I love roasting vegetables on a sheet pan, and recently discovered how much better they cook on a Pampered Chef Stoneware bar pan. I simply dice some of my favorite vegetables, put them in a bowl, coat them with a little bit of olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, minced garlic and a little bit of salt and pepper. Sometimes I'll add protein like chicken to the top, but I ...
Baked Pizza Ziti Recipe (weeknight meal for picky eaters)
I need easy go-to meals to survive the week. I love cooking, but sometimes you need to throw together noodles, sauce, and cheese and call it a meal. I used my homemade marinara recipe for this particular batch, because the pandemic has been keeping me away from Trader Joe's pizza sauce. I started with al dente ziti, then normally add in pizza sauce, browned hamburger with ...
How to meal plan for real moms and real life.
How to meal plan for real moms and real life. Meal planning is a sanity saver. It saves me from asking myself, "Crap, what's for dinner?" at 2 in the afternoon. It saves us money at the grocery store. It saves me from having a pantry full of dusty canned goods. It makes you feel like your life is a little more put together, even if it isn't. It helps you avoid pizza three ...
Decadent Apple Cinnamon Pancake Topping recipe
Can I tell you a secret? I hate pancakes. They're just ok, and because I don't love them I only eat 1 or maybe 2 if they're small so I'm always starving right after breakfast. I'm just not a fan. This makes AJ and Aliceana so sad. So when we were binge watching Queer Eye with a box of Kleenex very nearby, because oh man that show makes us cry a lot. In one particular episode ...
Venison Stew recipe
Living in Wisconsin venison is something that we grow up with, so we were thrilled this year when AJ got two deer on opening day. This was also the first year that Aliceana went on the journey out to the woods, the biggest take away is that she has a hard time staying quiet for that long, and she's not great at whispering. Anyway, venison is an incredibly lean meat, and we love ...
Slowcooker Ham and Cheese Pasta, the best ever comfort food.
This recipe is one that has been a family favorite for, well for as long as I can remember. It’s one of the very few things my mom could cook, this and the best ever Rice Krispie treats. I’m pretty sure anyone that can boil pasta can make this one, and that’s the beauty of it. Well that and the fact that it’s probably the best comfort food in the history of ever. It’s perfect ...
Yellow Curry Chicken Tenders
Chicken tenders are great, they're kid friendly and great for picky eaters. Honestly I pair Trader Joe's frozen chicken tenders with mac and cheese and have it on the meal plan about every other week, because having a kid is the perfect excuse to eat like a kid. Sometimes it's nice to have grown up food though, which is why I came up with this ridiculously simple recipe for ...
Sriracha BBQ Party Pretzels Recipe
My family has this epic recipe for making a bag of boring pretzels, taste out-of-this-world-amazing. I swapped out one ingredient to make them even better, now we have ourselves Sriracha Barbecue party pretzels, and they’re a game changer. These will take you through a journey in time and space. (because The Mighty Boosh references are always acceptable.) Honestly though, ...
Easy corndog muffin recipe using Trader Joe’s cornbread mix
I'm always looking for family friendly recipes, my daughter isn't even a picky eater, but I like to make meals a little more fun. Sometimes I think I appreciate kid food just as much as she does and chicken tenders end up on the meal plan often. So I made some fun corndog muffins with a box of Trader Joe's cornbread mix. It was so easy, all I did was add a little garlic ...
Vanilla Cookie Recipe (and my little kitchen helper)
It's the perfect time of the year to try out new cookie recipes, I recently made and shared the recipe for brown sugar spice cookies. More recently I made vanilla cookies, I made this easy vanilla cookie recipe last year too, I just forgot to share them! These cookies are really simple to make and they taste great, these taste like sugar cookies with a stronger vanilla ...
Slowcooker Calico Beans Recipe
A couple weeks ago, I was creating our meal plan for the next two weeks like usual. Father's Day happened to fall into those weeks and I knew we were going to celebrate AJ's favorite way; grilling! I didn't know what he wanted to grill, but I thought of the perfect side right away. It was time to dig out my Slowcooker Calico Beans Recipe. When I brought out my giant ...