Have you seen that funny meme about how adulthood is just taking everything you love and replacing it with cauliflower? It makes me laugh every time I see it because I feel like I have cauliflower’ed so many recipes – from cauliflower gnocchi to cauliflower mashed potatoes from cauliflower stir-fry to cauliflower stuffed peppers. You would think I would be done with it, but I have one more to add to the mix, this new recipe for cauliflower stuffed shells. The thing about cauliflower is that it can take on so many different flavors, and in this recipe it’s sautéed with lots of garlic before being folded into a ricotta cheese mixture. It gets totally hidden in garlic and cheese, in fact I served this to my family recently and no one knew the cauliflower was in there. So sneaky and so tasty – get the recipe below! read more

Even though I am loving every last second of the end of summer, I do get very excited about getting back into the steady routine of fall. Our weeks are a little more structured, and I definitely always think about the start of the school year as a reset-button on my habits and goals. With that reset-button comes a bit more intention about how I plan my days, and meal-planning at the beginning of the week always gets me started on the right foot! As I get back into the meal planning groove, I wanted to spice up my go-to dishes that I make ahead for a week of lunches (See some of my best meal planning tips in an older post). read more

I am lapping up every last drop of summer this week, which means spending lots of time outdoors. We have been plucking the most delicious end-of-summer veggies out of little container garden — the tomatoes are bountiful! And I’ve been scooping up sweet yellow squash and crisp green zucchini from our farm stand. To make the most of our ripe vegetables and our summer nights I have been using lots of shortcuts for speeding through making dinner. Less time in the kitchen = more time playing in the yard!  One of my best shortcut tricks is using al fresco Chicken Nights Faster Sausage. read more

A few weeks ago my mom and sister stayed the night and brought a recipe for a savory tomato pie recipe from Southern Living magazine. I was so excited to try it, since it made uses of the delicious seasonal tomatoes popping in my garden, and combined a buttermilk pie crust with a rich cheese filling. It came out amazing and it was so decadent and delicious, but the recipe took almost FOUR hours to make. Between prepping the dough, roasting the tomatoes, pre-baking the crust, and layering in resting times between each step, I had spent nearly the entire afternoon getting this darn tasty pie to the table. We sat around our patio table and discussed all of the things we loved about it, and I set out on a mission to make my own version that would down the prep time significantly! This version is my take on the southern classic and a perfect use for those sweet summer tomatoes; recipe below:
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Is there anything on this earth that tastes more like summer than a lobster roll? I think not! Hot or cold, I’ll take all of the lobster rolls I can get. My friends at Just Madras sent me an adorable package with a Lobster Roll tote bag, t-shirt, and perfectly preppy gingham napkins — it was the perfect excuse to make some lobster rolls for a summer picnic at the beach. I have my classic hot buttered lobster roll recipe in my cookbook, but realized I’ve never shared my cold lobster roll recipe here (until today!). This version gets tons of flavor from a healthy heap of fresh lemon thyme and chives. The herbs bring out so much flavor and brightness, and are a perfect compliment to the lobster meat. I made this version on small dinner rolls so guests can have them as a party snack (or gobble up a few of them alongside from potato chips!). Get the full recipe below: read more