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About

We are a family of two people, two cats, and three chinchillas, living in a metro area in Pennsylvania.

Kara is an academic teaching at a small college.  Karen is a high school English teacher.  We met in college and have been in each other's lives ever since, getting married nearly 8 years ago.



We try to cook with a weekly plan, prepping meals with snacks and lunch for the week made in advance.  Because we're committed to ethical meat (and moving toward ethical dairy as much as possible), we tend to be "semi-vegetarian."  We are low-to-no soy household due to allergies. 

While we strive for healthy foods, especially heart-healthy choices, we adore all that bad-for-you stuff that one should avoid, including a deep and abiding addiction to chocolate chip cookies.

We love to cook for friends and think dietary restrictions are a fun chance to try new recipes. 

Our kitchen is fairly small - the homestead is a townhome - but well-supplied.  You should expect stuff made with the slow cooker, the pressure cooker, the standing mixer, and more.  

Freddie (aka Queen Freddie Purrcury) is by far the most popular member of the house.  (Follow her on Instagram at feministfreddie.)  Her brother Alexander, usually just called Xander, completes the free-range part of the family.
a black and white kitten sitting in a chair, her face visible over the edge of the dining room table
Freddie waits at the table.
an all-gray cat sitting in a white laundry basket
Xander thinks he's helpful around the house.

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An Introduction

Hello, all!  This blog is an experiment - partly to see if I will stick with blogging, and partly to track our family's progress toward more ethical and from-scratch cooking.  My partner-in-crime Karen and I have been doing a lot to try to reduce our carbon footprint and to take better care of ourselves, and much of that revolves around food.  We're lucky to be in a fairly large metro area, where CSAs and farmers' markets and co-ops exist in abundance.  We are hoping the blog will encourage us (well, me) to stay serious about our new eating practices.  Our schedule tends to be more open in the summer, so now is the moment to give this a try! How do I cook?  I like to have a weekly plan.  I am a meal prepper, with snacks and lunch for the week made in advance.  Because we're committed to ethical meat (and moving toward ethical dairy as much as possible), we tend to be "semi-vegetarian."  We are low-to-no soy household due to allergies.  I strive for heart-hea
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A Farmers’ Market on the Road!

We’ve been out and about this past week, visiting family.  This presents some challenges: my parents eat very differently than we do at home.  The single biggest difference is the sheer quantity of meat.  Some weeks ago, my mom commented that they (two people) go through two or three pounds of ground beef a week.  Karen and I had no idea how that was even possible, but we’ve seen it first-hand the past few days: beef shepherd’s pie, meatballs, burgers.  My charming mom asked if we wanted chicken for the grill since we don't eat much meat - to quite a lot of laughter from me and Karen, who don't consider chicken a vegetable.  Luckily no one’s offended at our gentle modifications to amplify the veggies at every opportunity.  (Neither are my folks signing on to eat the delicious hummus, cheese, and veggie sandwiches I made for yesterday’s picnic.  Sigh.) They are supportive folks, even if they are deeply suspicious of hummus, so today we were off to a nearby farmers’ market in t
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Lentil Sloppy Joes

This recipe is modified from this one at Simply Quinoa.  We like the texture, but find the final product overly sweet, so I got creative and came up with some modifications. A note: this recipe makes a TON.  It makes six cup-plus servings.  However, it freezes really well. Ingredients: 1 cup finely chopped carrots 1 cup shredded jackfruit 1/2 cup finely diced onion 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 1/2 cups brown or green lentils 1/2 cup quinoa (uncooked) 8 oz tomato sauce 1/2 cup ketchup 1 T maple syrup (or honey, or other sweetener) 2 T hot sauce of your choice 2 T mustard 1 T chili powder 1 tsp paprika 3-4 cups veggie broth salt and pepper to taste The Process: Put all the ingredients into a slow cooker.  Stir to combine. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or low for 4-6 hours. Eat. Yes, it's that simple. Pro Tips: I like to shred the carrots, but if you want more texture/crunch, just chop them very small. If you like mushrooms, you might use those as the origi
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