Eat

These homeowners saved literal thousands (!!!) with this IKEA dupe for built-ins.

It's done before the coffee is even ready!

Finally, an omelet that not only looks simple to make, but actually is easy to make.

Orange Julius recipes have been floating around for years, but I was always skeptical about them. I thought they could never be as good as the “real thing,” and even though I haven’t had the real thing in at least 25 years, that drink was still on a pedestal in my memory. But I recently tried making an Orange Julius at home. Turns out, it’s not only as good as the “real thing” — it’s better.

Now that school is reopening in my neighborhood again, I need a new lunch box for my kid. What’s the best one you’ve found? HollyMorning! I’m running this again as I’ve had a bunch of new inquiries on this question! On to the email:Dear Holly (as well as a few others that have just asked me this question again),Over at The Kitchn, they’ve spent a good deal of time testing and writing about lunch boxes, and I’ve tried them all.

If you can resist filling up your Trader Joe’s shopping cart with just snacks and cheese, the cult-favorite grocery store is actually a brilliant place to help you meal prep for a super busy week. It’s a one-stop-shop for breakfast essentials like coffee and oats, and their already-prepped ingredients like hard-boiled eggs and frozen stir-fry blends make quick work of lunch boxes and weeknight dinners.

The restaurant kitchen has nothing on being in the kitchen with little ones.

Getting kids to eat veggies is often a challenge. Pasta, rice, and bread are easy, but lots of kids shy away from the more complex — and healthy — stuff. I’ve been lucky with my girls: They mostly eat their vegetables (sometimes even with gusto!). Still, if they had a choice between cheese and crackers or spinach? Yeah, they’re going for the crackers.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! Snacks can be another one of those unexpected pressure points for parents. “I’m responsible for three meals a day AND snacks?!” It’s easy for it to become an afterthought. Puffs in the stroller, a bar in the car, a pouch in the grocery store cart.

Bacon-and-egg hand pies, oatmeal breakfast bars, and so many more delicious and quick breakfast options for those busy mornings.

These picks are all cute, functional, and back-to-school ready!

For many families, back to school means a return to packing lunches. Making sure that your children are well-fed 365 days of every year is hard enough, but adding 180 school lunches can feel downright relentless. I understand and am here to offer relief. Get ready for the most liberating school lunch advice you’ll ever receive: Let your kid pack their own lunch box.

Sinking my teeth into a warm, buttery corn on the cob is the unofficial start of summer I look forward to all year long. The mere memory of its salty sweet flavor is what helps me get through the long, cold winters. But cooking corn on the cob is a lot easier said than done. Sometimes the kernels dry out and become tough, and sometimes they turn out undercooked and hard. It’s not as easy to cook corn on the cob as some people might think!

Some kids are notorious for craving predictability at dinnertime. They like the same pasta served in a particular bowl. Or they only eat tofu pho, which sounds adventurous, without green things, from one Vietnamese restaurant, and only on Thursday nights. (We’d like the table by the window, please.) Or they eat gyoza, but only at a certain friend’s house, because her dad really does make it best, and in that case he’ll have 20. I have one of these children.

There is no stronger bond than a shared, nostalgic food memory. That’s why when I saw all the buzz over the cinnamon toast recipe recently shared by the New York Times, I felt incredibly excluded. Cinnamon toast … crunch? Like the cereal? What is cinnamon toast and why is everyone suddenly coming forward that this was their go-to after-school snack? I have not one single memory of ever making this. Is everyone around me secretly making this at home and not telling me?

It won’t officially be summer until you’ve had your first watermelon of the season. Chances are, though, that it’s been about a year since you’ve bought your last watermelon. Do you remember how to pick out a good one? Did you ever really know? There’s a definite art to picking the very best watermelons. But don’t worry, once you know what to look for, it’s easy.

Kids think it’s funny to mess with adults. It’s just the way of the world. They think it’s hysterical to prank call their parents, hide their grandparents’ remote controls, and hide from the teacher during roll call. They also think it’s adorable to not try new foods at the dinner table that they will willingly eat at the cafeteria at lunch. So, how are you supposed to get your kids to eat new things? I have a slightly sneaky way that actually works.

Last year I publicly declared my love for nectarines over peaches, causing a little stone fruit drama. Nectarine season hasn’t started here in Washington yet, but we’ve got the first few weeks of peaches under our belts. Plus, I have a giant box of Georgia peaches I ordered online to see if there really was something I was missing. I am pleased to report that while my mind remains unchanged on the superiority of nectarines, peaches are still close behind.

From personal convenience to communal equity: here's why we'll take advantage of the free lunch program.

