While it may be spring, the evenings are still chilly enough to warrant making a nice pot of warming soup for dinner. This easy and delicious meatball minestrone—filled with mini chicken meatballs, pasta, and fresh vegetables—is perfect for a cool evening.

The kids love to pitch in and help make the meatballs, which is really the hardest part of this easy-to-make recipe; the soup comes together really quickly and easily and is ideal for a weeknight meal. Feel free to vary the vegetables to reflect whatever you happen to have on hand.

Ingredients

Serves 6–8

Meatballs

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Marin Mommies presents a book review by guest contributor Barbara McVeigh. Meet Me at the Moon will be available March 29, and Gianna Marino will be at Book Passage in Corte Madera April 20 at 10 am.

Local author Gianna Marino’s new children’s book Meet Me at the Moon honors the quintessential dance between a mother’s love and a child’s need for reassurance. Vibrant textured hues of reds, greys, oranges and greens set the tone while exquisite elephants, zebras and giraffes move along sun drenched landscapes, under starry skies, in rainstorms and more upon the African plain.

Mama Elephant tells Little One she must go away for a while. The land is dry and she will climb the highest mountain to ask the skies for rain. Little One is worried and grips Mama’s trunk “I don’t want you to go.” Will Mama return?

Marin Mommies presents this week's guest recipe from Nicole Cibellis, Marin mom and author of the blog A Family that Eats Together, where she shares meal plans and recipes that will please foodies and children alike. Nicole is also the creator of the new Little Froglet line of children's activewear.

Nicole's meal plan for this week features Irish lamb stew, beef stir fry with snow peas, penne ai peperoni, Asian lettuce cups, and this easy quiche with spinach, pancetta and shallots.

My mom always made quiche for a quick lunch or dinner when she had very little in the house to make. I found myself in that situation this weekend so I made my own version. This is a quick and easy recipe. As a side, I prefer a lettuce and baby arugula salad with a French vinaigrette (recipe included).

A few weeks ago, we visited the Petaluma Seed Bank to pick out our seeds for this year's vegetable garden. After last year's experience with really slow-growing seedlings, we decided to be a little smarter about how we did things this season.

Last year's garden was hit-and-miss, mainly due to the cooler-than-usual weather we experienced here in Northern California. The hits were our tomatoes—we had tons of them, and the vines kept producing well into December! Sadly, our squash plants never really got going, and only produced a few fruits. What we had was good, but there wasn't very much. The peppers that didn't get destroyed by cutworms early on didn't produce that well, either. Hopefully this season will be a little warmer and we'll have better results.

Our first task was to start the tomato and pepper seeds indoors. Last year we used egg cartons. They worked OK, but our seedlings took a long time to grow, and apparently the egg carton cups aren't deep enough to allow for proper root development. This time we picked up a reusable and recyclable plastic seed-starting container from the Seed Bank. It has 72 cups, so we have room for plenty of seedlings, and the whole thing fits into a neat drip tray to keep things neat.

Marin Mommies presents this week's guest recipe from Nicole Cibellis, Marin mom and author of the blog A Family that Eats Together, where she shares meal plans and recipes that will please foodies and children alike. Nicole is also the creator of the new Little Froglet line of children's activewear.

Nicole's meal plan for this week features baked ginger chicken, beef bulgogi with pear dipping sauce, curried cream of tomato soup, broccoli rabe pesto with orechiette, and this easy and delicious Spanish-style roasted chicken.

This is super quick and easy recipe in which you throw everything into the baking dish and let it cook for 1 hour. The result is a terrific stress free dinner the whole family will love.

Servings: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour

Marin Mommies presents a guest article by Bay Area fashion stylist Katie Rice Jones.

Those few months just after the birth of your beautiful baby can be trying times especially when it comes to fashion. You feel stuck between wearing your maternity frocks that make you still look pregnant and your pre-baby skinny jeans that make you feel like a stuffed sausage. You’re in a fashion limbo of sorts. However even with your limited clothing options and an abundance of closet confusion you still have to get dressed. So how do you break out of limbo with your style intact?

First—Don’t torture yourself by trying on your pre-baby clothes too soon. Give yourself a break. You didn’t gain the baby weight overnight; you’re not going to lose overnight, either. Rest assured you will be back into your regular clothes soon enough.

Marin Mommies presents this week's guest recipe from Nicole Cibellis, Marin mom and author of the blog A Family that Eats Together, where she shares meal plans and recipes that will please foodies and children alike. Nicole is also the creator of the new Little Froglet line of children's activewear.

Nicole's meal plan for this week features slow cooker Moroccan brisket with red onions, broccoli rabe pesto with orechiette, kheema mattar curry, Guiness and onion soup with Irish cheddar croutons, and this easy chicken cacciatore with red pepper sauce..

This is a quick and easy recipe that the kids will love. The peppers make the sauce sweet which is a nice addition to cacciatore. What I love about it is how easy it is to make it. I let the chicken poach in the sauce so it is not only healthy but it makes the chicken super juicy with little effort on my part. I serve my cacciatore with spaghetti but any pasta will do. This recipe gets better as left-over’s. I added some peas to it for our lunch today and it was a hit!

I'm always looking for healthy but tasty snacks for the kids' lunch boxes or for after school. My daughter brought this oatmeal muffin recipe home from preschool last spring and it's been a hit in our house ever since. This recipe is easy enough that children can help out in nearly every stage (let mom or dad take them in and out of the oven, though).

With whole-grain oats and raisins, these muffins are tasty and kid-friendly, but full of nutrition and fiber. You can also add chopped walnuts or substitute dried cranberries for the raisins. Be creative!

You can make these as either full-sized or mini muffins. Mini muffins are a real hit with the kids, and they're the perfect size for school lunches, after-school snacks, or for play group treats. We often bring these for school class parties, too.

L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wizard of Oz comes to life in Masque Unit Junior Theatre’s annual live theater production for young children at Marin Center this weekend. Masque Unit’s production and Jim Eiler and Jeanne Bargy’s musical adaptation of The Wizard of Oz introduces children to this timeless masterpiece and offers an afternoon of delightful entertainment. The colorful characters, fast-paced action, and hysterical humor will please not only children of all ages, but adults as well.

After a tornado whisks Dorothy away from her farm in Kansas to the magical land of Oz, the Munchkins and Glinda the Good Witch send her on an adventure to find the mighty Wizard. On her way, Dorothy meets a brainless Scarecrow, a heartless Tin Woodsman, and a Cowardly Lion. Dorothy must avoid the clutches of the Wicked Witch of the West and find the Wizard who will help her get home.