As we sat around on the porch feeding our collection of toddler girls pretzel-style Goldfish Crackers, one of my friends, also the mom to a three-month-old sighed. "You know, it's true what they say about it being harder to lose weight with your second child. I see it because it's hard to eat healthily when you always have junk food around to feed your toddler."

And I gulped. But I don't want to have a hard time losing weight with this kid! It was so easy with Nora.

FitSugar has four great ideas for cutting back on meat if it's part of your New Year's Resolutions to eat better. I'd also like to add in there the concept of Weekday Vegetarian. Some people also make the switch to being a pescatarian as a stepping stone to meat-free as well. Pescatarians eat fish along with a traditional vegetarian diet.

Happy New Year to all!

While it's many a reader's pet peeve to follow a blogger who suddenly quits blogging, it's an even bigger annoyance to have the blogger draw attention to her absence. But I beg you to keep reading. . .and even to refresh your memory you might want to read back to a similar post from two years ago.

Did you get the hint?

Thanks for the great feedback about the Food Face Plate series. Have you been missing it? So have we. But there's a rhyme and a reason. Please continue reading.

A friend came to visit one day saddened that her already picky toddler had suddenly refused to eat even all the stand-by foods that the family used to rely on to feed her. I offered to loan her the plate. Because part of Eating Well is Sharing Well. It's important to help people who recognize that you do something different and ask you for advice.

Today the neighborhood girls rallied round to take care of another neighbor who appeared to be going into early labor while her husband was out of the country on business. That being said, our Thanksgiving menu plan is still not completely together. Not that I'm complaining. It's always better to be a supportive friend than have your menu under control. But if you're still struggling to get it together like I am, here's a few helpful links I've enjoyed gleaning ideas from.

As I said in Friday's post, it's a great idea to eat from the freezer this week to make room for what's coming in next week, especially if you have guests for the week like we do. This means that in truth there isn't much cooking to be done in the kitchen except baking a loaf of bread and such, but I'll appreciate the extra time I can spend readying the home for guests. And of course, extra time with Nora is wonderful, too.

It's rather cold in Orlando this morning. This means the realization of Thanksgiving being just two weeks away is upon us. I have a list of kitchen-associate projects that I'll be dealing with next week in preparation for guests. I'm adding it in here for those it might help get a handle on the activities as well. I'm also posting it today instead of Monday because those who work might want to get a jump start this weekend.

When we go to potlucks, it's always a challenge. I want to make something that is shockingly good, especially when there are non-vegetarians present. And these days, it has to be easy finger food for toddlers. (And frankly, easy to prepare.) Plus, I like it to be good at room temperature. My parents happened to have been leaving town the weekend before the event to which I brought the falafel and had left us with lots of lettuce.

My two have been under the weather for a few days. This is all rather new to me. I'm doing my best to keep them happy. Obviously, that means the menu doesn't get followed exactly. I aim to please. Whatever is desired gets served.

You can tell I was running late getting dinner on and caught this photo just in time!

This is such a great Food Face to welcome colder weather to Florida. The recommendation for long-haired pasta came from our friend, Fely, who is of a more creative career path than myself. I served a dollop of spinach-walnut pesto over whole grain pasta and sprinkled it with some freshly grated Pecorino cheese. The rosy-cheeked tomatoes are fresh out of our garden. It was a new plant for the fall and has done rather well.

It might be a little early for you, but circumstances too long to discuss here have driven me to start shopping for Christmas early. And that has led me to start posting some pictures of products I like (many we've tried) that encourage kids to play healthier-and hopefully eat healthier. You can find them on Pinterest. The board is labeled "Healthy Christmas Presents for Kids."