Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to Do About It” by Richard V Reeves, Musical March Madness, and My Favorite Family Recipes
In the society-shifting book “Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt, the book “Of Boys and Men” is referenced in its importance as it addresses many of the reasons boys and men are floundering right now, and oftentimes being pulled into their screens instead of into ‘real life.’
In his book, Reeves addresses the shifting societal roles of men and women, lists the ways in which boys and men are feeling listless and lost, and suggests some actionable policy actions to right the ship.
If your immediate reaction is, “Really? We’re supposed to feel bad for the boys and men?,” I will draw from the epilogue of this book in reply, “ Doing more for boys and men does not require an abandonment of the ideal of gender equality. In fact, it is a natural extension of it. The problem with feminism, as a liberation movement, is not that it has ‘gone too far.’ It is that it has not gone far enough. Women’s lives have been recast. Men’s lives have not. We need…a positive vision of masculinity for a postfeminist world. We also need to be grown up enough as a culture to recognize that big changes, even positive ones, have repercussions. Dealing with these is not only possible, but necessary; that is simply the nature of progress.”
After discussing this book, a friend of mine sent me this article. Here’s another. Something is going on, and it seems only prudent to investigate. This election, in my opinion, was in part a reaction to this phenomenon. Let’s take a look at it…
CHAPTER 1: GIRLS RULE
“In the space of just a few decades, girls and women have no just caught up with boy stand men in the classroom—they have blown right past them.” In the space of 25 years, the percentage gap of 13 points of men to women earning a bachelor’s degree reversed itself, with now a 15 point gap in favor of the women in 2019. (RESEARCH GAP IN 2024). In 2020, the decline in college enrollment was seven times greater for male than female students.
This is a worldwide phenomenon, with boys boys being 50% more likely to fail at all three key school subjects: math, reading, and science. While girls have been the stronger sex in school for decades, they’re now pulling even further ahead in literacy and verbal skills. Girls make up 2/3 of the top ranked 10% of high school students ranked by GPA, “while proportions are reversed on the bottom rung.” Girls are more likely to take AP and IB classes. Boys are less likely than girls to graduate high school, and the numbers get worse for boys from low-income households.
Reeves offers several explanations for this phenomenon: “Some scholars link the relative underperformance of boys in school to their lower expectations of postsecondary education; others worry that the strong skew towards female teachers-3/4 and rising-could put boys at a disadvantage.” But Reeves believes there is a “bigger, simpler explanation staring us in the face”: Boys’ brains develop more slowly, especially during the most critical years of secondary education. When almost 1/4 of boys is categorized as having a “developmental disability,” it is fair to wonder if it is educational institutions, rather than the boys, that are functioning properly.” The prefrontal cortex of boys matures 2 years later than girls. That part of the brain is responsible for impulse control, planning, future orientation…executive functioning, basically. This gap in girls and boys brains is largest at age 16.
In the US, 57% of Bachelors degrees are awarded to women. Women now account for almost half of undergraduate degrees (47 %) as compared to fewer than 10% in 1970. Women receive the majority of law degrees, up from 5% in 1970. Women are learning 3/5 Masters degrees and associates degrees, and the rise is even more dramatic for professional degrees like dentistry, medicine, and law. This is a global trend.
Reeves proposes that getting “more men to college is the first step. They also need help getting through college.” (More on that in the solutions chapters…)
CHAPTER 2: WORKING MAN BLUES
Reeves describes a conversation with “top-notch economist Melissa Kearney”….about whether she was more worried about women or men. She replied, “I am really worried about the extent to which men in the U.S. are being pushed to the side of economic, social, and family life…for 20, 30, 40 years…scholars focused on women and children. Now we really need to think about men.”
Reeves doubles down on this, writing “If we want a more dynamic economy and a better future for our children, we need to help the men who are struggling.” Growing numbers are men are “detaching from paid work.”Median male pay has fallen. The deepest fissures in the labor market are not between men and women. They are between white and Black workers and between the upper middle class and the middle and working class.”
