Dark Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread with Walnuts

After posting a picture of this to Instagram, I had some requests for the recipe, and so (no less than a week later), here it finally is. The girls absolutely LOVE banana bread, and they love to help smashing the bananas for it, so it was a win-win for them. While I'm not typically a...

Marinara Sauce (for canning)

Earlier this month, I took my first trip to Charlie's U-Pik in Wiggins, MS with friends. We spent the morning in the heat and humidity wading through mud in our rainboots picking farm fresh produce. The tomatoes, unfortunately, weren't ripe yet. So as I checked out, I grabbed a 25 lb. box of Roma tomatoes...

Paleo Fig Bars (no dairy, no grains, sugar-free)

So the Husband is on my $hit list. This morning, when I was feeding the girls, I walked over to the sink and saw my mini springform pan--empty--sitting, waiting to be washed. Last night, when I went to bed, it was in the fridge. Full of a perfect, beautiful, individual fig bar intended for a...

Mixed Pepper Jelly

  In the midst of my food preservation / preparation flurry, I've made some large batches of mini (quarter-pint) jars of certain things for our yearly holiday gifts. Come wintertime, all I'll have to do is make pretty labels, and give them to the Man to hand out Yay for reducing holiday stress! Following is...

Non-Traditional Green Chimichurri Sauce

  So after I turned 50 lbs. of tomatoes and half a bushel of peppers into salsa for canning, I found myself with an extra 1 1/2 cups of finely chopped cilantro. What to do? Make chimichurri of course. It must be noted, of course, that traditional chimichurri from Argentina and Uruguay doesn't actually use...

It’s been a long day…

So I haven't really written since I left for my business trip last Thursday. For good reason. From the moment I walked out the door at 5:30 AM on Thursday until the moment I got home at 11:30 PM on Sunday, I was running. 7 AM until 3 AM the next morning each day. And...

Mild Fire Roasted Salsa

So last night, when I told my husband that I was heading to the farm this morning to pick up salsa making supplies and asked him how much salsa I should make for the year. "Do you think 12 pints will be enough?" "No way! Quarts, not pints. How about 50? I really like salsa."...

Hot Fire Roasted Salsa

This is the version of my salsa that I made for my husband today, who likes much more heat than the girls and I can handle. It's not ridiculous, but it's too spicy for my taste. You can adjust the heat and flavor to your own preferences by switching out the peppers: just make sure...

Homemade Skillet Chili Mac

If you're anything like me, a sizeable portion of your life is spent devoted to creating dishes that are somewhat healthy, that your ridiculously picky tiny people will still eat. My girls are great with anything that revolves around "normal" fruits, bread, snack food, sugar, or chicken nuggets, but that is about the extent of their culinary...

Four Cheese Skillet Lasagna

Dinner last night was a one-pot wonder. The picky, picky toddlers ate it happily, which is the triumph I pray for every day...and I managed to sneak veggies in! Next time, I'll add more vegetables (now that I know they'll go for the sauce and won't notice them) and skip the bread crumb topping to cut...