A super easy dump and forget it slow cooker recipe with amazing flavor.

Family - and budget - friendly ground beef dinner ideas and recipes.

Recipe for easy homemade pizza rolls. A homemade spin on a kid food favorite that the whole family will love. Easy and fast to make.

Ravioli Lasagna recipe - an easy and delicious family dinner recipe.

Easy homemade mac and cheese recipe that cooks in one pot in 15 minutes from start to finish.

An easy ground beef mild chili recipe the whole family will love.

My basic recipe for meatballs for your weeknight spaghetti and meatballs dinner.

Easy Posole Rojo Recipe. A shortcut recipe for a traditional posole rojo.

Poached chicken often gets a bad rap. A lot of people think it's bland and flavorless. But it doesn't have to be that way. I think poached chicken can be a kitchen lifesaver. You may have heard me say before that I always have cooked chicken in my fridge.  There are so many quick and delicious meals you can make in just a few minutes if you already have cooked chicken.  I often will roast chickens and pick the meat off, but if I haven't gotten around to doing that and I want some cooked chicken to use for a recipe (or just to eat!), then poaching is my next best go-to.

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An easy mild enchilada sauce recipe that the whole family will love.

ScheduleThis is my favorite weeknight chicken recipe.  I've made this for years without a recipe, but the last time I made it I finally took the time to scribble down what I put in it, and take a few pictures for you.  It's so easy, once you've made it you don't really need a recipe.

This is a super quick and easy one that I made for dinner last week. It turned out so yummy that I figured I'd better share the recipe. This is the kind of soup I love to make, it's fast, it's healthy, and it's a big crowd pleaser. 

This lentil soup is hearty and comforting and great for those nights when you need something to warm your tummy. It's super easy to make and it has a great balance of veggies and the delicious taste you can only get from sausage. My kids, like most, are not big veggie eaters.  But they eat this soup! They are suckers for anything with sausage in it.  When I serve it to the kids I put a big dollop of sour cream on top - they seem to like it better with the creaminess, and it's a great way to cool it off quickly. One of my kids actually loves this so much that she requested the leftovers for breakfast the next day, and for snack when she got home from school.

One of the things that I hope people can learn from me is how a little bit of planning ahead can make your life so much easier!  One of the biggest benefits of doing yourself the favor of a weekly meal plan is that you can think through how you can use leftovers from one meal as the basis for another meal later in the week.  You can plan ahead for how you can cook once for multiple meals.

So what I'm sharing with you in this post isn't so much of a recipe, but it's an example of how I've used my plan and cooked ahead to make a super easy weeknight meal that tastes like it cooked for hours.