Like any healthy adult, I hate going to the grocery store. It’s tiring, especially with two kids in tow, and it means a lot of waiting in lines, lifting heavy things and dealing with parking lot traffic. So about once a week, I find myself pawing through my refrigerator and pantry,...

On a whim, we recently tossed the kids in the car and headed east, specifically to New Orleans. We left the 100+ degree convection oven that is Austin in August and headed for the almost as hot and infinitely more humid swampland. And we had a blast. I was mostly excited about the culinary...

We’re going into month three of daily over-100-degree temperatures here in Austin. So I was kicking myself the other night when I made meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner. An oven set to 450 degrees plus a hot stove top equals a sweaty cooking, and eating, experience. And a...

The food pyramid, which the USDA first rolled out in 1992 is gone. It looked like this when I was a kid: It’s been replaced with “My Plate,” which looks like this: I can see that this is an improvement. I mean, just from a design standpoint, the new plate seems much easier to get...

Celery root isn’t something you see at the grocery store every day. So when I saw one in the produce department on my weekly grocery trip, I snatched it up, having no idea what I was going to do with it. I’ve learned that it’s better this way. If I plan, say, a soup featuring...

Spring has arrived. My favorite season, spring sadly only seems to last for a few weeks here in Central Texas before the endless summer begins. So I have to make sure to enjoy our short spring while it lasts. Neko and I are playing outside and hitting our favorite playgrounds before the swings...

Eating seasonally is amazing – you truly get the best quality produce when you make sure it’s in season. But doing so has its drawbacks. Like endless green beans. Every year, around August, I get incredibly sick of summer vegetables. I get to the point where I feel like I’m going...

Neko still won’t eat avocados. And it still blows my mind. Well, I kind of take it back. She did eat a bite of avocado once. When I was pregnant, we went to a TexMex restaurant and I was so hungry I ordered an avocado stuffed with cheese and deep fried. It felt like a brick in my...

So many of my favorite dishes can hardly be called recipes. Toss veggies with salt and olive oil and roast. Steam veggies and toss with salt and olive oil. Chop up raw veggies and toss with salt, olive oil and vinegar. I was feeling like it’s overstating things to call these dishes...

I love it when I can put a meal together without going to the store. Grocery shopping on my own with two small kids is exhausting, so I try to schedule all my shopping for days when I’ll have my husband or mother around to help me out when Neko pitches a fit or Conrad pees through his...

I fail at making healthy family breakfasts. Most mornings, Neko has Nutella on white bread and a glass of chocolate milk for breakfast. Perhaps it’s a step up from Pop-Tarts, but not a big step. If I’m feeling bad about her sugary breakfast, I’ll give her a healthy cereal...

Fresh pasta rocks. I mean, all pasta is delicious, just ask my kid, the noodle connoisseur. Neko can tell you the difference between soba, spaghetti and udon. And she loves them all. Noodles, whether topped with cheese and butter, soy sauce or tomato sauce, are one of her favorite foods. I...