Economists David Autor and Melanie Wasserman write, “Over the last three decades, the labor market trajectory of males in the US has turned downward along four dimensions: skills acquisition, employment rates; occupational stature, and real wage levels.” Labor force participation among men in the US has dropped 7%. Most of the men who are not in work do not count in official statistics as “unemployed” because they are not looking for work. The biggest fall in male employment has been between men aged 25-34, and scholars are not sure why. Part of the reason male employment has declined is that many typically male-held jobs have been replaced with robots and automation. And, over time, jobs requiring physical strength will decrease, and jobs that require people skills and EQ will increase. And for men in work, “pay levels are typically lower than in the past. The median hourly wage for men peaked sometime in the 1970’s and has been falling since. While women’s wages have risen. Across the board over the last four decades, wages for men on most rungs of the earnings ladder have stagnated.”
The gap between men and women’s earnings has significantly decreased. Right now, “the typical (ie median) full-time female worker earns about 82% as much as the typical man. The question is why. Here things quickly get heated. For the feminist Left, the pay gap proves patriarchy….Conservatives, meanwhile, dismiss the idea of a pay gap as a feminist myth, used to create the impression of inequalities that simply do not exist…..it is not a myth. It is math. Conservatives point to studies showing that once a range of factors influencing pay are taken into account—hours, industry, experience, seniority, location, and so on—the pay gap almost evaporates. Various studies of this kind put the adjusted gender pay gap at around 5%….women are paid less because they do different work, or work differently, or both. But of course that is not the end of the story…the one-word explanation for the pay gap is: children. Among young adults, especially if they are childless, the pay gap has essentially disappeared.” Reeves goes on to say that women are more typically the ones who ask for time off, refuse overtime, increased hours, etc, and that likely contributes to this remaining pay gap.
If women’s economic participation had stayed at 1970 rates, the U.S. economy would be over 2 Trillion dollars poorer. In 2019, women accounted for over 47% of workers. Reeve argues that “this has had important consequences for broader culture, especially in terms of family life. The economic rise of women has dramatically altered the terms of trade between the sexes. Many men are struggling to adjust.”
CHAPTER 3: DISLOCATED DADS
What is men’s role in society? A sweeping survey of a number of cultures concluded that men are to impregnate women, protect dependents from danger, generate more resources than needed for themselves, and share those resources with clan, tribe, or family. Essentially, “provide for the family.” Traditionally, there was a clear division of labor between mother and father in a family. Man makes money, woman takes care of home and children, and marriage was the social construct in which that dynamic worked.
Now, women are the breadwinners in 41% of households. 3/10 of married women outearn their husbands. Mothers also receive more support from welfare system than in the past, making men less dependent on men.
About 40% of births in the US take place out of marriage, up from 11% in 1970. So what does this mean for the men? According to William Goode, “the underlying shift is toward the decreasing marginal utility of males.” John’s Hopkins sociologist Andrew Cherlin writes, “We have a cultural lag, where our views of masculinity have not caught up to the changes in the job market.” Social norms have not changed as quickly. Most women still believe, especially with a high school education or less, that for a man to be a good husband/partner, being able to support a family financially is very important.” The importance of marriage is changing in society, and marriage has largely become a “capstone to a series of educational, social, and economic achievements,” as Cherlin puts it. Economically independent women “can now flourish whether they are wives or not. Wifeless men, by contrast, are often a mess,” Reeves writes.
In 2008, Obama called out the absent fathers in America. Within 6 years of parents separating, one in three children never see their father. A reason for the growing deficit is that children are living with their mothers vs. their fathers. So, the separation of men from women often means the separation of fathers from children. Reeves insists, “Just as women have largely broken free of the old, narrow model of motherhood, so men need to escape the confines of the breadwinner model of fatherhood. Fathers matter to children even if—perhaps especially if—they are not married to their mother.”
CHAPTER 4-DWIGHT’S GLASSES
It is a known thing among black men that wearing glasses, even if not needed and lacking prescription, diffuse white fear of Black masculinity. Where does race come into this social dynamic? “Gender is radicalized, and race is gendered, in different ways, in different places, and at different times….Black men face different intersections of disadvantage, many of which may be more acute than those face by Black women….Anti-Black racism is the main challenge, and it is at least as great for Black men as for Black women.” Researcher Ray Chetty at Opportunity Insights “crunched the numbers on 20 million Americans born around 1980, to look closely at inter generational patterns of poverty and mobility. Chetty and his team conclude that the overall Black-white intergenerational mobility gap “is entirely driven by differences in men’s, not women’s, outcomes.” Reeves goes on, “The main problem is the low incomes of black men, especially of those raised in poverty. This means that despite some impressive progress made by Black women, their children are still much more likely to grow up poor, reinforcing intergenerational inequality. Breaking the cycle of poverty for Black Americans will require a transformation in economic outcomes for Black men.” Black men enter the workforce with fewer educational credentials, and face higher rates of discrimination. Black men now early 14% less than white women (and 33% less than white men). Gender gaps in the labor market are narrowing while race gaps widen. One study showed that a Black man without a criminal record is less likely to e hired than a similarly qualified white man with a criminal record. Reeve references Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us, “It is important to strive for equity in terms of gender, class, and race….Raising men up does not mean holding women down, or “displacing” them. It means rising together.”
