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Do you live in your vehicle? I do. I’m always taking kids hither and yon, and I don’t always remember to pack food. Yet, as soon as we leave the house: Mom, I’m hunnnngry!

I still remember (and shudder) the day I decided I needed a snack cache for my vehicle. My oldest was playing baseball. The practice lasted for six hours. My children thought they were going to starve to death, right there on that field. They were going to starve to death while swatting at black flies.  

That night, I decided to never go to another sporting event, field trip, or outing without snacks. Simply put, I can’t afford to stop at the local convenience store every time hunger pangs hit. I also can’t afford to have hungry children with me while running errands, playing at the park, or sitting in the dance studio.

Thus, the plastic shoebox became my new best friend. I buy shelf-stable items, but honestly, my kids consume this stuff so fast that it rarely, if ever, goes bad. I buy in bulk and then break it down into smaller servings. (A giant box of Goldfish becomes many small baggies of Goldfish.)  

Whenever I go grocery shopping, I look for things that are portable and easy to eat while on the go. Once I get home from the store, I immediately refill the snack box so it’s always ready to go.

Here are some of my snack box frequent flyers:

•  Peanut butter crackers
• Cheese and crackers
• Teddy Graham snack crackers (chocolate chip is a favorite here)
• Goldfish crackers
• Dried fruit
• Pumpkin seeds
• Peanuts
• Chewy fruit snacks that are only sort-of healthy
• Graham crackers
• Rice Crispy bars
• Granola bars

I have saved a lot (on both money and sanity) and my kids never starve. The key is to just always remember to have it along! Your kids will learn to expect it!

Posted by Robin

Have you ever reached into the dishwasher for a clean dish and stuck your hand in something slimy? I did it yesterday, and I was not pleased. And it’s not like it’s the first time this has happened. With a whole team of people loading and unloading the dishwasher, it has become nearly impossible to keep track of which phase we are in.

We used to employ the “if the dishwasher is locked, the dishes are clean,” approach, but training the kids to stick to that rule has become a battle, and well, I have to choose my battles. Plus, in the meantime, there’s the slime.

I just found a pretty cute, clever, and completely silly kitchen accessory that has inspired me. The clean/dirty magnet comes in several forms, but I’m pretty fond of the one that reads “eww” on one side and “yay!” on the other. Start the dishwasher, flip the magnet to clean. Stick something slimy in there and flip it back to dirty. And my kids will be tricked into thinking it’s fun because, well, it’s a magnet.

Of course, you don’t have to fall for the marketing hype like I have. (Or you simply may not want to spend $3.99 plus shipping and handling on a magnet.) Now that I’ve discovered this clever yet rather obvious idea, I realize that I can simply tape an index card to the dishwasher and achieve the same purposes. Either way, I’m inspired. Of course, my kids won’t find the index card nearly as exciting, but they’ll live.

Tell us, how do you monitor dishwasher status in your home?

- Robin

Say Mmm makes it easy to save all your recipes in one place and use them in meal plans and shopping list. And now it is even easier to save online recipes by adding our recipe clipper to your browser toolbar. When you want to save a recipe, just click on the bookmark and a window that will open to let you save the recipe link to your account.

Plus Say Mmm will do a little magic to automatically add the recipe name, image, and shopping list for you, saving you the hassle of typing it all in. It is designed to work for any recipe on any site, but at times it may make mistakes, so for those cases we still let you edit the recipe name, change the image, or change the shopping list as you like before saving the recipe.

Here is how it works:

1. When you see an online recipe you want to add to Say Mmm, click on the bookmark and it will open a window to let you save the recipe.

2. When you click Save, it will open a new window with the automatic recipe name, image, and shopping list, and you can edit these before saving as well as add more information by clicking on the “Recipe” link.

To add the recipe clipper to your browser, log into Say Mmm, and click the Say Mmm Recipe Clipper link on the bottom of the page. You will go to a page where you can drag an image into the bookmarks toolbar of your browser, and then you are good to go.

If you don’t see your browser bookmarks bar here are some tips on how to view it:

• Chrome – Click on Settings > Then Bookmarks > Then Show bookmarks bar
• Firefox – Click on View > Toolbars > Bookmarks Toolbar
• Safari – Click on View > Show Bookmarks Bar
• Internet Explorer (some versions will work) > Click on Favorites > Then Pin the Favorites center

Happy 2013! Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions yet? The kitchen might be the best place to make them. Here are some you can borrow if you’re having trouble coming up with a list. 

I will find my crockpot. I know that someone, at some point, bought me a slow cooker. If I find it, I might use it.

I will clean out the crisper. If I take the wizened limes out of the vegetable crisper, I will have room for actual, edible vegetables.

I will experiment with other grains. I hear there is more to this world than wheat and rice. I will figure out what one does with quinoa, and how to pronounce it.

I will limit my Hamburger Helper use to one emergency dose per month.

I will sharpen my knives. Then I will stop putting them in the dishwasher. I will also cut my thumb less often.

I will drink less of the wine that I buy to cook with.

I will plant a garden. I planted a garden last year. This year, I will also weed and water the garden.

I will figure out how to use all the gadgets I bought at the three Pampered Chef parties I attended in 2012.

I will acknowledge my Velveeta dependence. I will try to cook with real cheese more often.

I will take the 9 x 12 baking dish out of the dishwasher and wash it by hand.

I will take all of the photographs of people we no longer know off the refrigerator.

I will clean out the junk drawer. I will also stop complaining about lack of storage space.

