When Valentine’s Day falls mid-week, I tend to be in a bit of a scramble to come up with a special weeknight treat to celebrate the occasion. With just about every special event, my celebration-style always revolves around food. I make special dinner, pick up a favorite beer or wine depending on the menu, and of course we need something sweet to cap off the meal. This year I decided that I would find a way to dress up a boxed brownie mix for a quick-fix dessert that still feels celebration-worthy.
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Can I tell you my new favorite thing? Polls on instagram. They’re the best. I’ve done a few informal polls recently to figure out exactly what my followers want more of, and the answers have been incredibly helpful. The biggest takeaway I’ve gotten is that dinner is clearly a struggle in lots of households (often at our house too!). Quick, easy, and healthy-ish dinner ideas are in demand, so I’m doing my best to come up with some fresh ideas to fulfill the need!
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I’m a total Valentine’s Day nerd, I love the pink hearts and the sentimental cards, and I really love the excuse to indulge a little bit with some sweet treats! It seems that over the past few years, the idea of a “Galentine’s Day” party, to celebrate with your best girlfriends, has become almost more popular than the actual Valentine’s Day occasion. I get it, my girlfriends are way more into flowers and cute cards and heart sunglasses than our husbands likely are. Why not celebrate with them? I have some sweet ideas to get you inspired to throw your own Valentine’s Day coffee and cookies party with your best buds or your own sweetheart!
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Last week I had a few gals over for a Valentine’s Day craft-session and some cocktails. It was on a Monday night after dinner, so I just had a cheeseboard out to nibble on and decided we needed something deliciously indulgent and sweet for the Valentine’s Day theme. I’ve been toying around with an “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” cookie recipe idea for awhile, and thought this was the perfect occasion to make them with a Valentine’s Day twist. The cookie recipe has all of the basics elements of a big gooey chocolate chip cookie, but takes it to the next level with a variety of delicious mix-ins. I put toffee bits, crushed pretzels, dark chocolate morsels, and a few different kinds of seasonal M&Ms inside these. You could easily swap in nuts, caramel chips, any kind of chopped up candy bar or chocolate. They were good, like, I had to hide them from myself and my family (mostly Jane) level-good. Make up a batch this weekend and find some valentine’s to share them with! Get the full recipe below: 
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Anyone that knows me well knows that I am a sandwich fiend. I love a good deli sandwich; it’s one of my very favorite things to eat. Admittedly, the deli selection in this part of the state is dismal, and pales in comparison to the amazing delis I grew up with in New York. So I have gotten quite serious about making my own top-notch deli sandwiches at home.
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If you’re going to cheat on your New Year’s resolution, please go big and feast hard next Sunday. Because Sunday is like the Super Bowl of Snacks. Well, yes, that’s exactly what it is. We’ve been eating so healthy around here lately, but I think a splurge might be in order as we cozy up on the couch to watch the Justin Timberlake concert, ahem, I mean our beloved New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. To get your menu in order (I hope you also like to plan your meals a week in advance like I do), I’ve rounded up some of my favorite savory, spicy, and sweet Super Bowl Sunday recipes! And please, tell me in the comments what you’re going to cook up so I can daydream about delicious snacks.
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We are on a household mission this month to eat healthier. A really big part of our plan is to cut down on carbs. It’s so very hard since I literally think about pasta and pizza and croissants and bagels constantly throughout the day. Instead of thinking about this healthier low-carb eating plan as a diet where I can’t have the things I want, I’m trying really hard to think of all of the delicious recipes that I can have so there is something to look forward to. I’ve been digging through Pinterest, tearing out healthy ideas from resolution-fueled January issues of my favorite magazines, and brainstorming like crazy to concoct new recipes with a better-for-you twist. I’ll admit, healthy recipes have never been a focus on this blog (I mean, I posted about BBQ chip crusted mac and cheese and three ideas for loaded potato skins earlier in the week), but I really am trying to turn a new leaf and give it a try.
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In those first few weeks after the beginning of the New Year, everyone is on a healthy-kick, whether we made resolutions about it or not. It’s time to get back into routine, kick those bad-holiday habits, and buckle down with some healthy eating. We have been staying on track at our house with healthy meals during the week. In order to keep my sanity with this healthy-eating, I need to allow myself one day a week to cheat a little and indulge. There is no better day to indulge in the middle of the winter than football Sundays. The term “go-big or go-home” applies to both the actual game on TV, and how I feel about Sunday football snacks.
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At the very end of the year, I took an informal survey on my Instagram page. I asked what exactly my followers wanted to see more of on the blog, and there was an overwhelmingly large response for easy weeknight dinners and meal prepping ideas. I previously wrote a big post about how we plan our meals out for the week to help us stay on budget, reduce food waste, and most of all, hopefully eat a little healthier. If food is pre-made in the fridge for lunches, or if I have a clear plan of what is on the menu for dinner each night, we make much better food choices and cut down on my frenzied panics about what we’re going to eat.
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I didn’t really grow up a huge football fan, but when I moved to Boston for college I began to see a lot of the appeal. The winters here are cold, and hibernating with your friends and family on the couch on a Sunday afternoon to watch the game is a pretty nice way to spend your day. Also: football snacks. Yea, it’s the snacks really sold me on the whole football thing. I’m always looking for new treat ideas to bring to family and friend’s houses when we’re over for a Sunday afternoon hang, and that’s where the idea for these football marshmallows came from. The recipe is in the new issue of Family Circle Magazine on stands now! 
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