Ever since Jenny Rosenstrach picked up the garlic powder at 18 and her mother redirected her to a fresh clove, she's been a passionate cook; her devotion to the dinner ritual is so complete that she's kept a diary of every evening meal she's cooked for the past 12 years. There was a time when she and her husband, editor Andy Ward, would spend hours tracking down tamarind paste, say, or baharat spice mix. But when Rosenstrach had their first daughter, Phoebe, in 2002, and their second, Abby, the next year, it never even occurred to her to make her own baby food.

"The collective wisdom at the time was, 'You're working! You'll never have time to cook like that! Get used to it!'" the 39-year-old recalls. "But I eventually realized you make time for what matters. And cooking for my family matters to me."

So much, in fact, that now that her kids are 8 and 6, she has launched Dinner: A Love Story, a website about how to make family dinner doable for the rest of us. It was inspired by "Time for Dinner," the cookbook she helped write during her tenure at Cookie magazine -- the demise of which prompted her to move her blog idea from that maybe-someday back burner to the main course.

The site is not, she notes, only about "Capital F, capital D family dinner. I don't want it to be a holier-than-thou discussion about giving kids only organic food, or some song and dance about heirloom pan squash calling out to me at the farmers' market." And while she doesn't point out "the scaremonger-y stats about children who don't eat dinner with their families," they do exist: Kids who have family dinners are less likely to smoke, drink, or do drugs than those who don't. "Those stats turn dinner into 'A Thing,'" she says. "As soon as it's A Thing, you don't want to do it."

Pictured here: Rosenstrach's favorite family recipes are painted inside a cabinet door.

But with just a few minutes and a few ingredients -- pasta, eggs, frozen spinach, Parmesan -- you can have something tastier (not to mention healthier) than takeout, Rosenstrach says. And it's okay to wing it: "Parenting is one big, long improvisation," she says. "I'm not dismissing the weekly planning, but trust yourself to whip something together." (Her own family often has "scrap night.")

"You can make a ton of healthy meals if you keep quinoa, whole-wheat spaghetti, whole-wheat tortillas, onions, eggs, artichoke hearts, frozen spinach, and Parmesan on hand," Rosenstrach says. She adds, "Don't try to trick picky eaters. Have veggies on the table every night. They'll try them eventually."

Jenny's Favorite Things
We asked Rosenstrach what things she can't do without in her kitchen, and found her favorite products in stores and online. Pictured here: Chalkboard wall decal from Lot 26 Studio. "We use it to plan out the week," she says. $31; amazon.com

An easy-to-make fallback dinner is important for a family as busy as this one. Rosenstrach's favorite go-to meal? "Scrambled eggs with Parmesan and a tiny bit of truffle oil for me, and grilled cheese made in the waffle maker for the kids."

Jenny's Favorite Things
Pictured here: Cast-iron pan. "I love that it's naturally nonstick; I use it every day," Rosenstrach says. From $11; lodgemfg.com

With each dinner comes a blog entry, and she's figured out how to sharpen her tech skills like a Wusthof knife. Before, Rosenstrach considered herself "somewhat tech-savvy. I was doing the basic stuff like Flickr and Facebook," she says. "I hired a designer to create the site. Once I stepped in, it became clear that I knew nothing. I'm still figuring out things like search-engine optimization and the plugins on WordPress." But now, just months after her launch, "I have to force myself not to spend all day working on the blog. It's that much fun."

Jenny's Favorite Things
Pictured here: Stainless-steel tins. "Before these, I threw away so many plastic bags," says Rosenstrach. From $13; lunchbots.com

Plus, like dinner itself, it's a family affair, with regular entries from Andy, who calls their brightly lit dining room Eagle's Nest Studios because it's where Jenny photographs each meal. The actual eating is done in the bright-red chairs around their kitchen table. Rosenstrach hastens to point out that some nights dinner is a "10-minute nightmare of convincing Abby to eat something she loved but now hates, reminding Phoebe to use a napkin, and not having a single interesting conversation."

Of course, it's not always like that. "Hearing 'This is delicious' makes everything worth it."

Jenny's Favorite Things
Pictured here: Everyday Food cookbooks. "I share their philosophy," says Rosenstrach. $16 each; marthastewart.com.

Name: Jenny Rosenstrach

Age: 39

Hometown: Westchester County, NY

Day Job: Editor, writer (see "Take a Haycation"), founder of Dinner: A Love Story

Biggest inspirations: Jamie Oliver, the "Little House" books, working mom Tami Taylor on "Friday Night Lights" ("Don't tell me she's not real!")

New skills I'd love to learn: Gardening, knitting, sewing, first-grade-math tutoring. In other words, patience.