- Posted by Robin

And we all sing … There’ll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing when loved ones are near—it’s the most wonderful time of the year! We don’t sing about how many pounds we pack on during this wonderful time of the year!

And our kids may be getting the worst of it. Santa throws them candy from the holiday parade. They get cupcakes at church. They get baked goods at every house they enter during the month of December. They get cookies at school. And of course, there will be candy in their stockings.

Here are a few things I've done this year to try and sneak some vitamins into my kids’ holiday celebrations. Shh … please don’t tell them!

Beet Cupcakes! My kids think they hate beets. But they really don’t. There is no better time for red cupcakes, right? Just do a search for “chocolate beet cake recipe” and take your pick. This one looks good. They’re really not that much work. I just use canned beets. Add a bit of green food coloring to your frosting, and you've got yourself a Christmas cupcake!

Pangiallo! When inRome, do as the Romans do. When not in Rome, do what they do anyway, because we have the Romans to thank for the deliciousness that is Pangiallo–the most wonderful combination of dates, nuts, and honey you’ll ever taste. It’s so sweet that kids think it’s a treat, but it’s packed with wholesome, healthy foods.

Sneaky Whole Wheat! When no one is looking, sneak some whole wheat into the sugar cookies. Sugar cookies are more about the fun of making and decorating them anyway, right? Pillsbury has a yummy whole wheat sugar cookie recipe that works well.

And, remember that candy in the stocking? It doesn’t really have to be there. You might want to replace it with a new toothbrush! Happy (hopefully healthy) holidays!

- Posted by Robin

With a meal planning calendar, you can save time and money, while avoiding the “what’s for dinner?” dilemma. Your calendar should be the first thing you consult before making your grocery shopping list.

A calendar helps you schedule your favorite meals, as well as new recipes that you want to try. If you’re looking for easy ways to organize your meal planning calendar, here are some ideas.

• By ethnic theme, such as Italian, Mexican, or Chinese
• By cooking method: baked, stove top, slow cooker, grill, etc.
• Type of main ingredient: red meat, poultry, seafood, or pasta

How far in advance will you plan your meals? Monthly? Weekly? Say Mmm helps you do both. A monthly calendar view lets you plan far in advance. Many people also like to designate a day or two each month for preparing and cooking several meals, which can then be frozen and eaten later. On the other hand, if you prefer to shop for fresh ingredients every few days, then you can create weekly plans that allow you more flexibility.

Some additional tips for using a meal planning calendar:

1. Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you find a plan that works, then stick with it.
2. Save money by keeping track of local sales and coupon offers, which you can factor in when creating your calendar.
3. Choose one or more days on the calendar that you’ll prepare meals in bulk and freeze or refrigerate them for reheating on busy days.
4. If you have kids, make meal time fun by including them in the planning and preparation.

With our free online meal planning calendar, you can organize and save your plans, automatically creating shopping lists right from the document. While browsing your saved recipes and meal ideas, just click them to add them to your calendar. Our calendar even lets you keep track of meals that you eat at your favorite restaurants.

Recipes are yummier with photos. On Say Mmm, you can save all your recipes from anywhere in one place and upload photos with your recipes. And now it’s even easier to add photos for online recipes with the new suggested images feature.

Whenever you save a recipe with a link to an online recipe, Say Mmm will check the recipe and suggest an image (along with an automatic grocery list). It has some intelligence built in to choose the best image for that recipe, but you can also click to find other images on the recipe page that may be better. 

If you want to save multiple images, you can edit the recipe to look up more than one recipe from the page or upload images from files on your computer. You’ll see the thumbnails of the images on your recipe page and you can click to visit the online recipe or view larger photos or files you have uploaded.

Now it’s easier to login and share recipes on Say Mmm with friends on Facebook.  Instead of remembering your Say Mmm username and password, just login with Facebook.  Plus, the new Facebook app helps you find Facebook friends on Say Mmm.  You can see friends that have the app on your invite page, and when new friends sign up, they will see you as a friend suggestion in the welcome area.  You can even share recipes on your Say Mmm profile with friends that have the app, even if they don’t have a Say Mmm account.

The first time you login with Facebook you will still need to sign in with your Say Mmm account to connect the two accounts, but after that you be automatically signed in when you are signed into Facebook.  When signing up, new users will still need a Say Mmm user name and password, but can use Facebook connect to fill in the other information for them.

A couple months ago we added a way to discover and share recipes on Facebook, which is a separate app because it requires additional permissions to search news feeds and save images to Facebook. The nice thing though is that it now has all the features of the new Facebook connect app as well.

Congratulations to the first winner of our Facebook Cookbook giveway:

http://saymmm.com/fb/paolalh

We are looking forward to seeing the creative ways people can use the new Facebook Cookbook feature and will be giving away $100 a week to the best profiles we see. Winners will be announced on Fridays for the next couple of weeks, so there are multiple chances to win.

Vote for Say Mmm in the Evernote DevCup, a competition for the best Evernote integrations with over $100K in prizes:

Check it out 

View Evernote notes with recipes in a visual cookbook that is easy to browse and fun to share. It uses the same notebooks, tags, and sharing settings from your Evernote account, so everything is organized right from Evernote. It’s great for recipes, and you can use it for any of your notes. There is even an image picker tool that will update the thumbnail Evernote displays. Add notes to a calendar to plan meals, events, travel ideas, or anything you want to remember by day or along a timeline. You can then save weekly plans as separate combined notes for quick reference.