For most of my life, I took breakfast for granted. Heck, I took eating for granted—until I had a baby. He taught me that even a food writer could lose her kitchen footing in the relentless deluge of spit-up (his) and tears (mine). But eventually I figured out enough clever work-arounds to fill a cookbook. For the book, I assembled a group of more than 100 new moms, who tested my recipes to make sure they worked amid real-life challenges.

When it comes to buying groceries on a budget (but not sacrificing quality or choice), nothing beats shopping at Aldi. Sure, the no-frills atmosphere can take some getting used to, but these miniature food marts pack all of the essentials — plus some fun and inspired limited-edition buys — into just a few aisles.This Power Hour is all about getting the most bang for your buck at Aldi.

This expert advice turned hectic dinners into a time to connect (without any bickering!).

There is a time and a place for jarred pasta sauce: The time is all the time and the place is my kitchen. (Can someone print that on a wooden sign and sell it in Home Goods? Thanks.) That’s not to say that I don’t have a deep love and appreciation for the homemade stuff, which pretty much courses through my Italian American, New Jersey-born veins. It’s just that in a pinch, jarred pasta sauce feels like a gift from up above.

As disappointing as it is when Trader Joe’s discontinues a favorite product, the one thing that makes up for it is finding out what took its place on the shelves. Every Trader Joe’s shopping trip is an opportunity to discover an exciting ingredient, packaged good, or some other surprise that will pique your curiosity.

Packing for a trip with my daughter means a suitcase that’s equal parts clothes, entertainment, and food. The food part is oh-so-necessary to keep little (and big) tummies full and blood sugar levels steady. We bring stuff from home so that we don’t succumb to the expensive snack kiosks at the airport.

From personal convenience to communal equity: here's why we'll take advantage of the free lunch program.

This mall-inspired treat is low-effort and infinitely customizable. Just add ice cream!

Some of the storing methods worked better than others, but there was one clear winner that kept the strawberries perfectly fresh for an entire week.

The last year of lockdowns (and beyond-the-norm grocery shopping that’s come with them) has taught me a few things about my shopping habits and my family’s food preferences. After discovering the supreme value of a second refrigerator and my kids’ deep abiding love of ramen, I’ve also come to terms with my love-hate relationship with Costco.Once an “event” to distract the kids on a rainy day, it’s now become a necessary, grin-and-bear-it activity.

Serious question: How is it nearly August already? We hate how quickly the days seem to be flying by. But. But! We love when it’s time for a new batch of Aldi Finds. See, our sources always share the upcoming list toward the end of the month and it’s always so much fun to see what will be hitting store shelves. Next month there’s going to be lots of breakfast items, dinner shortcuts, bold snacks, and more.

The other day, I got phone calls from two out of three of my children’s schools. I’ve already violated their privacy enough, so I won’t divulge the content of those phone calls, other than to say no one had broken the law, but no one had won a prize, either. I was annoyed. More than annoyed, mad. Those phone calls made it hard for me to get back to work. Why, then, did I text them to ask what they wanted for supper? And why did I make exactly what they wanted?

While it’s my duty as Kitchn’s Unofficial Costco Critic to peruse the wide warehouse aisles in search of the best deals, hottest new products, and just-for-fun bulk buys, it’s also my pleasure. On a recent visit, I spotted the single best product I’ve seen all year for parents — and I can’t keep it to myself any longer. The best thing parents can buy right now at Costco is The Ice Cream Party Box.Find it in stores: The Ice Cream Party Box, $17.

I didn’t grow up shopping at Aldi, the wildly popular grocery store that is known for great deals and fun products. In fact, it’s only in the last five years that the budget grocer has opened locations in Southern California where I live. While I used to shop a lot at Costco, I eventually started making the switch over to Aldi in 2016. It took me a few trips to get my bearings and learn the Aldi ways (yes, you’ll get your quarter back), but I’m a firm believer in it now.

A classic American summer wouldn’t be complete without long nights spent in the backyard chasing fireflies, making s’mores, sipping cooling drinks, and, yes, enjoying hot dogs fresh off the grill. When you’ve had a good grilled hot dog — juicy on the inside with a little char on the outside — you’ve experienced true savory bliss. But when you’ve had a not-so-good one — burnt, burst, shriveled, dried out, or undercooked — the letdown is huge.

If there’s one section of Costco I never, ever skip, it’s the frozen food aisle. I can easily fill up my cart in that aisle alone. (The organic fruits! The vegetables! The breakfast foods! The treats!) In fact, I’m such an avid Costco freezer-aisle shopper, I’ve even purchased a separate chest freezer so that I have lots of extra storage at home.What have I been stocking up on lately? I’m glad you asked!

Last summer we were taken by the phenomenon that was whipped coffee. Millions of people had to give it a try, including myself. This summer, whipped lemonade has popped up all over TikTok, so naturally I was intrigued. After trying out the latest whipped drink, I propose we trade in the coffee beans for lemons for a concoction that makes for the perfect creamy-sweet-tart-chilled libation.

