Hi there! I’m Kristin and I’m so glad you stopped by.
Contained Cuisine is my corner of the internet where I share tried and true recipes that I love—the ones I make again and again.
I truly believe delicious food doesn’t have to be difficult, fussy or time-consuming. It can also be quite healthy.
Here you’ll find easy recipes for dinner, appetizers, snacks, soups, salads, desserts and more. Almost all my recipes have a reasonable number of ingredients and take under 45 minutes to make.
If your goal is to get good food on the table without spending all day in the kitchen, then my ever-growing collection of recipes might just have what you’re looking for!
Where did the name Contained Cuisine come from?
I’m a bit of an organizer and love efficiency (my family would laugh and say that’s an understatement 🫢). So to me, meal-prepping in advance is like the next best thing since sliced bread.
I mean, why chop up salad ingredients every day when you can do it once and layer them in mason jars with hardly any extra effort? Then you have several days of easy grab-and-go meals!
I also love serving desserts in small jars, setting out jarcuterie (charcuterie in jars) for gatherings and giving mason jar food gifts to friends and family.
Friendship Soup Mix in a Jar and Cowboy Cookie Mix in a Jar are two of my favorites. (Here’s the full list of my mason jar mix recipes that all come with free printable gift tags.)
If you like the idea of containing food in glass meal prep dishes, pre-portioning it in cute little mason jars for entertaining, or gifting mason jar food mixes, then you’ve come to the right place. Be sure to subscribe to Contained Cuisine for my growing list of food-in-jar recipes.
Meet Kristin
Now that you know a little about Contained Cuisine, here’s a little about me.
I live in the Chicago area with my husband of 39+ years, our two adult children and their families, including three of the sweetest grandsons.
At least one day per week you can find me on the floor playing with blocks and dinosaurs, or out on the driveway drawing with big chalk. These days pass fast, so I try to soak it all in!
I grew up in the great, but little state of Connecticut which will forever have my heart ❤️.
My degree is in Business Marketing and my work (before food blogging) focused on data analysis and web design (back to the days of hand-coding html—if you know, you know).
Outside of food blogging (which is a combination of recipe development, writing, photography, data analysis, SEO, graphic design, social media and tech support) I enjoy nature photography, biking and taking in the views of Lake Michigan.
You can see some of my hobby photography on my personal Instagram.
Other places you can find me.
In addition to the Contained Cuisine food blog where you are currently, you can also find me over at my tea blog, Sweet Steep, and coffee blog, Grounds to Brew.
Be sure to subscribe to each blog for the newest recipes and follow along on Pinterest.