The BEST Zucchini Brownies

When my husband and I bought our home a few years ago, we knew we wanted to make space in the backyard for a garden.  The first year, we grew cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, carrots and (my favorite) zucchini.  At one point, I ended up with a zucchini that was as long as my arm from my elbow to the tips of my fingers!  That is a ton of zucchini my friends.  And what do you do when you have ridiculous amounts of zucchini?  Make some amazingly easy, yummy, chocolate-y zucchini brownies with melt in your mouth, gooey frosting of course!

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Lemon Squares

When my husband and I were first dating in college, he invited me to a get together with all of his best friends and their wives/girlfriends.  I was a little nervous because these were his best friends and I wanted them to like me.  So what did I do?  Well, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach so I decided I would make a treat to bring and share.  Out of all the recipes I could have chosen, I chose one of my best tried and true desserts: lemon squares.  It didn't hurt that my then-boyfriend, soon-to-be-husband's favorite desserts are anything lemon.  I wasn't going to take any chances. *wink*

Long story short, his friends all liked me and all the wives/girlfriends wanted my lemon squares recipe.  Win-win!

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Parmesan Chicken

A week after my husband I were married, we drove from Utah to New York so he could do some summer sales.  As a new wife, I wanted to practice my domestic skills and make food for my hungry and tired husband after a long day knocking doors.  One of the meals I made quite often was Parmesan chicken because it was easy and inexpensive to make, plus it provided leftovers for a couple of days.

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20 Minute White Bean Chicken Chili

Over the weekend, I saw a lot of Christmas in July sales and it kind of freaked me out for a minute!  I feel like the summer just started, but if I think about it, my daughter is going to be starting her second year of preschool in about 6 weeks, which means fall is just around the corner and then it's Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas!  If there is one thing you need to know about me, it is that I don't like the cold. And living in Utah, we get some cold winter days.  I'm definitely not ready for it to be cold any time soon.  Give me 90 degree weather and a pool and I will be one happy camper.

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Banana Bread Muffins

One of my favorite things to help my mom make growing up was banana bread.  I loved mashing the bananas, pouring them into the batter and waiting for the warm banana bread smell to waft through the house.  We'd eat huge chunks of bread with butter slathered on top.  So. Good.  I've carried on the tradition with my daughter, letting her mash the bananas, mix up the batter and then wait impatiently for the bread to come out of the oven and cool before she can gobble it down.

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How To Make Your Own Breadcrumbs

My husband opened the fridge up the other day and saw a package of hot dog buns sitting there on the shelf: "Are we having hot dogs for dinner tonight?"  Me: "No."  (silence)  Him: "Then why do we have hot dog buns in the fridge...?"  Me: "To make bread crumbs."

I've actually been making breadcrumbs for the last few years.  It is one of those things that I think isn't worth the cost to buy.  I buy a package of 12 hot dog buns (or 8 hamburger buns) for $.99 and it makes about 2.5 cups of breadcrumbs.  Then I store them in an airtight container in the pantry and pull them out whenever I need a filler for my meatloaf or to make parmesan chicken.

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Easy Strawberry Pie

We had strawberry pie a lot growing up because everyone in my family, especially my younger sister, loves strawberries.  Whenever my mom made it, she used a pre-made pie crust and store bought glaze.  Super easy and super fast.  Since then, I've found what I think is just as fast and easy, if not more so.  Instead of a pre-made pie crust that has to be baked, I use a shortbread crust.  Instead of store-bought glaze, which can be pricey, I use strawberry gelatin as a base for the glaze.  So yummy and so fast.

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Carrot Cookies

As I started pulling the ingredients out to make these cookies, my daughter asked me what I was making.  I told her "carrot cookies" and she said, "Yum!  I love those!  I haven't ever tried them, but I like cookies!"  I like her logic.  *wink*

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Broccoli Cheese Potato Soup

When I was doing my meal planning this week, I was happy to see that I had all the ingredients needed to make a family favorite for dinner: Broccoli Cheese Potato Soup.  However, when I went to make it, I realized that while I had everything I needed, it wasn't necessarily in the most convenient form: baby carrots instead of pre-shredded, frozen broccoli instead of fresh (I forgot to pull it out to thaw) and some potatoes that were starting to go bad.  So the prep time for this meal took a little longer than planned.  When my husband called to give me the heads up that he was on his way home from work, he asked what we were having and was excited when I told him.  This is a soup that my family cannot get enough of and we rarely have leftovers because everyone just keeps going back for more.

