I'm all for dishes that take under an hour to make.  Let's be honest, unless it's Thanksgiving Day, no one wants to spend hours in the kitchen cooking.  So here are two quick and easy recipes that the whole family will love (yes including the kids).  One's light and the other is creamy.  Both are delicious alone or combine with rice or pasta.  Options = winning!  Which version will you be trying?  Let me know in the comments below!

-Salmon fillets
-Salt and pepper
-Paprika
-3 garlic cloves finely minced
-3 tablespoons olive oil
-3 slices of lemon
-1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
-4 tablespoons of honey
-2 tablespoons of water
Set oven to broil on high.  In a small bowl, mix the honey, apple cider vinegar, and water and set aside.  Season the salmon on both sides with salt, pepper, and a little paprika.  Heat oil in a cast iron skillet and sauté the salmon fillets until brown (about 3-5 minutes each side).  Add garlic to the skillet and stir for a couple of minutes.  Add the honey mixture and lower the heat to simmer.  The honey mixture will start to bubble and thicken.  Cook for about 15 minutes.  Transfer the skillet to the oven and cook for about 2-3 minutes more.  The sauce will be thick, dark, and sticky.  Perfect with rice or over a salad.  

-Salmon fillets 
-3 garlic cloves finely minced
-1 onion finely minced
-1/2 cup tomato puree
-1/4 cup water (or white wine)
-3 tablespoons olive oil
-1 teaspoon oregano
-1 teaspoon basil
-1 cup of broccoli florets
-Heavy cream
-1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
​Season the salmon on both sides with salt, pepper, and a little paprika..  Heat oil in a cast iron skillet and sauté the salmon fillets until brown (about 3-5 minutes each side).  Remove from pan.  To the pan, sauté onions and garlic for a couple of minutes. Season with salt, pepper, oregano, and basil..  Add the tomato puree and water and let cook for a couple of minutes.  Add heavy cream and reduce heat to simmer.  Cook until cream starts to bubble.  Once bubbly, add the parmesan cheese and let it cook until cheese melts.  Keep stirring.  To the creamy mixture, add the salmon back to the cream.   Add the broccoli florets and let cook for about 10 minutes.  Add cooked pasta and let it sit before serving.  Enjoy! 

Now that my 3 and a half year old has mastered her ABCs, she has now moved on to learning all about the seasons, months of the year, and sight words. Her school sends daily reports outlining what they learned including the letter and sight word of the week. Before, I would write these sight words and tape them all around her room. I would also hang up some of the art work she created at school. So I decided to spruce things up a bit and create a learning and art board! I love the fact that the educational posters I purchased are about 15 in a pack and focus on different lessons including the solar system, time, opposites, and many more! Rotate the posters as you please to keep things exciting! Everything for this project was purchased on Amazon (I will link materials soon)! Check out the process below of how this all came together.

-Cork Boards
-Mount tape
-Scissors
​-Educational Posters

The good thing about this cork boards is that you can tailor the size of the learning board to your liking. ​I used a leveler to ensure that each board was placed evenly. These boards also come with tape to stick into walls. I placed each peace of square tape on the four corners of the cork board and placed onto the wall. Once all boards are up, start lining the edges with a border trim. I used one that resembles a mermaid. Finally, begin hanging your child’s artwork and the educational posters! They’ll love it!

Halloween is right around the corner and this year amidst the pandemic, it's going to look a bit different. If you're looking for something fun and creative to do with your kids, or friends, or for yourself, below are ideas for creating a fun, creepy, and sweet table! I wish you all could have seen my kids faces when they saw this table. And then after dinner and desserts we had a Michael Jackson Thriller dance party! #spookyfun. The table decor and candy were all purchased from Party City and cost under $25. The spiders were from Target. #winning. For the table, I used a pack of cauldrons and added black cherry lollipops. The creepy cloth at Party City is also a great way to add a little spook pop to the table. I drizzled chocolate to some popcorn and added it to black popcorn containers (99 cents for a pack of 5 at Party City!). Add a fun jack-o-lantern and some spiders and there you go! Simple and fun!

-2 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
​-1/4 cup cocoa powder (I made chocolate sugar cookies, but if you want plain sugar cookies, then just use 3 cups of flour)
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1 egg
-16 tablespoons or 1 cup of unsalted butter (room temp)
-1/2 cup granulated sugar (some recipes call for more sugar but you'll notice I always cut my sugar significantly and they're still super sweet)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.  In a separate bowl beat the butter and sugar until pale yellow.  Add the egg, vanilla and beat again to combine..  Add flour to the wet mixture a bit at time and mix to combine.  Once all the flour has been added, use your hands to form the dough into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.  To roll out the dough, use plastic wrap to cover the dough to prevent sticking.  Roll the dough to about a quarter inch thickness.  Use a cookie cutter or if you're like me and don't have one, use a round cup or glass.  Using everyday household items is a great way to save money! Place cookie cutouts back in the fridge for about 10 minutes so that they can keep their shape.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  Place on a cookie cooling rack and then decorate once cookies have cooled!

When having guests, delicious bites that are quick and easy to prepare are a necessity.  There's a time for cooking a   four course, meal, but then there are those times when you need something quick, delicious and easy.  Below are some recipes all made from scratch (yes, I even have a homemade buffalo sauce recipe for the wings!).  These crowd pleasers will go fast so be sure to prepare enough.  

