No-Cook Meals
How to Make a Chocolate Tasting Board
An interactive way to sample a variety of chocolate and see what you like best, a tasting board offers a festively easy dessert for holidays, birthday parties, bridal showers, potlucks–even a special night for two! Many of us enjoy a sweet treat after dinner. If you’re like me, you’d love to taste everything on…
Cranberry Mimosas
Quick, festive, and colorful, this twist on the traditional mimosa is an easy choice for holiday breakfasts and brunches throughout the year. A merry looking drink that offers easy prep and broad appeal, my family has given this drink a variety of names over the years. Christmas and holiday mimosas are the more straightforward…
Spider Cider
The name may be catchy but the flavor really delivers in this crowd-pleasing Halloween cocktail that you’ll want to enjoy throughout the fall and winter. Easy to mix one cocktail or a pitcher! It seems the older I get, the more I enjoy playing with my food! Holidays, of course, provide an abundance of…
No-Bake Pumpkin Spice Energy Bites
Capture the flavors of the season with these no-bake, satisfying bites that come together quickly and offer an option with no added sugars or syrups. Filling protein and fiber. Satiating fats. Warm spices. And pumpkin! These bite-size gems are packed with staying power and seasonal flavor, and a big batch comes together easily thanks…
Loaded Hummus Toast
Don’t feel like cooking? “Assembled” meals solve that problem. Hummus toast happens to be one of the easiest, plus it’s filling, flavorful, and loaded with options! People occasionally ask me if I ever get sick of cooking. The answer is an unequivocal yes! There’s also a difference between cooking because you have the time…
Homemade Zesty Italian Dressing Mix
You control the ingredients with this copycat recipe that’s easy to make with everyday spices. Fast, fresh-tasting, economical, and endlessly versatile! A packet of Good Seasons Zesty Italian Dressing provided a convenient shortcut for me for years. I first discovered it when I was dating my husband and we were invited to a coworker’s…
Jack’s Favorite Tomato & Cucumber Salad
You barely need a recipe for this garden-fresh summer salad that will round out a broad range of meals, from corn on the cob and burgers to grilled chicken and fish. Normally, my husband would consider dinner incomplete without some form of protein on his plate. However, when corn on the cob is in…
Replenish Smoothie
This make-at-home rendition of a local cafe’s customer-favorite smoothie offers natural sweetness, filling fiber, and plant-based protein with just five simple ingredients! This is my at-home rendition of a smoothie my husband and I have ordered many a Saturday morning from the café at a wonderful local market called Lemon Street. The names of…
Summer Shandy (Cocktail or Mocktail)
Equal parts light beer and lemonade create the easiest drink and can be modified in several delicious ways. Mildly sweet with a hint of tang and so very refreshing! Crisp and refreshing with a hint of sweetness, there’s something special about a Shandy on a warm evening. The 2-ingredient drink is effortless to mix and…
Classic Strawberry Salad with Sweet Poppy Seed Vinaigrette
A light drizzle of this sweet and tangy vinaigrette makes a classic strawberry salad shine. Eating your greens never tasted so good! When local strawberries are at their peak, I make salads with them almost every night. Once a simple dressing has been prepared and left to wait in the fridge, salads in general…
Mexican Mule (and several mule variations)
A cross between the classic Moscow mule and the much-loved Margarita, this refreshing cocktail requires just four ingredients and may just become the drink of the season! As I was reading up on some food history recently, I stumbled upon a curious newspaper article from 2016. While at a cocktail convention (who knew?),…
Grapefruit Gimlet
A delightful balance of sweet and tart, this eye-catching twist on the classic cocktail requires just three simple ingredients. The refreshing drink is also easy to customize with other liquors and flavors, and I’ve included a few of my favorites. Most winters around this time, I begin looking forward to an annual trip to…
