These Slow Cooker Refried Beans are rich, creamy, and packed with flavor—no soaking required! Just toss dry pinto beans, garlic, onion, and spices into your crockpot and let it do all the work. The result? Homemade refried beans that taste way better than canned and are perfect for tacos, burritos, nachos, or just eating by the spoonful. This dump-and-go recipe is budget-friendly, freezer-friendly, and kid-approved. Once you try these, you’ll never go back to store-bought!...

Want more healthy greens in your diet? Turn to The Best Collard Greens! So delicious and rich, this perfectly seasoned side dish with bacon is smoky, sweet, and will have you thinking you’re in the south. Healthy collard greens recipe “The South” is known for cranking out some of the best comfort food recipes, and collard greens just happens to be one of them. You wouldn’t think a leafy green could be so satisfying and delicious, but this recipe for The Best Collard Greens is really something special....

20 Sweet and Summery Watermelon Crafts & DIY Projects for kids of all ages! You’re going to love making these creative projects with preschoolers, toddlers and teens! Ideas include everything from magnets, pillows, pinatas, painted bowls, planters, easy paper plate crafts and more! Watermelon Crafts Summer is all about watermelon season! Who doesn’t like a big piece of sweet watermelon to eat on a warm day? Watermelon just doesn’t have to live in your garden or kitchen!...

This year we’re going back to garden basics. And we’re back in Brooklyn y’all! After spending 2 Summers gardening Upstate we’re going back to our garden roots – growing in a small space in the city! Let me introduce you to this Summer’s experiment – how much can we grow in a 4×4 garden? The 4×4 garden begins! This year we joined our Brooklyn neighborhood community garden and got a 4×4 garden plot....

Skip the store-bought kale chips and make your own with this quick oven-baked recipe. The key to a satisfying crunch is drying your kale leaves thoroughly before baking them for 20 minutes. With just three simple ingredients—kale, olive oil, and sea salt—you’ll get chips that are crunchy, salty, and flavorful. Crunchy Kale Chips These baked kale chips are so good, even if you don’t love kale chips, you’re going to after you try this recipe....

Moist ooey gooey Butter Cake recipe made with cake mix and 4 other ingredients. This easy recipe has a cream cheese crust over a cake mix layer. Cake Mix Butter Cake Recipe This Butter Cake recipe is delicious and easy to make. It’s made with a box of cake mix and 4 other ingredients (butter, eggs, cream cheese, powdered sugar). It only takes about 10 minutes to put together before it goes into the oven to bake....

Baked Cheesy Eggplant Casserole recipe that is easy to make. This meal will challenge your favorite Italian restaurant’s Eggplant Parmesan! This is a perfect dinner to make when you have too much eggplant growing in your garden! Cheesy Eggplant Casserole Recipe This Eggplant Casserole with cheese might just become one of your new favorite meals because it’s so delicious. If you’ve ever ordered eggplant parmesan at your favorite Italian restaurant, this tastes just like it!...

Chopped Mexican Chicken Salad is a quick and healthy recipe that uses fresh ingredients. You can serve it as a main or side dish. Mexican Chicken Salad As some of you know I’m not a huge salad eater and that is pretty much a sin coming from a gardener. To get to me eat more salads, I have found that if I make it more Mexican inspired it becomes a instant hit....

This easy one-pot recipe for Creamy Chicken and Noodles combines simple ingredients and comforting flavors. Pair the creamy egg noodles, shredded chicken, and sweet corn with dinner or enjoy it as a warming main dish. Easy to cook on the stove or in a crockpot! Creamy chicken and noodles casserole When we’re low on time and craving comfort food, this noodle dish is always a hit! One of the reasons why Creamy Chicken and Noodles is always a success is because it’s a hybrid-type meal....

4 hour crockpot stuffing that is so fluffy and moist! This homemade stuffing will make you the most popular person at family dinner and potlucks. Leftovers freeze great so make sure to check out my instructions for that! Moist and Fluffy Crockpot Stuffing I’m not going to lie—this Crockpot stuffing recipe is seriously life changing. You all know how much I adore my Amish Potato Stuffing , and while that one holds a special place in my heart, this crockpot version is a close runner-up in the “best stuffing ever” race....

