My New Favorite Trader Joe’s Product Makes Breakfast Easier — Grocery Shopping

I am generally not a morning person, so I need breakfast to be easy. I’m not going to turn on the oven, and there can’t be a ton of ingredients involved. I usually gravitate towards simple things like breakfast tacos, eggs on toast, and smoothies. That’s why I was super excited last week when I discovered a new-ish product from Trader Joe’s that makes my morning so much easier and delicious. Have you tried this?

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10 Easy Slow Cooker Dinners to Make on Busy Weeknights — Recipes from The Kitchn

On any week that’s peppered with late nights at the office and activities like sports practice, piano lessons, or book club, getting dinner on the table can feel like a feat of Everest-like proportions. These are the nights to pull out your slow cooker and rely on it to do the heavy lifting leading up to dinnertime. Whether you need a dump-and-go recipe that can cook totally hands-off, like sloppy Joes or soup, or have a few minutes for up-front prep, these are the 10 slow cooker dinners to add to your meal plan on busy weeks.

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Recipe: A Last-Minute Ravioli Casserole — Quick and Easy Weeknight Dinners

(Image credit: Joe Lingeman)

If you like light, lemony pastas as much as I do, this easy casserole — and I mean so easy it all come together in one baking dish — is going to be your jam. Ravioli straight from the freezer goes into a trusty baking dish with a sauce of white wine, broth, garlic, and thyme. It magically thickens up during baking with the help of cornstarch. Topped with thinly sliced lemons, it all bakes together into a luscious casserole that requires zero stove time and can be assembled in the time it takes the oven to heat up. Scatter some peas from the freezer on top and you now have a pasta casserole that took very little effort, but yields some amazing results.

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Next Week’s Meal Plan: 5 Miracle Meals for a Really Busy Week — Next Week’s Meal Plan

Home life right now is a little bit bananas. Just a few weeks ago we sold our home in Georgia and we are currently packing and planning a cross-country move and my husband is gone all week working and house hunting in our new city.

So this week’s meal plan is all about miracle meals — recipes I can cook with my eyes closed, or that whittle down pantry ingredients, or that my children requested and I know they will devour without fuss. There are some seasonal vegetables helping out this carb-heavy week, so this week’s menu is still fun and summery but also super easy.

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Summer Jobs: The Summer I Ran a Baseball Snack Stand — Summer Jobs

This month we’re looking back on all the strange and wonderful food jobs people have held during the summer. Whether it’s a job at a local scoop shop, a grocery store, or the concession stand at a baseball field, the skills and memories you gather in those short, hot months usually turn out to be invaluable. Here’s Bex vanKoot on her summer running her own business at a baseball field.

The summer of 1998 was one of many firsts for me. I was finishing up my first year of high school, preparing to take my beginner’s driving test, dating my first boyfriend, planning my as-yet-only trip overseas, and working my first real job at a baseball park snack stand (babysitting doesn’t count, right?). I would spend that summer learning the ins and outs of running my own business, a first that I can say now, almost 20 years later, led directly to the last decade I have spent freelancing and traveling the world.

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The 5 Types of Dinners You Can Make After a Trip to the Farmers Market — Farmers Market Suppers

I have two personas when it comes to food shopping: my grocery store persona and my farmers market persona. The former, without fail, hits the store with a carefully curated shopping list arranged by the layout of the aisles; the latter arrives without a shopping list or a plan at all (I prefer to just see what’s in season and grab the produce and herbs that catch my eye).

They key to making this approach work and easily turn my farmers market haul into dinner is knowing a few simple and versatile types of meals that can be made with anything I bring home. Instead of trying to find a specific recipe that matches exactly what I buy, I begin with a dinner template. From a veggie-packed frittata to a summery pizza, these five meals show how to turn a trip to the farmers market into dinner.

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Coke Zero Is on Its Death Bed and Consumers Are Grieving the Loss — Food News

Coca-Cola announced a major change in its product lineup on Wednesday. It’s no-calorie drink, Coke Zero, will be swapped out with a new beverage — featuring a new recipe, new design, and new name — called Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. The drink will make its debut next month. According to the company, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is the “new and improved Coke Zero.”

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A Man Tried to Return Butternut Squash Because He Thought It Was Cheese — Food News

It’s a mistake that could happen to anyone — anyone who can’t read or is not paying attention while shopping in the produce aisle. A man purchased what he believed to be cubed cheese only to find he bought diced butternut squash. His frustration upon finding squash instead of cheese is a universal sentiment that can be felt by cheese-lovers around the world.

The shopper took his fight to the supermarket to get his return. Witnessing the quest is bystander James Dator, who chronicled the event on Twitter, only for it to go viral.

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Parents Eat Better When Their Kids Eat Healthy Food, Says Study — You’re a Parent Now

When you live in the same household as someone, it’s a not a surprise that you would all eat similarly. Unless someone is making specific meals for every individual — which would be too much work — everyone is going to be eating that pizza, or salad, or whatever you’re having for meals. So it’s generally accepted that children eat how their parents do. But a new study found that managing a child’s diet can also impact the parent’s.

Specifically, parents who actively monitor their children’s food eat better foods than caregivers who don’t manage the diets of their children. The longitudinal study, called the Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project, took place over the course of two decades in two parts.

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