The Balanced Kitchen

Time for food. Time for Life.

Wild Blueberry Corn Muffins

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“By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by Wild Blueberries and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time.”

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is just around the corner?! It completely snuck up on me. Luckily, this year is kind of like my year off. Our family has a tradition of staying in the DC area for one year and then going up to extended family in New Jersey the next. When it is nearby I am in charge of the Turkey (high stakes cooking!), but on the New Jersey years I am usually assigned a simpler, more transportable set of dishes. This year I am responsible for the corn bread and an appetizer. I will likely bring some classic cornbread so as not to rock the boat too much, but I also like to bring a new and different spin on recipes and now I’ve got two contenders: last week’s feta jalapeño corn muffins and this week’s wild blueberry corn muffins. It is going to be a hard call……

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Managing Treat Season for Ourselves and Our Kids

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As much as we may want to live in denial, we are about to enter what I like to call treat season, that time of year from Halloween through New Years when there are seemingly endless supplies of sweet treats. This is a time of year that used to stress me out both because of my own treat consumption and because I felt like I was in a constant state of negotiation with my kids. In the past two years, though, I have not found it nearly as stressful and I wanted to share with you the things that I have done that I think have been helpful, both for myself and for my kids….

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7 Tips to Help You Actually Enjoy Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love the coming together of family (whether actual or adopted), the sharing of foods, and the practice of expressing gratitude. Since marrying into a Brazilian family I have also loved seeing the different cultural interpretations that families bring to the table—tropical fruits in place of cranberry sauce, salad instead of green bean casserole (don’t miss that), and Brazilian desserts as well as pumpkin pie.

But for many of us Thanksgiving can also be overwhelming. It is a lot of work to produce so much food. There is a lot of pressure to have it be the perfect day. And that is where I think we need to shift our expectations. For me, the importance of Thanksgiving is in the coming together of people, it is in the sharing of plenty, and it is in the expression of gratitude for all that we have, which feels especially poignant to me this year as we are witnessing so much misery around the world.

As we prepare for Thanksgiving this year, this time of year to give thanks, I wanted to advocate for all of us to be kind to ourselves and to take the stress out of the day, so that we can truly focus on the important aspects of this holiday.

So here are my tips for ways to make Thanksgiving a little more relaxed and pleasurable, so that you can stay present and enjoy the day for what it is meant to be….

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