Answers to a really common question about how to pack sandwiches for lunch and keep them from getting soggy.

This week's tip is all about making birthdays easier for busy parents.

This week's reader question is about how to manage family meal planning with a picky eater.

A super simple tip to keep apples from turning brown.

Grazing Table Ideas for Kids

Quick and easy preserved lemons that add tons of flavor to your recipes.

A simple secret for extra creamy scrambled eggs.

Run out of dishwasher detergent - here is my two ingredient dishwasher detergent hack that will get your dishes clean until you can restock.

Poached chicken often gets a bad rap. A lot of people think it's bland and flavorless. But it doesn't have to be that way. I think poached chicken can be a kitchen lifesaver. You may have heard me say before that I always have cooked chicken in my fridge.  There are so many quick and delicious meals you can make in just a few minutes if you already have cooked chicken.  I often will roast chickens and pick the meat off, but if I haven't gotten around to doing that and I want some cooked chicken to use for a recipe (or just to eat!), then poaching is my next best go-to.

Schedule

With simple ingredients and the use of a handy kitchen appliance, you can have fresh biscuits out of your oven in a half hour from start to finish - and in the oven in just 5 minutes from when you start. These are my current go-to when I am making a big pot of soup or stew and we want a little something to go with it.  They are absolutely perfect for soaking up gravy and broth, and they are amazing just piping hot with a little butter. They are also perfect for my couple of picky kids, because even if they don't eat the soup or stew that I'm serving for dinner, they are at least getting something made with whole grain and the protein of yogurt, milk, and egg. 

Schedule

I really had no intention to make peanut butter.  Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of homemade nut butters.  I've done sunbutter before, and it was great.  But I try to prioritize my time and making all my nut butters at home has never really made it to the top of my list of things I should be doing.

But I love peanuts.  I mean, I love roasted, salted peanuts.  A quick handful or two is an awesome snack - it satisfies my need for crunchy and salty, and gives me a little protein.  I bought some peanuts a couple weeks ago, thinking I was buying roasted and salted peanuts. Only to get home and realize that what I had grabbed was roasted and NOT salted. (That's what happens when you're trying to squeeze in a quick grocery trip in between pickups and dropoffs.) As far as I'm concerned, there is no place in my life for snacking on nuts that aren't salted.  I know you raw nut lovers can disagree, but I love my salt. 

It totally kills me that my kids prefer those instant oatmeal packets over real cooked oats.  But lately I'm really trying to focus on choosing my battles, and trying to force people to learn to like oatmeal with some texture over the creamy, mushy stuff, just seems like a fight that's not worth fighting at this stage, especially on an already manic school day morning.  But instant oatmeal packets have all kinds of strikes against them, and I just can't bring myself to buy them any more.  The artificial flavorings in so many of the mainstream brands, the amount of sugar, and the cost - with 4 kids eating two packets each, we would use whole box at one meal.  I have bought some organic ones before, which are a little better, but they still have so much sugar and are even more expensive. I had seen several mentions on various food blogs and pinterest boards about making your own, so I thought I'd give it a try.