trader joe’s

Weekend activities and my first recipe with bacon

This past weekend was all kinds of awesome.  We hung out with new friends who I’m certain will become old friends.  P got a taste of his first slip ‘n slide.  I ate a vegan ice cream sandwich that blew my mind.  And we got to enjoy some quality family time before Kyle went away for work.  Summer is his busy season so the sporadic posting often has to do with me being a solo parent while he’s off at random solar sites. That’s a separate mexican layered bean dip for the lactose free folks… Read more >

Brownie mix cookies

I was debating between making brownies or cookies for our memorial day party and was kinda in the mood for shortcuts since I was making a few other things.  So I decided brownies would be easier because TJ’s has a gluten free mix. But then! I never would have thought of this on my own but I happened to look at the bag and noticed a cookie recipe.  Best of both worlds. I made tweaks, naturally.  There wasn’t nearly enough liquid as per their recipe so I upped the water.  I suspect any liquid would work though…. Read more >

What I ate…a long time ago

Last week I took photos of my whole day of eats – something I rarely do anymore – and then I just forgot about it. But they were good meals worth sharing so I’m posting them now because it’s food related and this is a food blog! It’s pretty atypical for me to have oats in the mornings nowadays, so this creation is more of an anomaly than the norm.  I was in the mood for peanut butter but I used sunbutter instead because I’m still nervous about eating nuts when I’m around P.  Even… Read more >

Ten Reviews

Here are some products I’ve tried lately. Some were bad, some were okay, some were good, and some were awesome. So I figured I’d share. I have no affiliation with any of these companies. These are simply my honest opinions.   1. blue monkey coconut chips I got these as a freebie for some educational event I went to, but I know they are sold at Whole Foods as well as mainstream grocers (check the “ethnic foods” aisle).  I really loved them and although they were sweetened, I’d buy them again.  I used them as… Read more >

[more] omni meals for the family

Leading up to our trip, I tried to make the most of what we had leftover in the kitchen and freezer.  The meals were mostly huge salads with grains – my effort to be cheap and use up every single perishable item in the house so nothing went to waste.  As you can imagine, these weren’t the most inventive or exciting meals (also they were insanely repetitive) so I didn’t bother taking pics.  I did, however, have photos of some of our dinners from the previous week that I never got around to sharing…so here… Read more >