We all have different standards of how we wish to maintain our homes. But sometimes, no matter how good our intentions and how hard we try, we just cannot keep on top of our spaces the way we’d like to.
Here are some reasons you might be getting stuck, and some fixes to help hoist you out of the rut.
Unlike the grocery store, I typically show up to the farmers market without a list in hand. While I have an idea of what’s in season and what vegetables to expect, I stick with buying what’s fresh and looks good at the moment. Then comes the fun (and sometimes overwhelming, tbh!) part of deciding how to turn it into dinner. From pasta and stir-fries, to salads and casseroles, here are 25 easy recipes to turn your produce into dinner.
Vanilla ice cream doesn’t have the best reputation in the frozen dessert world. For starters, it’s an insult to call something “vanilla,” as the suggestion implies that whatever you’re referring to is essentially boring AF. Now we are about to add insult to injury with some cold-hearted facts: Nearly one in five store-bought vanilla ice creams doesn’t even contain vanilla, according to U.K. consumer insight organization Which?. Even worse, they don’t contain fresh cream or milk either — hallmarks of what actually constitutes ice cream.
At this time, we’d like to take a moment and channel our inner Ina Garten to say that sometimes store-bought is not fine.
I remember reading a list once about the top 25 cardinal sins of interior design homeowners make, and situated somewhere near the top was having fake plants. Fast forward to the present, when designers and influencers seem to be advocating for artificial flora with increasing frequency.
Is it true? Have fake plants turned the corner from faux pas to fashionable?
I will be the first to admit that I do not drink enough water during the work day. It’s not for lack of good intention — I start the day strong, but by mid-morning I slowly start falling off track. I’m certain that the culprits (okay, excuses) are the same ones that plague you (i.e., not getting up from my desk enough to refill my glass, forgetting to keep a glass on my desk, or when I do, simply forgetting about it).
No more excuses! Here are seven easy ways to drink more water during the work day (and stick with it!).
Those little tools, utensils, and gadgets in your kitchen drawer somehow add up to quite a large sum of money. Ten bucks on a pizza cutter here, 12 on a grater there … before you know it, you’re spending hundreds of dollars stocking (or restocking) a single drawer.
Luckily, some companies — like Brandless and Tobox — are hoping to help you change that, selling all sorts of kitchen gear for just $3 a pop. See, these two sites cut out the middlemen (read: stores) by selling their products directly to consumers. They also keep costs low by having little to no advertising budgets. So, we thought we’d do our part to help get the word out about Tobox (we’ve written about Brandless before).
Getting into our back-to-school routine also means packing school lunches once again. And being a busy parent means that we each have to find little pockets of time for chores like laundry and, yes, lunch packing. We asked 10 multitasking mamas for their best tips to make lunch-packing faster, easier, and maybe a little bit more enjoyable.
If you have a CSA or veggie garden, this is the time of year you’re likely swimming in zucchini. It’s a nice problem to have, but you need to be armed with plenty of recipes in order to keep things interesting. One of the most popular ways to eat zucchini is to turn it into noodles, and Pinterest users are up on the trend. The most popular zucchini recipe on Pinterest is this one for zucchini noodles with creamy avocado pesto from Eat Yourself Skinny. The recipe has been saved 117,000 times and has 75 photos and comments.
The slow cooker is one of the best tools for getting easy dinners on the table. I mean, what’s not to love about an appliance that practically does all the work for you? But the slow cooker does not always produce the most flavorful results — a common complaint is that things often come out tasting one-note — so a lot of recipes rely on high-fat ingredients like cream or cheese to jazz things up.
If your health goals include eating more veggies and protein and less fat, but you still want the convenience of cooking in a slow cooker, we’re here to help you. From chicken enchilada soup to veggie burrito bowls, there’s a recipe here for everyone.
In our Meal Plan Club (have you joined yet?) there was a really helpful thread about cooking for a family of one or two. People shared their strategies (including shopping from the salad bar for small amounts of vegetables) and their favorite recipes and batch-cooking techniques. It was a good reminder for me — someone who routinely cooks for four or more every week — that every phase of meal planning has its tough spots.
When you’re meal planning for one or two in a world of recipes written for four to six, waste is a big concern. You can certainly batch-cook a few things, but you’ll likely burn out on eating pulled pork five nights a week. With that in mind, here’s a meal plan for one to two eaters that won’t leave you swimming in leftovers.