I’ve been loving listening to Trader Joe’s new podcast, Inside Trader Joe’s. It’s well-produced and the people on it are pretty funny, and it really does keep surprising me with new information. I just listened to episode four, though, and it broke my heart because they explain why they will never sell their products online.

Sure, there’s a good reason for it, but that’s probably cold comfort to those of us who don’t live near a Trader Joe’s and just want some cookie butter, lavender dryer sachets, and a bucket of dried fruit.

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When that 3 p.m. snack craving hits, it’s tempting to turn to chips or a cookie, but more often than not we still crash an hour later. The good news is that there are plenty of snacks that will satisfy your cravings and add a serving of vegetables to your day.

Here are 17 of our favorite veggie-based snacks — from the new classic of roasted chickpeas to the standby of kale chips — to make you feel good about your afternoon munchies.

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We’ve already covered why wedding registries are a necessary evil. (For those who missed it, the abridged version goes something like this: Everyone is going to ask where you’re registered, people are going to buy you stuff no matter what, you might love being able to pull out a platter that your grandmother gave you long after she’s gone, etc.).

Convinced? Yay! Staring at a blank computer screen wondering where to start? Boo!

Don’t worry — we’ve complied a list of the 15 essential kitchen items you should register for, and we’ve gone as far as to list the exact product you should ask for, sometimes even with options based on your tastes. Consider it our wedding present to you. We’ll just assume our invitation must have gotten lost in the mail?

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This weekend my toddler requested pancakes, and I was happy to oblige. Most of the time parenting feels like taking a wild guess on a multiple-choice exam I haven’t studied for and hoping to land on the right answer by luck. But pancakes I can handle. I can even make shapes. (Mickey Mouse is a shape.)

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Cauliflower is the avocado of 2018. I don’t know what it is about cauliflower that made us all become obsessed with it this year, but cauliflower is everywhere.

Maybe it was the first time we tried a cauliflower “steak” and realized cauliflower takes on other flavors well and has enough heft and bite to sit in the center of the plate and still feel like a meal, or maybe it’s just the fact that it’s so easy to hide in other foods to trick ourselves into eating more vegetables.

Whatever the case is, cauliflower is pretty great — especially when it’s used to make a pizza crust.

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The number of new product introductions at Trader Joe’s is so high, it can be downright dizzying. In fact, we’ve written about how you really should go online to learn about these new products before you even step foot in the store (see: If You’re Not Doing This Before a Trip to Trader Joe’s, You’re Doing Your Shopping All Wrong!).

Just in the last few days, we’ve seen a new salad topper mix, jars of giardiniera, and cauliflower gnocchi. It’s aways super fun to see new products in the stores, try them out, and update our mental list of favorite products. What could there possibly be to complain about?

Well, Matt Sloan, the vice president of marketing product at Trader Joe’s, just gave us one kinda big thing!

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Last November Amazon launched two of its own affordable and stylish in-house furniture brands. There’s Rivet, a mid-century-modern-inspired line, and Stone & Beam, which leans more rustic and modern farmhouse.

We didn’t write about them then (although our sister site, Apartment Therapy, did) because the two brands were focused on living rooms. We’re writing about them now, because, you guessed it, they’ve both expanded to offer dining room furniture — plus bedroom and home office stuff, but we’re gonna focus on the dining room pieces.

The new pieces are so great, they made us wonder why we don’t hear of people buying furniture on Amazon more often. In general, the site has a ton of kitchen and dining room furniture.

Let’s just take a quick look at some of our favorite pieces from these two new lines.

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My love affair with Southern-style coconut cake happened 10 years ago — just after I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and began working on a little TV show called Good Eats. My very first bite of coconut cake made me fall in love with its steep peaks of fluffy frosting, tender white cake, and halo of freshly shaved coconut.

But here’s the secret: That coconut cake required several days of work from a kitchen intern (me). I vowed to someday make a coconut cake of that caliber with less fuss. Well, my friends, that day has arrived!

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We are about to enter the magical time of year when I get to turn off my oven and cook as many of my meals as possible on the grill outside. This will be the third summer my husband and I have owned a grill (our third summer of home-owning!). And we’ve finally found a grill-cleaning tool that we actually like!

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You’d think that the beginning of spring and the end of school would bring some relief to our already hectic schedule, but no — May brings summer camp planning, soccer parties, PTA fundraisers, and class parties that fill up our calendar quickly.

Once again, I’m calling on the power of the slow cooker to feed my family this next week with a few family-friendly favorites that make dinnertime easier.

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