CHAPTER 5-CLASS CEILING
“Deaths of despair” are deaths from drug overdoses, suicides, and alcohol-related illnesses. Deaths of despair are almost three times higher among men than women. The gap between social classes is also growing. The counties with the most deaths of despair were also the ones who swung most decisively to Trump in 2016. These were communities where employment had declined most sharply, especially for men.
“The wage gap between men and women has narrowed, but the gap between highly paid workers and everyone else has widened.” This becomes a viscous cycle, “Childhood disadvantage hurts boys more than girls, resulting in a corrosive, intergenerational cycle. As working-class men struggle, their families become poorer; and in these families, boys suffer most, which damages their prospects in adult life. The male malaise becomes an inherited position.”
Drug-related deaths have risen sharply. Men account for almost 70% of opioid overdose deaths in the US. Opioids are not taken to get high. They’re taken to numb pain. In study of male suicides, the most often repeated phrase to describe themselves were “useless” and “worthless.”
Reeves writes, “One of the most striking facts about recent economic history is that it is only women who have kept American families financially afloat in the last few decades. And even then, just barely.” If men were doing better, families would be doing better. Many women in poor neighborhoods have come to see men, including fathers of children, as “just another mouth to feed.” In the bottom fifth of income distribution, 7/10 mothers are now the main breadwinner.
Marriage rates among affluent, educated Americans have held steady, but rates have fallen for everyone else. Marriage rate of men age 40-44 with a high school education or less has dropped by more than 20 percentage points in the last 40 years compared to 6 points for those with a college education. For those getting married, “marriage here serves primarily as a commitment device for shared instruments of time and money in children.”
“The class gap in family life reflects and reinforces social and economic inequality. Affluent couples are also more likely to invest much more heavily in their children. The result is diverging destinies among children, greater economic responsibility and independence for women, and a growing number of men who are ‘unburdened and unmoored.’”
“Many working class men are now only tenuously attached to these institutions of work, faith, and family. The result is an increased number of men with what the team of researchers led by Kathryn Edwin calls the “haphazard self,” oscillating between different plans and priorities, struggling to stay on any particular track, and often slipping backward.”
There has also been a ‘friendship recession’ in men, with 15% of men saying they have no close friends, up from 3% in 1990. In 2014, one in three young adult men were living with their parents. The trend is most pronounced in Japan, where the rising number of hikikomori (shut-ins) has prompted widespread national concern and government intervention online.
In psychology, use the terms dandelion vs. orchid. Dandelions are able to cope with diversity and stress, orchids are more sensitive to their conditions. Evidence points to boys, in general, suffering worse consequences from childhood adversity. They’re less able to escape poverty than girls in adulthood, and they do especially poorly if raised by poor families in poor neighborhoods, being much more sensitive to their surroundings. The developmental gap between boys and girls starting kindergarten is much wider for children with homes and less educated mothers and less involved fathers. Lastly, boys suffer more from instability, especially the exit of their biological fathers.
CHAPTER 6-NON-RESPONDERS
Several programs in the U.S. aimed to get young men and women through college have been highly successful, but only for the females. Researchers aren’t sure why. There is some promise when race and gender is represented in the faculty: “When a program relies heavily on a close one-to-one relationship, matching the gender of the provider and recipient may be important. This is consistent with research showing that when the racial or gender identities of teachers and learners or mentors and mentees match, results are often better.”
Motivation and aspiration are “a big part of the story here,” Reeves insists. “It is not that men have fewer opportunities. It is that they are not taking them….the dramatic rebalancing of power relations between men and women over the last few decades has rendered old modes of masculinity, especially as family breadwinner, obsolete. But nothing has yet replaced them.”
CHAPTER 7-ONE MAKING MEN
Male and female brains are biologically different, both in biology and psychology. “Men are typically more aggressive, take more risks, and have higher sex drive than girls and women….the differences are dimorphic—different but overlapping—rather than binary.”