These super easy sugar cookies are soft, light, and they simply melt-in-your-mouth with each bite. These are one of my family’s favorite Christmas cookies! Pop one of these light and fluffy little guys into your mouth and it will melt away with the most wonderful sweet flavor! These cookies are just like biting into a cloud – so puffy and delicious. These cookies are simply irresistible! Every year around the holidays, you can find me in the kitchen baking up all of our favorite Christmas cookies....

Watch as we we plant onions, sugar snap peas, cabbage, lettuce, kale and more in the garden! All plants started from seeds. Follow along with our Upstate journey here ! This weekend was very exciting because we planted our very first plants up on the land! If you want to follow along with when we plant, you can find it on the seed calendar. We’re slowly adjusting to the new seed schedule for Zone 5A....

These fudgy kidney bean brownies are rich, moist, and loaded with chocolate flavor. Made with red beans and topped with thick chocolate frosting, no one will guess the secret ingredient! Brownies Made with Kidney Beans These Fudgy Kidney Bean Brownies are rich, chocolaty, and seriously hard to stop eating. Think of them as the magical cousin to my popular Black Bean Brownies , except this time, we’re sneaking in red kidney beans for that same moist, fudgy texture everyone loves....

Homemade Pumpkin Scones with sweet vanilla cinnamon icing on top. This recipe makes moist, crumbly scones! These taste exactly like Starbucks, and they’re so easy to make at home! For breakfast you’ll love my Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Muffins too! Starbucks Pumpkin Scones Recipe Love Starbucks Pumpkin Scones but want to make your own at home? I got you covered. Once you make them in your own kitchen, you’ll never buy them at the coffee shop again!...

With the seasons changing many of our garden herbs are coming to a end (except our Oregano which I’m pretty sure is going to grow forever). Most herbs tend to love this time of the year but the weather tends to change quickly in mid to end October, so we always plan ahead in preserving our herbs before it’s too late. One frost is all it takes to kill a lovely cilantro plant – don’t let it happen to you....

Easy step-by-step instructions on how to dry oregano in 1 hour! This method is the quickest way to dry herbs. What is the best way to dry fresh oregano? There’s 2 popular ways to dry fresh herbs. You can hang the herbs up indoors and let them dry naturally. This works great, but it takes up space, and it takes time. I live in a NYC apartment, and I’m impatient, so I usually don’t do this method....

Do you forget what vegetables you have in the refrigerator? With this simple photo project you’ll never let your produce go bad again! One of the worst things is seeing food go to waste. Do you sometimes buy beautiful greens at the grocery store, use them for 2 days, and then somehow they get stuffed into the crisper drawer in the fridge to be forgotten about until you notice a funky smell?...

Old fashioned Instant Pot Ham and Bean Soup is a hearty recipe your entire family will love! This easy to make broth based soup uses dry navy beans to make it a cheap meal. Easy Ham and Bean Soup In The Instant Pot This soup recipe is my favorite because it tastes just like that classic ham and bean soup I had as a kid! The difference is that instead of Mom cooking it in the Slow Cooker and waiting for hours for it to be ready, this is made in the Instant Pot so it’s quick!...

Italian Sausage Soup with collard greens, white beans and diced tomatoes. Your entire family is going to love this easy to make hearty soup, and even better it’s only 180 calories a serving! This creamy soup is dairy free, keto and low carb. This Italian Sausage Soup is one of my family’s favorites! It’s become a staple on our dinner table, no matter what the season. In the Summer it’s perfect because you can use garden vegetables and really taste the freshness....

Juicy turkey recipe for Thanksgiving! Nothing fancy, just good old fashioned turkey recipe! Juicy Turkey In the post I shared Essy’s favorite holiday because it meant her favorite food, Thanksgiving and turkey. Give that girl a whiff of turkey and she was there. From the time the turkey was taken out of the wrapper until it came out of the oven, Essy was pacing like a nervous lady. She would be on the floor staring into the oven, on the kitchen island staring at the oven, on the table staring into the oven....