Nutritious, simple for kids to make, and endlessly versatile — who knew such a breakfast was possible?

Name: ConstanceLocation: Winchester, MAAge: 38Number of people in household: 2 adults and two 5-year-oldsOccupation: Project AssistantHousehold income: $30,000 Grocery budget: $200 for two weeksGrocery stores of choice: Costco, Stop and Shop, and the farmers marketStop and Shop is just down the road from our house so it’s the most convenient location for us to buy groceries from.

I’m kicking things off with a week of easy, mostly healthy dinners for my family of two (two and a half?), as we gear up for the arrival of our first baby in a few months. While my eating style — veggie-heavy, wholesome, and comforting food — hasn’t changed much since becoming pregnant (save for my frequent tater tot cravings), I do have less energy at the end of the day now and am much more inclined to seek out low-stress, low-effort quick and easy dinners.

Costco trips make my registered dietitian heart skip a beat (in a good way). While I am sometimes tempted by a two-pound container of chocolate-covered raisins or a monster-sized wheel of cheese, I typically stick to a few go-to staples that feed my family of three for quite some time. Stacked with nutritious and cost-effective options, this tried-and-true grocery list helps me create nourishing meals in a simple way.

Here’s how “mom life” is supposed to work: You get home from long days of (fill in the blank: work, school, play, travel, life), open the fridge, and find an abundance of fruits and vegetables for a perfect nutritious meal. (You’re doing such a good job of planning ahead these days!) The kids play quietly while things come together in about 30 minutes, and someone else takes over the dishes while you have a few minutes to relax before the bedtime routine begins.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! When it comes to mealtimes, everyone in my family has a different idea of success. For my 3-year-old, Hazel, it’s whatever is the fastest route to dessert. For my 9-year-old, Lily, it’s carbs on carbs and plenty of ketchup.

Lately, it seems like every parent I know, both in real life and online, says that they have a picky eater. And while I totally get the sentiment — my 3-year-old certainly doesn’t always eat everything I put onto her plate — I won’t call her picky. Here’s why. The word “picky” has become a catchall for every type of eater — from the tot who didn’t eat his broccoli that one time to the child with severe sensory issues.

I have been thinking for a long time about all the voices that tell us we’re Doing It Wrong in the kitchen. We wanted to bring you a column about the ways that you’ve actually been doing it right all along. My friend Cheryl Sternman Rule is bringing us this occasional dose of reassurance. — Faith More fruits, more vegetables, less processed food. Homemade, wholesome, whole family around the table.

I still remember the sweet sense of victory I felt when I cooked one dinner that my whole family — including my toddler — adored and gobbled up. I’m still new to this, but have learned that feeding toddlers is tricky business that requires patience, understanding, creativity, and persistence. These days I put my meal-planning efforts into building a roster of easy dinners that my whole family enjoys.

Welcome to summer, where the sunshine keeps everyone outside until the last minute, it’s too hot to turn on the stove at dinner time, and everybody wants a quick meal so they can get back to playing. None of these things makes feeding a family easy in the hottest months, so it’s helpful to have some make-ahead meal ideas stashed away so you can cook dinner before the kids go to bed the night before, or maybe even over the weekend before work gets in the way.

Hitting the road with kids in tow? You are in for an adventure! After 20 years of motherhood, I know that vacationing with children is not without its challenges, but I’m equally convinced that it’s worth the effort. We’ve found that getting outside our comfort zone provides us with huge bonding moments.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Ours is a breakfast-loving family, so by default we eat a lot of eggs. We’ve served them every which way: fried, scrambled, hard- and soft-boiled, poached, in quiches, in omelets, you name it.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! My kids are home from school, your kids are home from school … which means aaaallll of the snacks. And even more snacks when they get together to play!

Having a hard time getting your kids to eat vegetables? Hiding them is one option, but here’s an even simpler solution: just give vegetables an irresistible new name. Two Cornell University studies found that kids are more likely to gobble up veggies when they’re given names like “X-Ray Vision Carrots” and “Power Punch Broccoli.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Growing up, my mother would make an intense, many-layered strawberry trifle for every summer event, held together by vanilla pudding.

Summer is in full swing at our house, which means between jumping into the lake, riding bikes, and running through the backyard sprinkler, we’re all hungrier than ever. We’ve spent much of the summer already eating easy no-cook dinners or leftovers. While that strategy has its own merits, this week I’m looking at my slow cooker to feed us hearty summer dinners without heating up the kitchen.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! As a food writer with shiny object syndrome, I’d always wanted a sous vide machine. But when my husband bought me one for Christmas when I was pregnant with our daughter, I was too nauseated to consider playing with it for months.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Check us out on Instagram for even more!

