Happy Valentine’s Day! To start this lovely day off right, I made a batch of homemade pancakes.  To the batter I added mashed fresh raspberries and red-&-pink M&Ms, and I topped them off with homemade yogurt and pure maple syrup. Making pancakes from scratch doesn’t take much more time than a box mix, and homemade [...]

The morning after Chris and I returned from our week-long trip abroad, I was faced with a bit of a problem: what to make for breakfast.  Because we had no time (or energy!) for grocery shopping the day of our return, and because we left the house with minimal food, I had to cobble together [...]

I’m feeling a little under the weather today.  Despite getting plenty of sleep last night, I am exhausted. And, I have no appetite so I haven’t eaten much today.  I suspect a day-long bout of nausea is due to this pregnancy, too.  So, after trying quite ridiculously and unsuccessfully to get my husband to leave [...]

We go through so many bananas in our house that its rare we have any ripe enough for homemade banana bread.  Sometimes when I’m craving this baked treat I’ll purposefully seek out older bananas at the grocery store in hopes they’ll turn brown before we get a chance to eat them! The other day I [...]

As I’ve written about before, we start most days with a healthy breakfast shake.  The kids wake up asking for their “shates”, and should I ever dare serve them cold cereal for breakfast I think they might burst into tears or stage some sort of not-so-pleasant protest.  I’m so relieved they welcome this healthy start [...]

Its just after 3 o’clock, so of course that means snack time in our house.  The kids are up from their naps, and I’m just about done with my afternoon work.  Perfect time for a healthy treat to get us through the rest of the day until dinner. We don’t keep any processed foods in [...]

A few years ago I created Sister Kitch’n, a simple recipe blog for the ladies of my family.  My mom, sisters, aunts, cousins and grandmothers are all invited to post their favorite recipes, new or old.  The recipes vary – all meals and cuisines are welcome, and it doesn’t matter where a recipe originates as [...]

My dear college friend Molly came over for breakfast on Sunday.  She lives in eastern Pennsylvania, so our visits together are few and far between.  She was in town for less than a day before heading home to her three little ones, so I feel so lucky that she chose to spend some of her [...]

One of the best parts about living in a big city is appreciating just how small this town can be.  We live in a bustling neighborhood in the heart of downtown Chicago, but I feel like I know my neighbors and the people who work in our favorite shops. Just the other day I ran [...]

With the sun rising off Lake Michigan pretty early these days, the kids can’t sleep much past 6:15 am.  Fortunately, our usual Blueberry Spinach Smoothie is an easy and healthy way to start the day.  It is a nice energy boost for all of us. This morning we were out of frozen blueberries – yikes!  [...]