The Magic Green Sauce

It’s 60 degrees and sunny here, you guys! I just want to dance and scream and hug everything in sight! Can you feel my squeeze of excitement?!

We’ve been firing up the grill for dinners over the last week and boy does it feel good. Less mess in the kitchen, more fresh food, and QUICK…the grill is just so quick! And just as the grill has come out of hibernation, so has this magic green sauce. I know I’ve told y’all about it before in some way, shape or form. But this stuff has been made at least 5 times over the last week…I double the recipe in hopes of it lasting us a while but it just gets smeared, smothered, poured and drizzled so much that I can’t keep up! I need to get that herb garden going:) Continue reading

Cinnamon Apple Pear Sauce

Look, you guys

It’s here. My most favorite, beautiful, scenic time of year. I told the kids it was supposed to snow this week so we had to ask Alexa when the first technical day of winter is. Do you want to know what she said? December 21st. Yet we have snow in the forecast for today, November 6. You try explaining all of this to a 4 year old. Why oh why can’t crispy, cool autumn fulfill its assigned 3 full months?! Winter is so dang greedy and aggressive around here🙄

But we certainly won’t stop celebrating autumn in this house until that far away day in December…and this yummy Cinnamon Apple Pear Sauce will certainly be a constant in our fridge. I’m addicted. My kids could take down an entire batch in one sitting. I even got a “I want to eat this every day of my life!” from Jude. Winning.

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Summer Mixed Grill with Cilantro Sauce


If food was music, this right here would be our summer anthem, friends. Behold my favorite kind of meal, right here…in every way, shape and form!

It’s going on repeat..like once a week for sure. The Cilantro Sauce may be used as a meal in itself, with a spoon…you totally have my okay to do that. Pure, unabandoned flavor is all that I can say with this stuff. It takes any ordinary meal off that charts. It’s zingy, creamy, and so fresh tasting…we just love it so much! Continue reading

Thai Chopped Salad with Peanut Dressing

SONY DSCOh Lordy.  Meet my new best friend, you guys.  And I’ve got one lousy photo to prove it…ugh, a food bloggers worst nightmare.  I contemplated waiting to take more photos and post this recipe after the next time we have it but you know what?  I don’t really think its a good idea for me to wait any longer than necessary to hand this one over to you.  It’s a weeknight game changer and it tastes like a giant bowl of happiness.   Continue reading

One Pan Lebanese Chicken + Lentil Pilaf

SONY DSCI have been hardcore craving Lebanese food.  And I’m not talking just a yummy shawarma I can get from a local food truck.  I want the real deal…mamas cooking, preferably.  The authentic flavors, the comfort, all of it.  So I did a little playing around in my kitchen this past week and man have I seen the light!

This One Pan Lebanese Chicken and Lentil Pilaf is not a traditional Lebanese dish.  It is a lazy-cooks version of a couple of dishes combined and can I just say that it’s the best lazy-move I may have ever made in the kitchen?  The most tender, flavorful chicken paired with a savory lentil pilaf is a match made in heaven.  Continue reading

One-Pot Salmon Pasta with Cream Sauce

SONY DSCFriends!  Hello!  How are we?  We’ve nearly made it through January, the most grey month of the year, in my opinion…so the rest is all downhill from here, right?  We just returned home from a vacation with my entire side of the family you guys….what a way to break up the month.  We had such a great time and enjoyed the warm weather of the Bahamas so incredibly much.  And now…back to good old reality.  But gosh I have to admit, a solid routine and well rested kids feels pretty dang good.

So to go with this grey month, how about a rich, gooey, comforting pasta dish that you can get on the table in 20 minutes?  Yes?  Yes.  Let’s do it!  Continue reading

Pan Roasted Salmon Mediterranean Bowls with Tahini Sauce

SONY DSCOh for all things yum.  If you’re looking for a warm, yet light, fresh weeknight meal idea look no further, friends.  These bowls right here are the whole shebang.

Let’s start with the tahini sauce.  If you have even the slightest relationship with hummus this stuff will knock your socks off.  I eat it on everything.  I mean everything.  From green salad dressing to veggie dip to burger topping to sweet potato fry dunking.  Tart and garlicky and creamy and oh my golly I just can’t get enough.   Continue reading

Pan Roasted Chicken Thighs with Chive Cream Sauce

img_6592Boy oh boy it’s been a while.  How was your long weekend?  As I told you last time we chatted, we took a little road trip to visit my family down in Iowa and Nebraska and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to close out the summer.  It was time so well spent…with my parents, my siblings and their families.  Late nights, early mornings, donuts, happy kiddo giggles, mama’s homecooking, pool parties, coffee, pedicures…I mean it was just plain wonderful.  And now…school begins!  What a way to head into a new year, hearts full as all get out.

And as you may know, somehow, magically, each year as summer begins to slip away my seasonal cooking-brain goes right with it.  It’s incredible how it happens so organically.  Suddenly I begin craving warm food….my tummy just begins to tire a bit of all of the cool, crisp, fresh fare.  So this dish right here is just a lovely way to begin the transition….it’s warm and comforting, yet still light and fresh. Continue reading

Crispy Roasted Potatoes with Bleu Cheese Dip

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Do you guys have that urge to cook a solid meal on Sundays?  Like, a stick to your ribs, starchy, midwestern type meal?  I can’t get over it.  I don’t know what it is.  But chances are you’ll never see me serving a main course salad or light dish on that savored last-day-of-the-weekend.  It just doesn’t feel right.  Continue reading