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5 Kitchen Gadgets I Could Live Without {But I Don't Want To!}

While cooking dinner the other day, I was thinking about how many modern conveniences I enjoy when it comes to my kitchen appliances and gadgets.  I like cooking and baking, but sometimes I wonder if I'd like it as much if I had to put as much work into it.  There are definitely a handful of items that I use frequently that are totally worth the splurge (big or small).

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One Pot Chicken Noodle Pasta

When my husband and I were first married, we went out to Buffalo, NY, where he sold security systems for the summer.  As a new wife, I was determined to make good, balanced meals for him, ready when he came home at the end of the day.  If you know anything about summer sales, you know that the time when your day ends is varied.  On average, my husband didn't get home until at least 6 (if he was lucky) and sometimes as late as 10 (not so lucky).  As much as I wanted to provide a good, hot meal for him, I realized that trying to plan a time to have dinner ready each night was pointless and it was better to have something that was easy to reheat that still tasted good.  I made some winning dishes and some that were not so great.  This dish actually started out as a casserole, but has evolved into an easy one-pot dish that takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.  There are some dishes that I come back to time and again when I'm doing my meal planning and this is one of them: one pot chicken noodle pasta.

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15 Yummy Single Serve Desserts

You know what happens.  It's late at night and the craving hits you.  BAM!  You need something sweet and you need it now!  You've got a few store bought cookies in the pantry or some candy, but what you really want is something fresh baked and hot.  Maybe with some milk or ice cream.  Yeeeaahhh....  You know what I'm talking about.

Well my friend, I've got you covered.  I don't have just one sweet treat.  I've got fifteen to choose from.  You can thank me later. *wink*  Some of these treats are baked in the microwave, others in the oven, but all will make your taste buds happy.  And this isn't just any round up of sweet treats.  Oh no.  I've tried all of these recipes and know they're good.  So go ahead.  Take a look and make something delicious.

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Raspberry Pretzel Jello Salad

Back when I was a junior in college, a friend invited a group of us over to his parents' house for dinner and a movie.  This was awesome for many reasons, but the best being that his parents were providing all the food.  (When you're a poor college student, home cooked meals are like gold.)  When it came time to eat, we formed a line and starting filling up our plates.  I came across a dish that looked like a layered-jello salad but it had pretzels in it.  Um...what?  My friend, whose parents' house it was, saw me looking at it and said with a smile "Just try it.  It's amazing!"  I took his word for it and scooped a medium sized portion onto my plate.  I sat down at the table and took a tentative bite and...oh my heavens!  It was seriously one of the best first bites of anything I've ever had in my life!  The pretzels provided a little texture and saltiness while the jello and fruit added sweetness and the middle layer of cream cheese provided a lighter texture to balance everything out.  Needless to say, I went back for seconds...and thirds.

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Meal Planning: How Do I Stick with It? (Part 2)

Last week I posted about how to get started with meal planning.  I got a good response so I decided to do a little follow up post about how to stick with it once you've started.

Like with many good intentions, we start out strong.  But after a while, we can fall into the trap of complacency.  Life happens.  Other things take priority.  I totally get it!  However, I think it's easier to stick with something when we think about our "why" or our reason for doing it in the first place.  Maybe your "why" for meal planning is to put healthier meals on the table.  Or maybe it's that you want/need to stick within a budget.  Whatever it is, if it's important to you, then you can remind yourself of your "why" when it comes time to do your meal planning each week (or however often you do it).

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White Chocolate Dipped Oreos

I've been doing some thinking lately about an easy treat I could make for my daughter's Valentine's Day party at preschool.  Since it's her party, I also wanted to have it be something that she could help me make so she felt a part of it.  This morning, I was looking in the pantry and spotted a package of Oreos and had an idea: white chocolate dipped Oreos!  Yummy and easy.

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Meal Planning: Where Do I Start? (Part 1)

When my husband and I first got married, I didn't know much about meal planning.  I was used to cooking meals for myself and sometimes my sister, who was also my roommate.  What I made totally depended on what I happened to have on hand that week and more often than not it was a can of soup, pancakes (or some other breakfast food) or maybe a casserole if I was feeling ambitious and needing leftovers for a couple days.  It's not that I didn't know how to cook, but when you're cooking for one, it's just not super motivating to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Fast forward to 2016.  I've been cooking for my family of two, then three and now four for the last 7.5 years and it wasn't until about a year and a half ago that I finally decided that I needed to start meal planning.  My reasons were simple: 1) I wanted to make sure my family was eating well, 2) I hated hitting 4:00 or 4:30pm and realizing I had no idea what I was making for dinner that night and then rushing to figure it out, and 3) I wanted to save money.  I decided that I have enough things on my plate as a mom, wife and adult, that if I could make my life a little simpler by planning out our meals for the week then I should do it.

