6 ideas for a really fun Valentine’s Day lunch with the kids
I'm so happy that Valentine's Day falls on a weekend this year. I can love on my kids all day, then head out the door for a guilt-free date night with my husband in the evening. I'm thinking we'll whip up a batch of these delicious-looking pink velvet pancakes for...
Web Coolness: Instagram brownies, champagne gummy bears, and the most outrageous Valentine’s lollipops ever.
Here are some of our favorite food links from around the web this week. We hope you like them, too. CME is an r*style affiliate Adorable Instagram brownies from one of our favorite YouTube cooking shows, Nerdy Nummies. The world's first ready-to-drink buttered...
How to make tea eggs with kids for Chinese New Year.
Monday marks Chinese New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Monkey. A colorful celebration rich with tradition, Chinese New Year offers a spectacularly fun opportunity to talk to young children about culture. And what better way into a broad discussion of...
Very punny, food-themed Valentine’s Day printables perfect for the classroom. And to make you smile.
I just discovered @mariesaba on Instagram, which might be my favorite food art feed of all time. Because puns + food = the perfect entertainment. Marie uses pie dough (or are they cookies?) to shape letters that she pairs with food to play on funny sayings. A scroll...
Weekend Toast: Cheers to World Nutella Day with these crazy delicious Nutella drink recipes.
Today is one of our favorite food holidays at Cool Mom central, World Nutella Day. We don't care if it's a made up celebration, because we believe. Whether you use the original product or a newfangled, all-natural chocolate-hazelnut spread, the dreamy combination of...
7 Valentine’s Day food gifts more affordable than a fancy bouquet and more charming than another box of truffles.
There's nothing wrong with giving truffles or flowers on Valentine's Day, but if you're on a budget or just don't feel like breaking the bank, going with one of these fun, affordable Valentine's Day food gifts might be more fun than a garden-variety box of chocolates...
Skinny snack dips… so that you can eat more chips, of course.
Sure, the commercials are noteworthy and the halftime show entertaining, but I think that we can all agree that the best part of watching the Super Bowl is indulging in game day eats with abandon. In the spirit of eating with abandon without too much guilt—or, worse,...
6 easy breakfast for dinner recipes that go way beyond pancakes.
Ah, breakfast for dinner. I love it because it's easy. My kids love it because, well, breakfast for dinner. My husband, however, hates when he sees those three words on our weekly menu because he assumes that breakfast for dinner means plain pancakes and cereal. I...
5 ways to turn a pan of brownies into an easy Valentine’s Day dessert for the kids. And you, too!
It never fails that I remember I need to take treats to the party in my kids' classes at the very last minute. Or that, after a week of procrastinating, I remember, oh yeah, Valentine's Day is tomorrow and I should probably make a little something special for my kids....
The most outrageous Valentine’s lollipops: Found them.
I was browsing Etsy, looking for some fun Valentine's treats from smaller makers around the country and then I stumbled onto A Secret Forest, the shop whose wares made my jaw drop. These are the kinds of artisanal, artful, transcendently creative handmade...
Web Coolness: teaching kids to eat new foods, the crispiest ever grilled cheese, white coffee, and more.
Here are some of our favorite food links from around the web this week. We hope that you like them, too. The secret to the crispiest grilled cheese ever. Tips for teaching children to eat new foods. Doodlers Anonymous and The Mind of a Chef held a drawing...
Five 3-ingredient cocktail recipes that will make you feel like a master mixologist (even if you’re not) | Weekend Toast
I have a confession: I love perusing cocktail recipes more than I love making them. See, I'm a bit of a lightweight and it's hard to conjure the energy to shake up a complicated cocktail when just one drink will be plenty. And when you drink one cocktail at a...
Our favorite tips, tricks, and kitchen hacks
Non-toxic spring cleaning with salt: 8 unexpected uses in the kitchen beyond cooking.
Springtime means spring cleaning in my house and that means cleaning with salt. Yes, really. While there are some great natural cleaning products out there that are worth every dime (we love Better Life around here, and even housecleaning services use it), the...
Create a more sustainable kitchen with these 10 easy, eco-friendly ideas
With Earth Day coming up in April and spring cleaning season here, it's a great time to reflect on ways we can create a more eco-friendly home and a more sustainable kitchen. If your family spends as much time as my family of five does thinking about, preparing,...
Kitchen spring cleaning checklist: 7 kitchen tasks everyone forgets
With spring having sprung (and the words of Marie Kondo echoing in my head all these years later), I've been doing my best to kick-start kitchen spring cleaning before summer arrives. But one thing I've learned after all these years is it's so easy to miss certain...
Healthy comfort food recipes to get us through the winter without the extra pounds
Healthy comfort food recipes can be hard to come by. I mean I totally get the desire to start new diets in the new year, what with fresh beginnings and all. But when it's winter, I just want to cuddle up on the couch with a blanket and a big bowl of cheesy soup or...
How to tell if food is fresh: Tips for 7 of your top pantry staples
It's good to have some tricks for how tell if food is fresh and still good to eat -- as you know if you've ever opened a jar of half-used tomato sauce that seemed fairly new...only to find furry white spots of mold floating on top. While some spoiled food is quite...
Latest Recipes
7 spectacular macaroon variations for a big finish at Passover
We've explained many times that macarons are not to be confused with macaroons, the latter being a flour-free, gluten-free, generally chewy coconut cookie that's a favorite treat to finish off your Seder. This being Passover season, it's a perfect opportunity to...
5 easy spring recipes for the week ahead, from 35-minute lemony chicken cutlets to a fresh take on quesadillas | Weekly Meal Plan
It’s time to start thinking about your meal plan for next week. From 35-minute lemony chicken cutlets to sheet pan quesadillas, we’ve got five dinners that make good use of spring produce and lighter nights (yay!) to help get you through the busy week ahead. So...
A week’s worth of family-friendly spring recipes | Weekly Meal Plan
It's finally spring around here with daffodils popping up and flowering trees, which means it's time to start planning some spring dinners and easing out of all those heavy winter dishes. These are the spring dinner recipes that feel a bit lighter and brighter to...
These 11 light spring recipes help you shake off winter at the dinner table
When warm, spring weather hits I immediately lose all appetite for the heavy dinners like chili or pot roast that I craved during winter, and instead, I'm finding myself adding light spring recipes to our dinner roatation, like light pasta salads, cold, fresh...
These 9 recipes are most delicious ways to use hard-boiled eggs this week
These five truly awesome hard-boiled egg recipes may be the best, easiest, and most creative ways to use hard-boiled eggs, should you have a stockpile after Easter egg decorating. And don't worry, I'm not talking egg salad sandwiches a dozen ways either -- though...