Food

I love baking, especially when I have fresh citrus in my backyard! One thing I absolutely love about SoCal (and there are many) is the fresh fruit. The citrus here is darn good. Since my house actually has a lemon tree, I love getting to find new lemon recipes to try each spring.

Do your kids and family like sloppy joes? I realized, recently, that my kids had never had sloppy joes! The thing is, I don’t really like traditional sloppy joes. For me, they are too sweet and I don’t like ketchup. I know, I’m weird. I don’t like a lot of condiments. But sloppy joes are a family staple, so I decided to create a healthy sloppy joe recipe without ketchup in it and I’m so glad I did.

Last week, I shared with you that I started the FWTFL plan. One of the things I love most about the plan is the focus on whole nutrition. Focusing on whole grains, like quinoa, healthy proteins, like ground turkey, and fresh fruits and veggies. This turkey quinoa meatloaf recipe fits perfectly into the plan and a well-balanced diet.

Every Christmas Eve, my mom made this authentic Italian lasagna recipe. It was one of our family traditions that I’ve since carried on to my family. This year, I made a few batches and even shared one with a dear friend who doesn’t have family in town. It makes me feel good to carry on some of my family traditions, and this lasagna recipe is at the top of my list.

Have you heard of La Befana and the feast of the Epiphany? I hadn’t until a few days ago. I’m always looking for more ways to connect to my Italian heritage. My birthday is on Three Kings Day – aka Epiphany, so I researched ideas of traditional Italian desserts and that’s how I learned about befanini cookies.

My favorite time of year! It’s cookie season friends! I love Christmas time but I especially love it because it gives me so many opportunities to bake. When I looked back at all I’ve done in the 6+ years I’ve been blogging, I realized that I’m a bit of a cookie-baking addict. Just on gingerbread cookie recipes alone, I’ve made 5! That’s a lot of gingerbread. They also happen to be some of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes too!

Do you like cranberries? I personally think they are an underutilized fruit. Most people only have them once or twice a year on Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas and they only eat them as cranberry sauce. I wanted to shake things up and see if I could enjoy cranberries another way, so I came up with this cranberry muffins recipe.

What do you do with your leftover stuffing? Did you know you can make super moist meatballs that are quick and delicious using leftover stuffing? I had no idea either, but I’m so glad I stumbled across this recipe because they are SO good!

What do you do with leftover mashed potatoes? Most of the time, we just eat them as-is. Until I saw a recipe for leftover mashed potatoes soup, I never even considered another use for leftover mashed potatoes.