Reeves writes, “I’m pretty sure that I would be more physically aggressive if I had been born in Sparta a couple thousand years ago. There’s just not that much use for it at the Brookings Institution. These cultural variations matter a lot for how, and how far, natural tendencies are expressed in behavior. Culture and biology do not develop separately from each other. They coevolve.”
“The real debate is not about whether biology matters, but how much it does, and when it does.” Reeves warns of misuse, and of the danger of succumbing to the ‘naturalistic fallacy,’ presuming that everything that is natural must be good. Nor is it helpful to deny or dismiss the reality of natural sex differences.
Human males are more physically aggressive in all cultures at all ages. Boys are five times more likely than girls to be aggressive at the age of seventeen months. The gap widens until early adulthood before narrowing again. Testosterone amplifies aggression.
Men are more wired for risk, and are hard-wired for “almost perpetual readiness to mate.” (We know.)
Boys with genes that make them more sensitive to their environment do worse when their bio dad leaves the household, but also benefit most if their bio dad joins the household.
“Culture determines how we manage, channel, and express many of the natural traits I have described here. Biology influences culture, but culture also influences our biology.”
Testosterone levels are highest among single men, but those levels fall among men who settle down with a wife and children, and then drops are sharpest among men who do more childcare….As the institution of monogamous marriage spread, the number of men directly involved in raising families rose. The collective impact, via reduced testosterone levels, was to dramatically reduce overall levels of male violence.”
“Manhood is a continuous achievement, rather than just a single milestone. In many cultures, rites of initiation—often involving physical duress or risk—have marked the transition from boy to man.” Anthropologist David Gilmore writes, “Manliness is a symbolic script, a cultural construct. Real men doe not simply emerge naturally over time like butterflies from boyish cocoons; they must be assiduously coaxed from their juvenescent shells, shaped and nurtured, counseled and prodded into manhood.”
CHAPTER 8-PROGRESSIVE BLINDNESS
Reeves zeroes in on a term increasingly lofted at all men… “It is one thing to point out that there are aspects of masculinity that in an immature or extreme expression can be deeply harmful, quite another to suggest that a naturally occurring trait in boys and men is intrinsically bad. Indiscriminately slapping the label of “toxic masculinity” onto this kind of behavior is a mistake. Rather than drawing boys into a dialogue about what lessons can be learned, it is much more likely to send them to the online manosphere where they will be reassured that they did nothing wrong, and that liberals are out to get them.”
In her book Boys and Sex (on my shelf! Future synopsis….), Peggy Orenstein asked dozens of boys and young men what they liked about being a boy. She says most drew a blank. “That’s interesting,” one college sophomore told her. “I never really thought about that. You hear a lot more about what is wrong with guys.”
Reeves writes, “Toxic masculinity is a counterproductive term. Very few boys and men are likely to react well to the idea that there is something toxic inside them that needs to be exorcized….It is a bad idea to send a cultural signal to half the population that there may be something intrinsically wrong with them.”
Sociologist Carol Harrington believes that the term ‘toxic masculinity’ focuses attention on the character flaws of individual men, rather than structural problems. “If men are depressed, it is because they won’t express their feelings. If they get sick, it is because they won’t go to the doctor. If they fail at school, it is because they lack commitment. If they die early, it is because they drink and smoke too much and eat the wrong things. For those on the political Left, then, victim-blaming is permitted when it comes to men.”
Reeves writes, “When it comes to masculinity, both the Left and the Right fall into the individualistic trap, but from different perspectives. For conservatives, masculinity is the solution; for progressives, masculinity is the problem.” The one-way inequality also bleeds into the Left’s refusal to recognize gender inequalities. According to Francisco Ferreira, Amartya Sen Chair in Inequality Studies at London School of Economics, “There is now wide consensus that gender inequalities are unfair, and lead to wasted human potential….that remains true when the disadvantaged are boys, as well as girls.”
CHAPTER 9-SEEING RED
“Conservatives have paid more attention than progressives to the growing problems face by boys and men. But their agenda turns out to be equally unhelpful,” Reeves claims. “There are three big weaknesses in their approach. First, many conservatives fuel male grievances for political gain, which simply creates more anger and discontent. Second, they overweight the importance of biological sex differences for gender roles. Third, they see the solution to men’s problems as lying in the past rather than the future, in the form of a restoration of traditional economic relations between male providers and female carers. Rather than helping men adapt to a new world, conservatives beguile them with promises of the old.”
