Perfect for cool weather, here’s a recipe from Jules that will satisfy your sweet tooth while keeping the calories in check: "In my house, the onset of fall means comfort food; autumn and winter are our prime time for cooking heady, comforting meals with hearty desserts. But cool weather weight gain happens for a reason; hearty meals and treats are often rich, laden with calories. These reduced fat peanut butter chunk cookies are perfect served warm with a tall glass of milk. Or if you’re looking to add some richness, top them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Fall means school's in, leaves are down, and it's time to crank the oven back on. Today, Little Lettice's Sara Cabot shares some easy ideas for how to prepare butternut squash for the whole family: "Now that the local butternut squash is here, we need look no further for a wholesome, delicious, and nutritious vegetable to grace our table. And how much better the local gourds taste than those shipped over from the West coast. Farmers’ markets are full of all kinds of winter squashes, all of them pretty similar in terms of nutrition. I like the butternut as it is large (good for large families like mine), easy to peel, and tasty.

For baking enthusiasts, leisurely long weekends no doubt represent a call for treats; this weekend, consider trying out Jules's original Walnut Cake recipe (click photo thumbnail to enlarge). For the reduced fat version, just bake the cake; to up the sweet ante, add the chocolate ganache and sweetened walnuts topping:

Little Lettice’s Sara Cabot and I are well aligned in our food philosophies, and our families similarly share a passion for popsicles. Today, Sara shares information on sugar content in commercial popsicles as well as tips for homemade popsicles. I add comments at the end of her feature regarding popsicle molds and homemade chocolate pops:

When I was pregnant with Laurel I carried a bag of trail mix wherever I went, lest the hungry beast emerge (my mom warned Jon before we got married to never, ever let me get to a state of hungry delirium). Today, our resident foodie Jules offers a snack recipe to suit both sweet and savory cravings:

We have visitors in this weekend so I’ve been browsing my recipe binders (yes, I have binders for my clippings) for simple, yummy food to prepare. I was reminded of Martha's panzanella; easy to knock together and great for summer (especially when the stores or your garden get overrun with tomatoes and basil). A few comments: 1. The recipe has a typo - the amount of garlic you need is one clove. 2. Toasting the bread works fine if you don’t want/know how to grill or broil. 3. If you want to tone down the onions a bit, slice then soak them in a bowl of cold water (pat dry before including in recipe). The oil and vinegar also will take the edge off a bit.

It’s an amazing milestone to get beyond nursing and solid food purees to the stage where your kids can eat whatever you’re eating. But then the challenge shifts to figuring out healthful and easy meals for the whole family. Today, guest contributor Jules (our resident professional foodie) offers a recipe that packs a nutritional and visually vibrant punch. Click here for the printable PDF of Jules’s Fast & Healthy Mexican Stuffed Peppers (shown; click thumbnail to enlarge). Enjoy!

And now, pursuant to our announcement about our impending regular guest contributors, here is Sara Cabot, with a feature on the power of peas (including recipes for babies up to adults!). Welcome, Sara! “Early spring is a funny time for produce. The stored winter apples, squashes, and root vegetables are over and we find ourselves waiting impatiently for the first fruits and vegetables of summer. In this ‘betwixt and between’ time, frozen fruits and veggies are always an option. They are easy to store and use; they are picked and frozen at source so are sometimes actually fresher than ‘fresh’ produce which may have sat around in a warehouse for weeks; they are reasonably priced too.

I realize that multiple cooking posts in the span of a few days makes clear my obsession with food, but a recipe this easy must be shared with my fellow mamas. For our gathering yesterday with some of Laurel’s BFFs, we made vanilla cupcakes but subbed the vanilla frosting with this incredibly easy chocolate frosting recipe from our trusty Baking Illustrated. Bring 1 cup of heavy cream to a simmer in a small saucepan or in the microwave. Place 8 ounces of chopped semisweet chocolate (chips work great and lessen cleanup) in a bowl and pour the hot cream over it. Cover the bowl with foil and let it stand 5-10 minutes. Whisk mixture until smooth and velvety brown. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool and slightly firm, about 1 hour.

Avocados have long been a staple in our household, and after naptime today we’ll up our daily consumption by serving some friends the easiest and best guacamole recipe ever. This recipe comes from The Border Cookbook (a James Beard Award winner). Simple mash 2 ripe Haas avocados roughly, leaving some small chunks. Stir in 2 tablespoons of minced onion, 1 fresh minced Serrano or Jalapeno pepper, ½ teaspoon of salt, and the juice of ½ a lemon or lime (bottled juice works fine). Makes about 1 ½ cups; serve within 30 minutes of preparation.

These days, weekend gatherings with our friends and their kids tend to zone in on the brunch window; the timing works for various nap patterns, the prep is simple, and the food suits kids and adults. One easy and yummy go-to recipe in our brunch arsenal is the Sour-Cream Banana Coffee Cake from Real Simple (shown; click thumbnail to enlarge). My only revisions include not bothering to chop the chips (forgoing the extra step and associated cleanup with extra chips), and dispersing the chocolate-nut sugar and batter more loosely than by thirds (to better spread around the good stuff). Also, using ripe, frozen bananas in this and other banana bread recipes improves the taste. Just let the frozen bananas thaw in a dish, or defrost them in the microwave, before use.

Jon and I currently are on a mission to develop a weekly dinner plan that: a) is simple and tasty for adults and kids; b) takes the ambiguity out of who’s doing what (we recently discovered I was assuming full responsibility for – and withholding bitterness over – meal prep on top of work and juggling Laurel at the end of the day); and c) gets more vegetables into us. If we get a good plan sorted out, we’ll be sure to share it; meanwhile, we have discovered how effective an excellent, simple vinaigrette is to inspiring salad consumption.