One of my favorite things as a kid were trips to down to North Dakota. How exciting was it that you could leave the country, just like that? My five-year-old brain was convinced that people weren’t allowed to leave their countries for some reason. Yeah, I was *that* kid.

Another one for the crock pot, although this recipe was adapted from an oven-bake method. My oldest daughter often requests this, but we never seem to get around to making it when she’s home. Today she asked for the recipe, so here it is, and good luck, Rhia!

This recipe came from my friend Lorna. Her mom used to make it – well, something similar anyway – and it sounded awesome, so we tried it. At the time, it was a cheap, tasty, kid-friendly meal that fit right into my practically non-existent grocery budget. In the past five or so years, I’ve watched the prices jump higher and higher to the point where this is almost a luxury. If I’ve shared this one before – oops!

I’ve recently been craving some spicier meals, and apparently that’s par for the course when attempting to switch to healthier eating. I don’t know how far these go for being healthier (probably not at all), but for that one day a week when I can splurge, so to speak, they’re just what I’m looking for.

I’ve been looking up healthy broth recipes lately – not just soup stock, but actual heavy duty broth. It seems these are known as bone broth, and the result is a thick, rich and extremely tasty bit of bliss. with a handful of mobility issues for all of us this winter, I did some research on various natural methods to help. None of us want to experiment with the “Whole30″ experience – because you’ll take the carbs and dairy from our cold, dead hands, thank you very much – which …