-Organic chicken wings (cut to separate the wing from the drumstick)
-1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper
-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
-1/2 teaspoon paprika
-1 tablespoon of the buffalo sauce (see ingredients and recipe below)
-1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
Pat wings dry so that the seasonings can stick well.  Rub oil and seasonings onto wings.  Place wings in air fryer so that they're not touching each other (this ensures that they cook evenly and well).  Cook for 12 minutes on each side at 400 degrees.  When wings are done, coat each wing generously with buffalo sauce. and serve with ranch dressing, carrots and cucumbers!
​

-1 and 1/2 cups hot sauce (I used Frank's Red-hot original)
-3 tablespoons of butter
-1 teaspoon garlic powder
-teaspoon paprika
-you can choose to add more cayenne pepper if you'd like, depending on how spicy you want your wings to be
Heat up the butter and hot sauce in a pot.  Add all the seasonings and stir continuously.   Let it simmer on low for about 15 minutes. 

-2lbs organic and grass-fed ground beef
-1/2 cup grape jelly (this is the secret to make the meatballs pop!). Can also use apricot jelly 
-1/2 cup BBQ sauce (I used sweet baby Ray's hickory and brown sugar bbq sauce). 
-1/2 a sweet onion (grate the onion for maximum flavor.  Your eyes will tear up, but trust me, it really maximizes the flavor)
-1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper
-3 tablespoons breadcrumbs (simply take white bread and pulse in a food processor)
-2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
Mix all ingredients into the meatballs well.  Use a tablespoon to scoop the meat and roll into 1/2 inch balls. Add oil to a skillet and brown the meatballs on all sides.  When done place them in an oven safe dish.  Combine the grape jelly and bbq sauce and pour over meatballs. Cook the meatballs and sauce in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  

-Mini yellow golden potatoes
-2 tablespoons butter
-Salt and pepper to taste
Boil potatoes in water until ready (fork will go through when pricked).  Drain water.  Cut each potato in half.  Add butter, salt, and pepper.  Toss to mix and serve. 

It's that time of year where you can play dress up and completely transform yourself into something totally different!  This year for our pre-Halloween celebrations (yes pre because why dress up only once?), Zoë and I decided that we would be twitches (twin witches)!  She's 3 and a half years old so if you know toddlers, you can guess what her favorite movie is and what she plans on dressing up as on October 31st.  Comment your guesses below!  ​I'll be posting the other costume in a couple of weeks.  Happy Halloween season everyone!

The apples that we picked during our annual apple picking trip were put to good use to create this rich, buttery, sweet goodness.  The entire recipe is so easy to make and will take less than an hour..  Yes, under an hour! And you won't even need a blender.  

-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup of melted, unsalted butter
-1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
-1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Melt butter and let it cool.  Once cooled, pour the melted butter into the dry ingredients and mix lightly with a fork.  Once done, the mixture will resemble crumbles. 

-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
-1/4 cup granulated sugar
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon baking soda
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1 egg
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/4 cup oil (vegetable or canola)
-1/4 cup milk 
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, cinnamon, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt).  In a separate bowl, whisk and mix all of the wet ingredients together.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until all is combined.  Try not to over mix and if there are some lumps in the batter that is okay. 

 3 apples (either fuji, honey crisp, or red delicious)
-1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
-1 and 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Peel, core, and slice the apples and place in a bowl.  Add the apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, and sugar.  Combine and mix well.  
​

You can use either a round or square baking pan for this.  I used an 8 inch square baking tin and buttered it well.  
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  
2. Add the cake batter to the buttered baking dish.
3. Layer the sliced apples on top of the cake.  
4. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the apples evenly. 
5. Bake for about 32-33 minutes.  The top will turn a golden brown
6. Serve with vanilla ice cream or warm caramel sauce!

I admit that fall wasn't always my favorite season.  It used to remind of me of the dreaded cold winter weather.  But these days I'm that person that was literally itching to buy fall decorations from Michael's when it was still technically summertime.  I love everything about the season - apple picking (and more importantly, apple cider donuts), the beautiful fall foliage, and of course Halloween!  Below are some photos of the beautiful fall foliage I managed to capture on some of my morning walks, as well as some of our other fall season shenanigans.  Enjoy!

So damn good! That's pretty much all I have to say about this recipe given to me by my good friend and soul sister Sapna (pronounced Suhp-na).  The good thing about this recipe is that you can modify it to your liking.  Not a fan of chicken? Use paneer (cheese).  Not a fan of spicy food? Then modify the amount of chili powder. Either way, it's rich, creamy, and perfect for any day!  Be sure to get all the spices listed under the ingredients as they are critical for this dish to turn out perfectly.  

-Organic breast chicken
-Onions
-Tomato puree
-Heavy whipping cream
-Garlic and ginger, finely minced
-Butter
​-Garam Masala
-Coriander powder
-Cumin powder
-Tumeric powder
-Chili powder
​-Kasoori Methi

1. First brown chicken breast cut up in cubes in some oil then take out of pan.
2. Sauté the onions in the same pan and add a bit of butter.
3. After onions have sautéed for a couple of minutes, add the spices (the spices are really important!)
   1. Add about a teaspoon and a half of: Garam masala, coriander powder, and turmeric powder. 
   2. Add cumin (I added about half a teaspoon)
4. Add a tablespoon of garlic and ginger chopped up very finely. 
5. Add chili powder to your preferred level of spiciness.  I added about 1/4 teaspoon b/c the chili powder I use is very spicy!!
6. After you’ve stirred all spices in, add 3/4 cup of tomato purée and a half cup of water. Let it simmer 
7. Add the chicken back in. Season with salt to taste 
8. Next add about two teaspoons of kasoori methi (very important!) and let it simmer 
9. Add about half a cup of cream or more if you like very creamy. 
10. Serve with naan and basmati rice!