Meals I Have ACTUALLY Made

When we lived in Minnesota, I got in a great routine of meal planning and making grocery lists. My mom was a whiz at this stuff when I was growing up. She'd buy a Gooseberry Patch calendar every year and had dinners listed for every night of the week.

And she saved these to refer back to ... or to give away to my sister and I at some point (they probably got dumped in what we refer to as the 'Great Move of 2014'). But she was/is great at this!

And I felt my skills were really coming along.

And then we moved to Arkansas. And it all went to crap. And for no good reason!

I blame either laziness. Or laziness.

I also blame it on the fact that there are zero Super Target's in Wal Mart Land that I can use my Target Red Card which gave me five percent off my purchase (and came from my husband's bank account, not mine).

So we are stuck with whatever I can think of off the cuff with usually one meal planned for the week.

Oh... I also blame Tess. Once that girl came into this world, making ANY kind of dinner became exponentially difficult! She likes to be held. All the time!

So last week when I hosted Book Club and made the Pioneer Woman's meatballs, mashed potatoes and flat apple pie, I felt on top of the world! Except that was our meal at home the rest of the week.

It was divine though and Matt kept thinking of new ways to use meatballs so kudos to him!

But I wanted to share these recipes because they were actually pretty easy (which is key for me) and super yummy (an obvious key).

Pioneer Woman's Comfort Meatballs

Pioneer Woman's Delicious, Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Pioneer Woman's Flat Apple Pie 

The most important pieces of meal planning for me were Pinterest and Aunt Sherron's Cookbook. Pinterest is free to everyone and has a bazillion wonderful recipes that gave me endless options for my two-week plan.

(Sidenote: I really only made 3-4 meals a week because I refuse to make anything on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And sometimes Wednesday were leftover day. So ... meal planning shouldn't have been too difficult for me! :) )

Now Aunt Sherron's Cookbook is a little harder to come by. I got this years ago and it was a collection of recipes from family members and friends collected and put into one book... and then many, many copies made. It is glorious! It has some of my very favorites in there like her goulash and chili recipes (her chili recipe includes spaghetti - who knew, but it is truly fantastic -- see below)!

And just for good measure, here is the best Italian Dressing recipe this side of Antartica!

If you are hunting for recipes, need them to be easy, and are a semi-picky eater like myself, follow my 'Food I Gotta Try' board on Pinterest. It's full of goodies, including this meal that I made for our good friends, the Stacey's last night: Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos -- my house smelled amazing from Noon until I took the chicken out at 6. Lordy.

So ... planned meals are hard to come by at the Clark house nowadays. Luckily, my husband is a good sport and goes with it. Or curses me under his breath every single day, but has learned to whisper quite well.

What are some of your favorite, EASY meals? I need to stock up on my selection!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

XXOO,
Allyson

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