Which of these school lunch challenges do you hate most?

1. No matter what I pack in that lunchbox, my kid doesn’t eat it!
2. Packing lunch makes our mornings even more stressful.
3. It’s such a dull, relentless chore. Every. Weekday.
4. All of the above.

This time last year, I’d have picked d), no doubt about it. But these days I’d add a write-in option e): Challenges, shmallenges. My kid packs his own lunch!

See, I figured out the secret to packing school lunches. Making this one change before Harry started third grade has reduced my stress level a thousandfold. First of all, if he packs it himself he’s much more likely to eat it.…

The post One Simple Trick for Packing School Lunch first appeared on Debbie Koenig, Writer.

But I’ve been researching kid-friendly football-themed food for a piece I’m writing for Mom.me, and inspiration struck. There are only so many football-shaped foods you can look at before you start to wander around your kitchen, wondering what you can turn into pigskin…

Cookie Dough Truffle Footballs are a riff on Cookie Dough Bonbons, which is itself a riff on my recipe for The Best Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies in the Entire World.…

The post Super Bowl Treat: Cookie Dough Truffle Footballs first appeared on Debbie Koenig, Writer.

Let’s keep things short and sweet: You must try this. Really. I can’t remember the last time I created a recipe that offers so much flavor—and sophistication—for so little effort.

Lemony Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan Crisps, my latest for mom.me.

Do you have broccoli on hand? Lemon? Parmesan cheese? Sure, sure, you’ve seen those ingredients combined before. Maybe you’ve even seen them in a roasted broccoli dish. (Maybe even on this very site.) But two small tweaks in technique transform simple roasted broccoli with lemon and parm into something special enough for company.

Check it out for yourself. Even Harry, who hates everything, couldn’t stop nibbling the crispy cheesy bits.…

The post Your New Favorite Broccoli Recipe first appeared on Debbie Koenig, Writer.

Got a package of puff pastry in the freezer? How about some hot dogs and/or potatoes? Your New Year’s Eve is made, my friend.

Last year was the first time we let Harry stay up until real-deal midnight. Before then we’d always fudged things by a couple hours (doing so this year? check out Netflix’s new offering, an on-demand, faux countdown featuring King Julien the lemur). But Harry’s gotten too old to be fooled by such chicanery, plus he takes after his night-owl father so staying up isn’t exactly hard for him. Stephen and I decided to go all-out and turn the evening into a mini-party.…

The post Kid-Friendly New Year’s Eve: Homemade Pigs in Blankets & Mini-Knishes first appeared on Debbie Koenig, Writer.

Hanukkah ends tonight. We’ve eaten approximately eleventy million latkes, and Harry has opened nearly as many gifts. (If you dread stinking up the joint with latkes one more time, maybe you’ll do like me and make crispity crunchity smashed potatoes instead.) My birthday was yesterday, and to celebrate I stuffed my face at Pok Pok—more on that another time. Now all that’s left for my interfaith family is to make it through Christmas.

This year, Harry’s jonesing for a tree ratcheted up to epic proportions. Since Thanksgiving, every time we walked past a vendor on the street he’d say something. First he flat-out asked, and I gently reminded him that we celebrate Hanukkah in our home but we’d have Christmas with his cousins.…

The post Oh, Christmas Tree? first appeared on Debbie Koenig, Writer.

I’m sneaky. I never miss a chance to encourage Harry to eat new foods, but I don’t want him to notice. So at least one night of Hanukkah and maybe again at Christmas, he’ll get a gift that’s subtly food-related. This year it’s The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook—even if we never wind up baking Cauldron Cakes, he’ll read it in bed as if it were a real-deal HP book. He’ll dream about food, and someday, someday…

Ahem.

If you’ve been blessed with a kid who says, “No thank you” more often than, “Yes, please,” you might want to check out my picky eater gift guide over at Mom.me.…

The post The Ultimate Picky Eater (and Mini-Foodie) Gift Guide first appeared on Debbie Koenig, Writer.

Consider it an early Chrismukkah gift, from me to you. 20 Easy Weeknight Dinners, at Mom.me.

The post Quick Weeknight Dinners for Every Night of 2014 first appeared on Debbie Koenig, Writer.

Fine, so I did actually make this for Thanksgiving. But it’s so good I’ll be making it every chance I get, all year long. All I need is somebody to help me eat it, since my ridiculous husband doesn’t like cooked fruit (FREAK) and Harry can only fit so much pie in his eight-year-old body. Which leaves me most of a pie to stuff down my own pie hole, which… no.

Anyway.

There’s nothing wrong with a classic apple pie, but this here beauty ups the ante in some key ways: The bottom of the crust gets a nice layer of crushed gingersnaps, which adds a hint of spice and keep the juicy filling from sogging up the works.…

The post Cranberry-Apple Crumb Pie: Not Just for Thanksgiving first appeared on Debbie Koenig, Writer.

Yes. That’s right.

I can take no credit for these, not the recipe nor the shape. All I can do is pat myself on the back for baking them three years in a row, and tell you that since I pulled this year’s double-batch out of the oven, Harry’s eaten two and begged to eat at least three more.…

The post The Most Kid-Friendly Thanksgiving Recipe Ever: Pumpkin-Shaped Pumpkin Rolls first appeared on Debbie Koenig, Writer.

Meanwhile, though, there remains the question of what to cook to please a picky eater.…

The post How to Survive Thanksgiving with a Picky Eater first appeared on Debbie Koenig, Writer.