Simplify

The Best Instant Pot Recipes

The Best Instant Pot Recipes (Healthy, Real Food)

by Kristin Marr

How to Read Ingredients Lists

How to Read Ingredient Lists (and Find Real Food)

by Kristin Marr

Lunches You Can Make and Freeze (School Lunch Ideas)

7 Lunches You Can Make and Freeze

by Kristin Marr

The Best Lunchbox Gear for Kids

by Kristin Marr

Healthy Kids Snacks Ideas for School and Home

Healthy Kids Snack Ideas For School (Plus, The Best Snack Containers and Tips)

by Kristin Marr

What is Real Food? A complete guide to real food

What is Real Food? A Simplified Guide

by Kristin Marr

What is Einkorn?

What is Einkorn Flour? And Tips for Using Einkorn Flour

by Kristin Marr

20 Healthy Lunchbox Ideas for Kids

Lunchbox Ideas For Kids: 20 Main Lunch Ideas That Go Beyond a Sandwich

by Kristin Marr

Picky Eaters: How to Encourage Exploration and Open-Mindedness with Food (Plus, Recipes to Encourage Exploration)

Picky Eaters: How to Encourage Healthy Eating and a Healthy Relationship with Food

by Kristin Marr

"Real Food" Breakfast Meal Prep Ideas

“Real Food” Breakfast Meal Prep Ideas (Freezer-Friendly, Egg-Free, and Gluten-Free Options)

by Kristin Marr

Real Food Meal Prep Plan: Easy Meal Prep Ideas for One Week of Real Food Meals

“Real Food” Food Prep Plan: 5 Foods To Make Now and Enjoy All Week

by Kristin Marr

How to Keep Food Fresh, Avoid Food Waste, and Save Money

How to Keep Your Real Food Fresh, Avoid Food Waste, and Ultimately Save Money

by Kristin Marr

livesimplymom

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This basically sums up our entire trip to Italy, lol, or just life in general. ❤️🍎🍉🍌🥖🥞🧀🥚🍳🥙🍯🍻

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ITALY 🇮🇹 PART 3. Finally, we stopped off in Rome for a few days, where we would also catch a flight ✈️ and make our way home. Rome is fascinating and so rich in history (unlike anything I’ve seen before in one city). The history of this city can be seen around every turn. As our guides told us, Rome is built like a lasagna—which was clearly evident as we explored—the old Ancient Rome and new Rome built right on top of each other. While in Rome, we took a 3 hour street food tour which combined street food sampling and history in one—my kind of learning 🍕🍷🧀! We spent a day walking and touring by ourselves (30,000 steps later). Rome is super manageable for walking and sightseeing. And then toured the Vatican 🇻🇦 and Colosseum another day. Both places were a must for advance tickets if you don’t want to spend all day in line. Here are a few highlights from Rome —>📸 #livesimplyblog #rome #romeitaly🇮🇹 #vaticancity #italyfood #italyvacation #italyphotography #livesimplyblogtravels

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ITALY 🇮🇹 PART 2: After the Chianti region, we spent time in Florence, San Gimignano, and Siena. Florence was our main hub. I couldn’t help but stand in awe of the joy people find in food and their traditions around how and what they eat. This is something I find so beautiful about traveling outside the states. I truly believe that the reason we are so easily swayed by diet trends, government pyramids, marketing messages, and online diet influencers is because we’ve lost our roots in food. We’ve lost the word tradition. There seems to be an increasing fear and stress surrounding food in the States versus joy and respect. Italy abounds with wine, sourdough pizza, breads, pasta, truffles, local veg and fruits, cured meats (a lovely way to preserve meat—remember refrigeration and freezers haven’t always been around), organ meats and a way of cooking that respects the land and animals (as well as the body). This was seen the more we ventured out of Rome and into the smaller towns and cities. We have so many photos (thanks to @dmarr ), I have to break them up in multiple carousels. Here are some highlights from this region. #livesimplyblog #florenceitaly #siena #italyfood #florencefood #italyvacation #italyphotography #livesimplyblogtravels

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Oh Italy 🇮🇹, breathtaking and incredible at every turn! I’ll write up a post with what we did, where we stayed, and the tours we took (which were amazing). For now, here’s a highlight. Let’s start with photos of Chianti, the wine and olive oil region in Tuscany. I’ll have to post a few different carousels of photos because we have so many! #italy🇮🇹 #livesimplyblogtravels #livesimplyblog #florenceitaly #chianti #chiantilovers #walkabouttoursflorence #florencefood #italyvacation #italyphotography #madewelltote

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Bucket list destination! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Where is that for you? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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For me, that's going to New Zealand or Thailand!

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When it comes to dinner, I find the easiest way to simplify this area of life, particularly during the school year, is to use themes. For each weekday, we have a different theme for dinner. Here are our current themes:
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-Chicken ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
-Soup ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
-Stir-fry or fried rice
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-Taco-style ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
-Instant Pot meal
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Themes provide a ton of structure to my weekly meal planning. When I sit down to plan out a week of meals, I’m not sitting in front of a blank calendar, scratching my head, trying to figure out what we should we eat that week. I have a list of our favorite recipes next to me and our current themes listed on paper. This means creating a plan for the week takes just minutes. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
#livesimplyblog #realfood #naturalliving #homemade #foodprep #mealprep #foodprepideas #mealprepideas #foodstorage #farmersmarket #freshingredients #organicfamily #naturalfamily #lunchboxideas #mealplan #mealplanner #simplifiedlife #simplifyyourlife #nontoxicliving #instantpot

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