About

I’m Nicole, the owner and creator of The Daily Dish Recipes which is a combined effort of my obsession with food, cooking and baking and my inherent need to save money. I used to own the website Frugal Changes, but decided it was time to combine the passions and allow them to be one.

Welcome to my wonderful, blessed, amazing and sometimes crazy life.

I’m a thirty-something mother of five, but don’t get too excited – I’m not that much of a martyr – I didn’t birth them all. Four and a half years ago, I was the single mother of a son and a daughter, struggling to get by month to month alone and trying to make my children the center of my world. Just over three years ago, I glanced up and fell head over heels in love with met the Montana-man-of-my-dreams, moved in and inherited four new mouths to feed (Montana man and his three daughters).  Now I struggle month to month with him and our beautiful, wonderful economy and have finally found myself truly wanting to enjoy the simpler country life.

I’ve lived in Suburbia pretty much my entire life with the exception of a brief but memorable nine month stint in Miami, Florida sans kids, thank goodness. With all the suburban madness – mini vans and music lessons, BBQ’s and concerts, nosy neighbors and noisy neighbors and much too much of houses on top of houses, I have decided it is time to exit the madness and head towards the quiet solitude of the country. I am ready to be one with nature. Or at least I think I am. Thankfully the whole family is on board.

I really hope you have fun visiting my website. It’s where I write about our slow but steady switch to the country life, where I chronicle stories and mishaps from my children. Where I write about the sometimes awesome, sometimes failing ways we save money. Where I share my most favorite recipes, and tips for cooking for picky eater, and where – well – I feel at home. I have many different sections I write in, mostly about ways to save money and live a more frugal, simple life. Oh and please understand, I’m not getting rid of my scrapbook obsession, so every now and then you’ll get a small dose of that, though it does have its own page.

This great quint pack, also known as our herd, are the five darlings I claim to mother.

I love them, really I do. But sometimes I need to embarrass them a little. It builds character.

They’re all good kids.

In my spare time (as if I have much), I am a writer. I write articles and am working on a novel. I am also a consultant for Close to My Heart. I am an avid scrapbooker and if I’m not out spending time with the family, or not in the kitchen cooking or not on my laptop writing, I’m probably scrapbooking. It is probably what takes up most of my spare time (what’s that?). I take tons and tons of photographs in which I then need to create elaborate scrapbook pages chronicling every detail of my kids’ lives. I’m so glad you are sneaking a peek, a glimpse, a rough and raw look into our lives. Thank you for visiting!

~Nicole