Happy Easter!  I hope you are able to enjoy a relaxing day with your loved ones.  One of my fondest Easter memories is hunting for plastic eggs in the backyard and then continuing to find them months later in the summertime!  My sisters and I also used to save a few jelly beans for the next year by tucking them under the fake grass in our baskets and sure enough, they were in perfect condition one year later.  Go figure!

Here’s your dinner planner this week:

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I am knee-deep in shredded coconut and almond flour, preparing for Passover!  My mom is visiting for a few days and we’re having a great time, squeezing in some shopping, ladies’ lunches and museums in between cooking.  If you don’t observe Passover, you can look at the menus anyway and see if there’s something you can make on Monday and Tuesday.  Have a great week!

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Mr. Picky is off for spring break, so my husband and I took him on Friday night to Park City where we will hang out for a few days.  The weather is just the way I like it – warm!  We’re skiing, going out to dinner, watching college basketball and just trying to relax a little before I go back home to busy week ahead. I am starting a new menu this week and I’ll start preparing for next Monday’s Passover seder.  I am also really excited for my mom to visit this week.  We always check out the new, cool places to go to lunch and she’s always a great sous chef when I need one!

Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

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I had a busy week last week with lots of classes plus an Easter Brunch shoot with my friend Jenni Kayne and The Chalkboard Mag.  Recipes coming to both of those sites around April 10th.  This week is the last week of my March menu, plus I have a shoot with my friend Molly Sims and I’m going to do some videos at the end of the week.  Let me know ASAP if you have any requests!

I’ve got to be super organized for meals this week.  Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

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My daughters juts left tonight and I am pretty mopey about it. We had a great week with them and I am beyond grateful that they chose to come home for spring break.  Counting the days until they come home in May!

I am continuing with the March menu in my classes this week, although I have a group who requested the February menu and I can’t blame them because it’s so good.  I was able to turn in the last round of edits for my cookbook this week and I am so excited!  FYI, you can pre-order my cookbook Kitchen Matters on amazon or a signed copy from my local bookstore, Pages!

Here’s your dinner planner for this week:

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My daughters just arrived home for spring break, so the five of us will be together again for a whole week!  I am over the moon, since there’s pretty much nothing that could make me happier than spending time as a family.  I do have a busy work week though – testing recipes for Clean Eating Magazine, prepping for my classes, and finishing the last round of edits on my cookbook (!) My older daughter has become quite the cook in college, so I plan on leaning on her a bit for an extra set of hands in the kitchen this week.

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Lent is upon us, so I will make sure all the Friday dinners in the next few dinner planners are fish or vegetarian.  When I was growing up, my mom used to make fish every Friday even outside of Lent.  I still think of Fridays as “Fish Fridays.”  My mother had a very methodical way of doing her dinner planners for the week, and I didn’t understand the beauty of it until I started doing my own.  But she would do Meatless Monday (usually a hearty soup), Baked Ziti on Thursdays because she taught a class on Thursday nights and she would make the casserole in the morning and all we had to do was stick it in the oven, Fish Fridays, pancakes on Saturday mornings and hot dogs for lunch (no one’s saying she was perfect), and big pasta dinner in the middle of the day on Sundays, usually with my extended family.  She really only had to fill in Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Most of the time she did a version of roasted chicken and potatoes one night and pork chops or veal cutlets with pasta the other night. She worked full-time and she was still able to put a homemade meal on the table every night.  It’s all about having a system and planning ahead.

I have cooking classes Monday – Thursday this week.  Check my Insta stories to see what I’m teaching.  And then Friday I’ll be at Expo West for the whole day checking out all the new natural foods products.  That’s always a fun (calorie-filled) day.  My daughters are coming home for spring break on Friday night and I am BEYOND excited!

Here’s your dinner planner for the week!

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I am getting myself organized for the week ahead because it’s going to be a busy one!  Lots of classes this week and since Wednesday is the first day of a new month, I am debuting a new cooking class menu.  Even if  you can’t take my classes, you can always check my classes tab to see what I’m teaching and I always try to post a couple of videos from class on my Insta Stories. In some other news, you can pre-order my cookbook, Kitchen Matters, on amazon.com or from my local bookstore, Pages, in Manhattan Beach!  Pages will actually be sending signed copies if that is of interest to you.  🙂  The book comes out on June 13th!

Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

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