Easy to cook and beloved by kids, hot dogs are all too often passed over by the adults at cookouts. But hot dogs can make an exciting dinner for the whole family with just a little bit of planning and a few fun upgrades. This family snack board combines two grill-friendly recipes with store-bought basics for the ultimate backyard dinner. Serve it to celebrate the start of summer, the Fourth of July, camping at home, or just a really good Tuesday night.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Juneteenth is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate. Juneteenth, or “Freedom Day,” marks the announcement of the ending of slavery in Galveston, Texas, in 1865. Widely celebrated in the U.S. and worldwide, it’s a perfect opportunity to share an important moment for African Americans with my two little ones.

After everything that’s happened over the past 15 months, Alice Choi is choosing to look at the positives — and cooking at home has been one of them. For purely practical reasons, it makes sense! Alice is the blogger behind Hip Foodie Mom, which saw a boom in readers this past year when more people were finding their way around their home kitchens than ever before. (She’s also a member of the Kitchn Collective, a team of food writers and parents.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Helloooooo, summer! ‘Tis the season for non-cooked dinners and sweet, cold desserts. Now that we can safely gather with other folks who’ve been vaccinated, my friends and I kicked off the hot weather with a collaborative dinner. They brought a beautiful salad and we made beef tartare.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. My biggest adjustment in those first days motherhood, the moment I realized that my life was forever changed — was our first meal at home as a family. Our friends had come over, lugging enough Vietnamese takeout to feed us for a week. I was ravenous.

Toddlers are funny. They think they know everything, including what they like and don’t like to eat. But they can be fooled, at least some of the time. Take soup. My little ones liked soup — just not always with a spoon. So I called it “dip,” passed them a bowl of carrot sticks and declared it a meal! Here are seven things my toddlers would (almost) always eat.Carrots: They’re sweet and easy to handle.

Rotisserie chicken is a weeknight hero, riding in to save the day by helping you make quick work of dinner. The pre-cooked, pre-seasoned chicken can be added to soups, pastas, rice dishes, and more to create delicious, protein-based dinners with ease.This snapshot will give you five quick chicken dinners that are guaranteed to become instant family favorites. The chicken: Each recipe uses half of a rotisserie chicken (about 14 ounces), which equals 1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded meat.

If you’ve got little eaters around your table, be it toddlers or bigger kiddos, I can tell you from experience that Michelle Piccolo is someone you want to follow. Soon after her son Jack began eating solids, Michelle focused her cooking efforts on creating wholesome foods for her little eater that were easy, flavorful, and fun. And it wasn’t long after that she started her food blog, Feeding Our Toddlers, to share her dinner ideas with other parents.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. It’s easy to miss the IKEA Marketplace after a long day of labyrinth-navigating and warehouse-picking.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Yay, vacation! It’s been too long for many of us and we are so ready to hit the road and experience life in a new place.

If you’re following a low-carb diet, for whatever reason, it can be a little tricky to follow your own diet while still feeding your family well. You don’t want to be too restrictive with what you serve your kids, but you also don’t want to have to make two separate meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.The goal of this Power Hour is to alleviate some of this stress and strain.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. One of the things we love most about living in a larger city is the accessibility of cuisines from around the world. In addition to having delightful meals to try, we think international food is an opportunity to expand our boys’ palates and help them become better global citizens.

If you’re planning a long car ride, aside from mapping out where you’re going, the second most important thing to organize is your snack situation. A growling stomach is a dangerous thing to have when you’re in such tight quarters. Rather than settling for unhealthy roadside stops, keep a few wholesome snacks on hand to reach for whenever you need them.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. When my 4-year-old son asked if he could “ help” make breakfast recently, I immediately had a flashback to that memorable scene in “Big Daddy” where five-year-old Julian goes to pour himself some cereal and promptly drops the barely-open gallon of milk all over the kitchen.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. I can’t say I had a strong idea of what kind of parent I was going to be. Even as someone who loves a plan and a schedule, I went into this thing sort of like, “Well, I gotta wait to see what I’m working with!

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. When I was growing up, every week started out with Monday Leftover Night. My parents called it “King’s Table Night,” named after a long-defunct buffet in their native Seattle.

It’s almost Mother’s Day and the world is still in transition. Some are beginning to see things slowly open up around them, while others remain hunkered down in quarantine. Yet the tradition of celebrating our mothers remains. It’s always been a sunny sort of holiday, and we think it’s more important than ever to lean into brightness.There’s no “usual” this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t honor the mothers in our lives.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. The air hung hazy and filled the kitchen with the smells of caramelized onions and potatoes frying on the stove. We caught the whiff of caraway seed in the sausage links under foil keeping warm. My dad loved making brunch on Sunday.