Simple Meals + Honest Book Reviews + Practical Living
Another delicious pureed vegetable soup to add into the winter rotation – and it’s dairy-free to boot! The creaminess comes from canned coconut milk, which is rich in healthy fats, MCTs, and vitamins. Also, with only a handful of ingredients, and comes together in under 30 minutes, it’s a winner in my book.
Today we’re diving into Good Energy by Dr. Casey Means. This book stayed with me because it offered a simple but radical reframe: nearly every chronic condition we see today—from fatigue and depression to infertility, heart disease, and dementia—can be traced back to how well our cells make and use energy.
When cells are underpowered or overwhelmed, inflammation follows. Inflammation isn’t the villain—it’s the immune system trying to help. But when that response becomes constant, it creates collateral damage. This is why metabolic dysfunction and chronic inflammation so often appear together.
Symptoms like brain fog, headaches, digestive issues, joint pain, anxiety, low mood, and constant fatigue have become so normalized that we treat them as a rite of passage—instead of what they really are: warning signs 🚨.
Hello, hello! And welcome to Exodus. This is our first week with the second book of Moses, and it begins with a punch. Buckle up.
Right away, we’re steeped in Genesis symbolism, introduced to five women who each, in their own brave and defiant way, save Moses’ life, and drawn into some of the most compelling dialogue in the Bible. I’ve always been most captivated by the back-and-forth between God and a mortal — the honesty, the tension, the rawness. So it’s no surprise these opening chapters of Exodus thrill me.
Welcome back to another soup day. Today, we’re featuring one of my favorites: minestrone. It’s hard to beat a good minestrone with homemade bread. As much as I love a pureed soup like a tomato, or a carrot-ginger, etc. there’s something so much easier about serving a chunky soup to a 16-month old. The pasta in here is also a crowd pleaser with our three, five, and seven year olds as well. And it was also a hit with our sixty-five year grandfather. A three generation crowd-pleaser!
Earlier this week — or was it last week? Winter break has that blurry effect — I finally tackled a big pantry declutter and re-organization. It felt so good to reset. Somewhere in the back, I found a lone can of pumpkin purée leftover from Thanksgiving and started wondering what I could turn it into for the kids.
The two big kids each need two snacks for school. My go-to is a combination of a piece of fruit and a homemade muffin. I typically default to banana-chocolate chip, but this week, I decided to experiment with that lone can of pumpkin purée + rolled oats. Enjoy the easiest muffin recipe ever. All you’ll need is a blender + muffin tin (and maybe some muffin liners).
Happy 2026! It’s wild to me that we’ve not only finished up the holiday season — a particularly hectic and full one for our family this year (a birth, a death, and a broken bone) — but that this is also the last week with the beautiful book of Genesis. From the Jewish New Year, when I first decided to embark on this project, through the Gregorian New Year, I have learned so much by sitting with the text, going line by line. This project has truly been a gift.
The plan is to continue on through the book of Exodus, as it’s Dennis Prager’s favorite and the first in his series. I really hope you’ll join me, as I plan to post each Sunday morning going with the motions of the parsha.