Make that a soy latte I've been hearing the buzz about the documentary Forks Over Knives for a while saying it will convert you into being a vegan. Being a vegan was a challenge I was going to take for a month last year until I found out I was pregnant. I could totally be a vegetarian but cutting out dairy seemed super ext

Snow came really late this year. And that's pretty bad for a town whose economy counts on it for tourism. Last week, it snowed over 5 feet at our local resort, shutting it down for a day. We headed up to go sledding. Let's just say, pregnancy and watching your family sled, don't mix. 

my son will kill me someday for posting this photo After 3.5 years of diapers, we're finally diaper free in our house. I will admit, I should have done this sooner but nothing seemed to motive my son -- that was until he saw Cars 2 and he wanted new cars to play with. Everyone had advice for me ... put him and pull-ups and

I love getting inspiration from fellow bloggers and people I follow on Twitter. Imitation is the best form of flattery, right? Nanette, who is super cool in real life, made this recipe on Christmas Day for her brother-in-law who is a vegetarian.  Super intrigued, I asked her for the recipe. The recipe was a hit in my hou

A few months ago, that sticker to the left appeared in my goodie bag at a local marketing conference I attended. I decided to slap it on the back of my Jeep because I felt I was doing just that -- living local, buying local. Boy did that sticker give me a smack of reality. The first instance of reality came while I was in

I had a frozen loaf of homemade brioche that I needed to use up so I pulled out this recipe to try. It was so so tasty! Now I want to make another loaf of brioche to make it again!

I receive many requests to review products but most of the time they don't fit the scope of my blog ... going green gradually. But when Sommer Poquette emails you asking to try to a product, you take notice. Sommer is the mastermind behind Green and Clean Mom and site Mommy is a Blogger which explains to children and th

I love soup in the winter but I'm not a fan of tomato soup. For months, my husband has been begging me to make a tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for Meatless Monday. I came across this recipe in my Fresh Flavor Fast cookbook by Martha Stewart and Everyday Food and decided to give it a whirl. The technique -- roas

A little look at our Christmas. Our kid got spoiled at Christmas from the grandparents and was so exhausted from playing, he went to bed early.

Making polenta is pretty easy. You can get a bag of Bob's for $3 and it usually makes 4 servings of polenta. With that, I usually will use it as a side, mold it to a pan and grill or make polenta lasagna. BUT there are sometimes, I like buying that $2 tube at Trader Joe's to slice and grill.  The recipe is simple. Slice

I had grand plans for 2011. I had a long green list which in the back of my mind, I knew would take two years to accomplish You can view what progress we made by looking at what's checked off on that list.Here is the remaining list of green goals I'm looking to accomplish in 2012 Earn the natural baby badge on Practically G

As I mentioned, I have very fond memories of helping my mom bake cookies so this year I sought out holiday cookies Lil B would love to participate in making. One of the best I have found is one that involves square pretzels and Hershey's Hugs. It's the perfect combo of sweet and salty and my co-worker proclaimed them &qu

Setting up our tree was a magical experience for our three year old this year. I was quite disappointed last year when he wasn't too interested in any of it but this year, but I could see it in his eyes this year. He enjoyed filling the tree with ornaments. He's enjoyed making cookies. He's obsessed with Rudolph and Frosty

One of my favorite activities to do with my mom as a child was bake Christmas Cookies. One of my favorites were her pecan sandies (aka snowballs, Mexican Wedding Cookies). I still have and treasure her hand written recipe without the directions on how to put it together. I make these every year and get requests on handing d

I realized last week, I have talked about this before but never posted the recipe. My go to mac n cheese is a Martha Stewart classic: stovetop mac n cheese. Mac and cheese, from viewing my Meatless Monday archives, is a winter staple in our house and one that is guaranteed to be lunch and leftovers throughout the week. Some

Brian and I have been having fun with coming up with inappropriate things for Ben's "Chippy" to do. Most of this scheming takes place during nap or bedtime so Ben is unaware that Chippy is tainting Santa's cookies and hot cocoa with laxatives! Ha! It's all part of Baby Rabies Inappropriate Elf Contest. When it'

Thank goodness it's Friday. This morning I was told "I hate you" for the first time by my son. He was mad because he wanted to wear his Oregon Ducks jersey for the third day in a row to school. My husband had to work early and the shirts were dirty and I had to make him wear something else. Halfway to school, h

Want that fresh faced glow without spending a lot of dough? Take three parts baking soda, one part water and mix into a paste. Apply in a circular motion and then rinse. Thanks Pinterest!

I was lucky enough to grow up surrounded by a large family at the holiday season. It's something I often feel guilty about with my son so I try to make the holidays (and well, the rest of the year) special for him. This Thanksgiving, we spent it potty training my son (more to come on that someday). It meant staying indoors

photo from SimplyRecipes.com This dish was so tasty, we forgot to take a photo. Oops. Polenta is easy to make. It's as easy as picking up a bag of Bob's Polenta and following the back directions. Sometimes we once the polenta is molded, we'll either cut into wedges or circles and eat it cold or grill it on quickly on our

Who doesn't like Nutella? It's been a staple this whole pregnancy for me so I was pretty excited to see this super easy recipe for Nutella hot chocolate on Pinterest. The directions are mix 1 cup milk, 2 spoons nutella in a saucepan. Heat medium. Blend with a whisk until frothy. Believe me, it's amazing!

As you may already know from my various Meatless Monday posts, mac and cheese is a staple around our house. Getting my three year old to eat vegetables is a challenge so there are times we need to be sneaky about it so when I stumbled upon this mac and cheese in Everyday Food, I cried with joy! This mac and cheese is easy

I'm going to attempt to write up a Friday Five each week so here goes: We woke up to the first snow of the season. I waited to tell Lil B because I knew he would want to go outside and sure enough, he ran and put all his snow gear on and played outside for 20 mins before school. The drive to work/pre-school was super slick

Another Pinterest find! Freeze green onions and then store in a water bottle! When ever I get green onions in my CSA, I can't use them fast enough without going bad until I saw this post on Pinterest. How it works? Chop your green onions, then wipe off excess water with a towel or paper napkin. Let air drawn on a sheet. W

Halloween play doh We're still wearing Spiderman, two weeks later

My son was a champ at going to bed --that was until back in May, when we took Lil B's pacifier away. Taking it away meant two weeks of going to bed at 10 pm with me in our bed. Somehow, that routine stuck and I began to get a little grumpy because that meant my normal quiet time to myself from 8-10 pm was spent watching Wow

We've grown to love lentils in our house since starting the meatless Monday journey BUT this baby (which is a girl, by the way) has let it be known to stay away from the yellow curry. My husband loved this dish and pretty much ate 80% of what I made but I blame the baby as I usually love yellow curry! Lentil Curry from Eve