The Power of Simple
Why Your Grandmother’s Recipe Might Be Your Most Profound Act
When Six Ingredients Change Everything
Here's what the wellness industry doesn't want you to know: the most transformative recipe in your kitchen probably uses six ingredients you already have.
No superfoods. No expensive equipment. No 47-step process that requires three different apps to track.
Just rhubarb, oats, butter, and the kind of simplicity that feels revolutionary in our over-complicated world.
This is my grandmother's rhubarb crisp. And it's about to teach you something profound about living authentically in the 21st century.
The Recipe That Breaks All the Rules: Grandma’s Rhubarb Crisp Recipe
Total Time: 1 hour (most of it hands-off)
Skill Level: If you can mix with your hands, you're qualified
Special Equipment: None. Seriously.
The Foundation
6-8 cups rhubarb (chopped into ½-inch pieces)
½ lemon (juiced)
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
The Magic Happens Here
1½ cups rolled oats
1 cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon good salt
1 stick butter (softened, not melted)
The Method That Matters
Prep your rhubarb like you're preparing for a meditation. Chop mindfully. Let the tartness wake up your senses.
Toss with lemon, sugar, and cornstarch. This isn't just mixing—you're creating chemistry. The cornstarch will thicken the juices into something magical.
Make your crumble with your hands. Yes, your hands. Feel the oats, the butter, the transformation happening between your fingers. This is where the magic lives—in those visible butter pieces that will become golden, crispy treasures.
Layer like you mean it. Half the rhubarb, generous crumble, remaining rhubarb, final thick layer of crumble. Don't overthink it.
Bake at 375°F for 35 minutes until golden and bubbling. Your kitchen will smell like childhood and possibility.
This Matters More Than You Think
In a world where we're told that more is always better—more ingredients, more steps, more complexity—this crisp is a quiet rebellion.
It's saying: What if enough is actually enough?
What if the most nourishing thing you can do isn't buying another superfood powder, but learning to work butter into oats with your bare hands until you understand, in your body, what "just right" feels like?
What if authentic living isn't about perfecting your morning routine, but about knowing how to show up for someone with a warm dessert and genuine presence?
The Deeper Ingredients
This recipe taught me that the best things in life often come disguised as the simplest:
Presence over perfection. My grandmother served this in mismatched bowls because connection mattered more than presentation.
Generosity over scarcity. She always made two—one for us, one for whoever needed it most.
Ritual over routine. The same recipe, made the same way, year after year, became a practice in gratitude and groundedness.
Community over competition. Food that brings people together instead of impressing them apart.
Making It Yours (Without Losing Yourself)
The beauty of authentic living? It adapts without compromising its essence.
Strawberries in season? Add a handful. But don't lose the rhubarb's unique voice.
No old-fashioned oats? Quick oats work. The world won't end.
Want to try other fruits? Go for it. The technique is what matters.
Serving a crowd? Double it. Serving two? Make the full recipe anyway and give half away.
The principle remains: Simple ingredients, treated with respect, always deliver.
The Real Recipe
Here's what this is actually about: In our hyper-connected, over optimized world, the most radical thing you can do is slow down enough to mix something with your hands.
To trust that good enough is perfect.
To believe that showing up consistently with simple offerings creates more lasting change than any viral hack or trendy ingredient.
To understand that authentic connection—to food, to each other, to ourselves—happens in the quiet spaces between the chaos.
Your Turn
This summer, I challenge you to find your six-ingredient recipe. The one that connects you to something real. The one that you can make with your eyes closed and your heart open.
Maybe it's your mom's chocolate chip cookies. Maybe it's your neighbor's cornbread. Maybe it's something you've never made but always wanted to try.
The point isn't perfection. It's practice. It's showing up. It's choosing presence over performance.
What simple recipe holds your heart? Hit reply and tell us. Because the most important ingredient in any recipe is the story that comes with it.
And those stories? They're what build the kind of community that actually nourishes.
Fresh Roots Living is about finding the extraordinary in the everyday, the profound in the simple, and the revolutionary in the traditional. Join our community of people who believe that authentic living starts in the kitchen and spreads from there.
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P.S. The rhubarb is in my garden and the gorgeous stalks create floral art with their massive leaves. Summer is here, friends. And with it, all the simple magic we've been waiting for.
Cari Ann Carter is a multi-faceted entrepreneur whose passion for sustainable living and design has flourished across several successful ventures. As the creative force behind DIY Designer Homestead, she has cultivated an expanding Instagram following through her authentic home design content, organic gardening expertise, and signature floral arrangements. Her professional foundation rests on the Cari Ann Carter Group, a respected real estate company with 26 years of experience offering comprehensive design, build, and renovation services, as well as property staging and curated home events.
Cari Ann is now expanding her vision with the launch of Fresh Roots Living.