October 26th is National Pumpkin Day. Whether you celebrate with a pumpkin spice latte or by carving pumpkins, this day has something for everyone.
Here are a few of my family’s favorite pumpkin recipes:
Don’t forget to check out my Halloween Events and Activities post here. There are all sorts of fun (and free) events all over San Diego County!
Have you heard?
Now through November 30, 2026, Procter and Gamble is offering some new rebates! Participating brands include Tide, Downy, Olay, Bounce, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Prilosec, Pepto-Bismol, Always Discreet, ZzzQuil, Herbal Essences, and Gillette. For the full list of brands included, go to the rebate page here.
There are three tiers of rebates:
• Spend $20, get a $5 reward
• Spend $50, get a $15 reward
• Spend $75, get a $25 reward
If this rebate isn’t your cup of tea, but you still want to save money, check out Procter & Gamble’s website here for more savings like:
October is National Pizza Month, so I thought I’d share with y’all some of our favorite pizza stuff: recipes, pizza swag, and even ways to save money on ordering pizza.
Goodness knows we have pizza about once a week (Friday take-out night is usually pizza), so I have all kinds of tips and tricks.
If you are new to making your own pizza at home, here is a list of my must-haves, including ingredients and kitchen tools!
Need a break from cooking and want to order takeout? Here are a few suggestions for saving money and/or earning cash back on your next pizza night:
Inspired by Your Barefoot Neighbor, this recipe is really tasty and pretty easy.
Ingredients:
Directions:
Variations:
Looking to switch up your classic chocolate chip cookie recipe this fall? I have just what you need.
Over the years, I have made hundreds (maybe thousands) of batches of cookies, and I have substituted all sorts of different flavors of chips and extracts.
With the holidays approaching, there will be a lot of variety in baking chip flavors available at your local retailers. Some of my favorites include mlik chocolate, candy cane, pumpkin spice, butterscotch, and peanut butter. If you are an online shopper, The Bulk Priced Food Shop on Amazon has a lot of great baking chip flavors.
If you like a little more texture in your cookies, substitute one cup of the chips with dried diced fruit, or crushed freeze dried fruit, or diced candied fruit. Candied lemon peels are excellent in cookies with lemon extract, and white chocolate chips. Dried cherries go great with dark chocolate chips/chunks.
Change up the flavor with different extracts. I like cake batter, lemon, or almond in place of vanilla. Watkins is my favorite brand- they have a wide variety of flavor extracts. Rembmer Essential oils and baking extracts are NOT THE SAME THING.
If you are vegan or gluten-free, there will be substitutions at the end of this post just for you.
Choose Your Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
Directions:
Variations: substitute half a cup of the room temperature butter for nut or seed butter of your choice. This will give your cookies a subtle nut flavor.
If you are vegan, substitute butter with your favorite plant-based butter, or hydrogenated shortening. Butter flavor shortening works best.
Additionally, you can substitute the two eggs for two flax eggs or egg replacer of your choice. It does affect the texture of the cookie, but if you are vegan or egg free, you’re probably used to the texture.
The weather this week is going to be weird- Hot in the beginning of the week, and rainy and wet towards the middle and end. All I want is fall weather. I’m craving SOUP! I’ve got a few new recipes in the works- I’ll be sharing them once I make them.
I do my grocery shopping usually early on Saturday morning, after I inventory the fridge, freezer, and pantry (the forms I used are in this post- they are FREE). This week I didn’t buy a lot. We’ve got a lot of pantry staples, and I’m leaning into those, plus a lot of frozen veggies (from our last delivery of veggies for the local CSA. I cleaned, chopped, and bagged what we weren’t able to eat right away), and a big package of chicken breast.
Breakfast: The Big Kid has joined the Protein Coffee train with me. He has his with the equivalent of 2-3 shots of espresso in it, served hot. I take my Protein Coffee iced. 1 protein shake and 20 ounces of cold brew. The littler dude is on an Einstein Bros. Bagel kick. I buy them once every few weeks, pre-sliced, then I stash them in the freezer and pull them out and toast them as needed.
Lunch: Monday through Friday, I pack my own and the kids’ lunches. I bring 5 lunches to work on Monday and stash them in the fridge. I pack the kids’ lunches each night before bed, except for the cold stuff and ice pack- those I put in when I get up in the morning. This week I have frozen entrees- there was a sale a few weeks ago, and I bought enough for the first 2 weeks of school. The big kid has basically the same lunch every day: Sandwich, drink, Quest Protein Chips, and a couple of cookies or whatever I made this week. The little dude has cheesy popcorn, mandarin oranges (2), a cheese stick, a yogurt drink, a cookie, and a fruit snack. Whatever keeps them fed!
Dinner: It’s a mixed bag of crockpot meals and quick-cook, easy dinners this week.
Wednesday: Smoothies and Charcuterie plates (this has become a Wednesday special)
Thursday: Quesadillas, beans and rice
This week is National Food Bank Week. If you’ve got a spare $5.00 or so, you can help your neighbors in need by picking up some canned/shelf-stable food and donating it to your local food bank or local free little pantry. Find your local food bank here, and your free Little Pantry here.
For those in need in the San Diego County area, check out my list of local food resources here.
September 13th is National Peanut Day!
If you don’t have a peanut allergy, this is a great day to celebrate this tasty legume. The peanut isn’t botanically a nut; it is related to beans and lentils.
We can credit George Washington Carver for bringing the peanut into our everyday lives. To learn more about Carver and his incredible career in botany, check out this article.
Here are a few recipes that my family loves that feature peanut butter:
If you love Peanut butter but need to avoid the natural fat/oil, I use PB2 in my protein shakes. If you also need to avoid added salt, Peanut Flour is a great option in place of PB2.
I love having Peanut butter on hand in my car snack box, so I use these Jif Cups or these By Nutz pouches.
Penzeys is having a sale on $50 Gift Cards for only $35!
This is an amazing sale that only happens a few times a year. The best part: They never expire. Use them in-store or online.
This deal is back, but only until tonight- Monday, September 7, 2026.
September is National Potato Month. I love potatoes- they are full of nutrients, they are inexpensive, and a bag of taters lasts a while if kept in a dry, dark cabinet.
Here are a few family recipes that involve potatoes that are the best.