The rise of grievance politics: In the U.S. “a third of men of all political persuasions believe that they are discriminated against, and among Republicans, the number is rising. This is false. While the problems of boys and men are real, they are the result of structural changes in the economy and broader culture, and the failings of our education system, rather than of any deliberate discrimination.” He continues, “Disenchanted men can be led deeper and deeper into what has been labeled the ‘manosphere,’ a world of pickup artists, incels, and even some male separatists—MGTOWs (Men Going Their Own Way).” The confusion and disorientation being exploited online bolsters a reactionary worldview that “the only way to help men is by restoring traditional gender roles and relationships.”
“Almost two out of five Republican men (38%) agree with the statement that “the gains women have made in society have come at the expense of men.” Reeves warns that both sides of the aisle are getting it wrong, “In the centrifugal dynamic of culture-war politics, the more the Right goes to one extreme, the more the Left must go to the other, and vice versa. The Left dismisses biology, the Right leans too heavily on it. The Left see a war on girls and women; the Right see a war on boys and men. The Left pathologists masculinity; the Right pathologists feminism.”
WHAT TO DO
CHAPTER 10: REDSHIRT THE BOYS
Reeves proposes that all boys be redshirted by default, introducing a 1 year chronological age gap that would reduce the developmental age gap between boys and girls. Research has shown that being a year older had a positive impact on test scores in eight grade, and improved the chances of taking the SAT or ACT at the end of high school. The benefits for boys were at least twice as for the girls on all outcome measures through 8th grade, and by high school, only the boys were seeing any gains. Another study showed that redshirted children are doing significantly better in both reading and math by the end of third grade. Another study showed a much higher level of life satisfaction among summer-born adolescent boys who had been redshirted compared to their peers.
Reeves also proposes that more men at the front of the classroom would significantly reduce expulsion, suspension, and dropout rates among boys. Furthermore, “if children grow up seeing care or education as women’s work, this reinforces gender stereotypes across generations.” There is solid evidence that “male teachers boost academic outcomes for boys, especially in certain subject areas like English. Interestingly, a study in Finnish primary school showed that when the share of men teaching was boosted by a 40% quote for training courses, both boys and girls did better in school. While female teachers tend to see boys behavior as disruptive, male teachers tend to have more positive view of boys and their capabilities. Black boys benefit the most from having a Black teacher. Reeves suggests that a major recruitment effort is in order. He says we should set a target of reaching 30% male representation in K-12 teaching, and specifically more men into early education, more Black men, and more male English teachers. Just as we have seen so much success in creating STEM education and careers for women, philanthropic foundations should be making those same efforts for gender equity in the education market. Right now, Black men account for just 2% of teachers in the US. He also suggests that providing students majoring in English with a teacher accreditation at the same time as their college degree, and thus reducing years of study, would also help in this recruitment effort.
Thirdly, Reeves suggests a major policy reform in a massive investment in male-friendly vocational education and training. As college obsession has increased, career and technical education has floundered. And evaluation study by MCRD looked at 9 CTE academies in New York. On traditional education metrics such as grades, test scores, and college entry, they were a failure. But male students from these schools, mostly Hispanic and Black, saw a 17% earnings boost, equivalent to an extra $30,000 over the eight years of the follow-up study, a wage bump similar to the one for students completing 2 years of community college. For women, there was no apparent benefit on any measured outcome from these schools. Reeves suggests that we should aim to add at least 1,000 new technical high schools across the nation by 2030.
CHAPTER 11-MEN CAN HEAL
“While women have moved decisively into many previously male-dominated occupations, including pharmacy, law and accountancy, there has been nothing like the same movement in the other direction….the share of men in HEAL occupations—health, education, administration, and literacy—remains stubbornly low.” In 2020, STEM jobs accounted for 9% of US employment among prime-age workers, while HEAL jobs accounted for 23%. Women now account for 45% of life scientists and physical scientists. The proportion of women engineers has risen from 4% to 15%. Women now account for 27% of STEM workers, up 13% from 1980. Reeves writes, “If certain occupations are seen as no-go zones for men, their choices are constrained, just as much as for women in the reverse case.” HEAL sectors are where the jobs are coming from, and by 2030, the number of nurses and nurse practitioners alone is expected to increase by about 400,000. There has been a drop in the share of men in mental health and related caring professions. Yet, men often need other men to help them, especially in vulnerable settings like mental and physical healthcare. Reeves contends that “we should set the twin goal of reaching 30% female representation in STEM jobs, and 30% male representation in HEAL ones by 2030.” He proposes “at least a $1 Billion national investment, over the next decade, in service of this goal.”