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Guest Post: The Hungry Mom: Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole

**UPDATE: 12/20/16**  The Hungry Mom blog is no longer an active site.  All links to the site have been removed as per the owner's request.

 

Hello! My name is Lindsay and I'm the author of The Hungry Mom blog. I have known Shani since I had the good fortune of being in the same 5th Grade class as her almost 2 decades ago. We quickly became best friends. She moved away before the school year was over, but we kept in touch by being great pen pals (I still have all her letters. She was a great writer even then). Luckily she was still in the same state, so we still were able to get together from time to time. She would spend a few days at my house every now and then and I would have a sleepover at her house.  We would also go on vacations with each other's families. Shani moved back home when we were in high school and we were able to share an English class together and bond over our shared dislike of our teacher ;).  Here we are almost 20 years after we first met and still friends. Both of us with two adorable kids close in age. Its been a friendship that has endured through the ages!

I started my blog, The Hungry Mom, because I have recently become a self-published author and it was recommended you have one. I decided to utilize this blog to share almost everything in my life! I have lots of yummy recipes, my personal mommyhood advice and lots of other topics on my blog including fitness, depression, and more. It has become a wonderful outlet for me and a great way to share my story with "the world".

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Applesauce Muffins

This post originally appeared on Muddy Little Toes where I was previously a co-contributor.

Mornings at my house probably start out a lot like yours: get the kids up, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth... And I don't know about you, but I am always looking for ways to simplify my mornings.  One of the best ways I've found is to make food ahead of time that is easy to take with you on the go.  Or just trying to make sure you actually get to eat a little something in the midst of your morning craziness.  I can't count the number of times I've hit 10am and I'm starving and starting to get a little hangry when I realize it's because I've been up for 3+ hours without food...

Which is why I'm sharing today's recipe for applesauce muffins.  These muffins are so yummy!  Not to mention super easy to whip up--they take maybe 10 minutes from start to finish!  They are moist and not overly sweet, which is perfect for mornings or even after school snacks.  My kids love these, especially the cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top, which they always eat first.

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Crock Pot Minestrone Soup

It's been a crappy week or so in my house.  Everyone got sick with this yucky cold, which then turned into acute bronchitis for my husband and I.  Yeah.  Fun stuff, let me tell you.  And when I'm sick, I really hate having to put too much effort into cooking.  So I was relieved when I opened the fridge and found a big plastic container full of one of my favorite soups: Minestrone.  It was leftover from Christmas Day when we had dinner at my in-laws home and we ended up with about half to bring home.

So today I'm sharing this recipe with you in hopes that you'll find it as delicious as me and my family do.  I wish I could say that I made up this recipe and take all the credit for the yumminess that it is, but I’d be lying and that is generally frowned upon…  The truth is that I found the recipe on Pinterest on a blog called Yummy Healthy Easy who adapted it from another blog (Foodtography).  I have adapted it a little more to suite me and my family.

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My FAVORITE Roll and Cut Cookies

I love to bake, especially yummy treats.  My husband is not so much of a treat guy.  It took a little time for me to figure this out after we first got married and I'd make what I thought was a delicious dessert, only to have him take a tiny bite to appease me.  It hurt my feelings and one day I asked him why he didn't like to eat any of my desserts.  Well, it turns out he's more into fruity desserts, candy or ice cream shakes, so what I was making wasn't bad, it just wasn't what he preferred.  Now, I've learned to either half dessert recipes or make sure and share them with my friends and neighbors.

However, one recipe that my husband and kids LOVE are these cookies I learned to make growing up.  For sake of a better name, they were called "Good Roll and Cut Cookies".  Creative?  No.  Descriptive?  Yes.  These cookies are perfect for...you guessed it: rolling out and cutting with cookie cutters.  I can't count the number of times I've made these, but I would venture to say I've made them more than any other cookie recipe I own.  The reason is that they are super simple, they make a decent amount and you can use them any time of year.  They are definitely my go-to for cookie cutter cookies.

Let's get started!

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