actually came from Alpha-Bakery Gold Medal Children’s Cookbook.... more

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