CHAPTER 12–NEW DADS
Hanna Rosin writes, “The working mother is now the norm. The stay-at-home father is still a front-page anomaly.” Since the burden/responsibility of supporting the family is a shared task, the burden/responsibility of caring for the home and family should also be shared. “Engaged fatherhood has been linked to a whole range of outcomes from mental health, high school graduation, social skills, and literacy to lower risks of teen pregnancy, delinquency, and drug use. Three year olds with involved, supportive dads score more highly on tests of cognitive development.” Fathers have “an especially important role to play” in adolescence. According to professor Rob Palkovitz, “fathers play an important role in stimulating children’s openness to the world…encouraging them to take risks and to stand up for themselves.” Engaged fathers lead to better mental health and stronger academic outcomes. So, the goal, Reeve points out, is to “bolster the role of fathers as direct providers of care to their children, whether or not they are married to or even living with the mother.” Reeves promotes 6 months paid leave for Dads for each child. He suggests that fathers should be equally valued in the case of unmarried separations and divorces in terms of custody and child care. In order for this to happen, “jobs must change, too. More options to work flexibly, or part-time, or from home, can at least ease the trade offs between earning and caring.” Most men say there is an “unspoken rule in the workplace that fathers should not take their full entitlement to paternity leave.” This needs to change, Reeve suggests.
In conclusion, this growing problem will not go away, but will fester and metastasize into more fringe politics and male behaviors until we recognize it in a fulsome way including government subsidies to support men in narrowing the gender, race, and class gaps, supporting men in families and in schools, creating more opportunities for trade school and HEAL jobs, and recognizing that social expectations have to evolve along with female advancement. More equality is better for all.
If you found this helpful (Hey I just saved you weeks of reading this dense-ass book!) consider upgrading to paid. You’ll get access to all my previous newsletters as well as special content just for paid subscribers!
________________________________________________________________________
SUZY SINGS! UPDATES!
My writing partner, Jason Rabinowitz of Pop Ups Studios, and I had two songs make the semi-finals of the International Songwriting Competition. Those songs are “Unconditional” and “I Turn Towards Love.” Links to listen here and here.
Jason and I had the honor of visiting my Alma mater, The Prairie School in Racine, WI, as a visiting artist. We did two shows and a songwriting workshop with their AP Music Theory students. Together, we started a song, “Change Is Afoot” which they will complete and record in the coming months.
The shows were a blast! We sang, danced, we learned about resiliency, bravery, community….we did yoga and breath work, we talked about all the things that make us happy, and, most importantly, had a lot of fun.
If you’d like to bring this show to your school or community, please DM me on the socials or email me at suzanne@suzannejamiesonsings.com
Earlier in the month, I did a show at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica with bassist Justin Stein and guitarist Lazer Cohen.
Lastly, I am doing a show this weekend with The Angeles Chorale at the Pico Union Project in DTLA. I will be closing out the VIP hour with “For Good” from Wicked, and then we have a fantastic choral program celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Chorale. This choir is full of incredible voices and beautiful musicianship….don’t miss this concert! Tickets available HERE.
______________________________________________________________________
We have been back in the house for about a month since the fires, but that month has included multiple trips, and many busy schedules. So, instead of an original recipe this month, I thought I’d suggest some of my go-to favorite recipes in case you feel like you’re in a little bit of a rut, cooking-wise.
Instant Pot Chicken Vegetable Soup (I use chicken breast usually)
Chicken Taquitos (the kids favorite) ( I use rotisserie chicken)
Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken with Caramelized Lemons and Dates
My most frequent go-to’s, though, are slow cooker Asian chicken (I’ll include this recipe next newsletter), homemade air fryer chicken tenders (upgraded to paid for that recipe published previously), Kitchen Sink Salsa over Broiled Trout (upgraded to paid for that killer recipe), Turkey burgers (upgrade to paid), Coco’s marinated chicken (marinate chicken with lemon, olive oil, garlic, and herbs) and grill….so easy, and pan-seared salmon (upgrade to paid for that one too). If you upgrade, you will also have access to all of my previous newsletters as well as all of the paid content, interviews, meditations, playlists, and curated links I included in those.