10 Family Approved Dinner Recipes

These tried and true 10 Family Approved Dinner Recipes are meals that my family asks for time and time again...

I know some of you all have to wonder every once in a while if food bloggers actually end up making and serving the recipes that they share on their blogs often or just a few times for recent development and testing and then we post it and are done with it. Well, I am here to tell you all that the answer is BOTH. 

There are definitely recipes- delicious recipes- that I have shared on here that I have only made a handful of times. It isn't that myself and my family didn't like them or that we wouldn't want to eat them again, but for some reason or another those particular recipes just didn't become family favorites. 

But then there are recipes, like these 10 Family Approved Dinner Recipes I am sharing with you all today, that my family asks for over and over again and that appear on my weekly plan more than once a month. Not only are these dinner recipes tried and true, but I know these will be the meals that my children will remember years later and ask for when they come home to visit from college (and probably beyond that)... ;)

12 Easy Weeknight Chicken Dinners

If you happen to be looking for new chicken recipe ideas that will shake up that usual weeknight dinner plan, then this collection of 12 Easy Weeknight Chicken Dinners is definitely for you...

We all know that when it comes to making a dinner plan for the week or month that chicken is always a safe go-to option. Pretty much every member of the family loves chicken, and it is usually a budget friendly choice as well. But chicken can get, well... boring.  Especially if you just keep making grilled or breaded chicken breasts week after week. 

I run into this same predicament myself often when trying to plan my family's meal plan each week. So I decided that enough was enough, and I scoured some of my favorite recipe sites and food blogs to find a few new chicken dinner ideas that were not only tasty & different but easy and quick as well. And when I say quick, I am saying that just about all of these chicken dinner recipes can be on your dinner table in 45 minutes or less. 

Whether you are looking to jazz up your usual ho-hum meal plan or just love finding new and delicious ways to prepare chicken, then you are sure to find a recipe (or two or three!) that will soon become a new dinnertime favorite in this collection of 12 Easy Weeknight Chicken Dinners...

12 Saucesome Dinner Recipes

Ragú® sponsored this blog post. The opinions and text are all mine.

I will be the first to admit that my family and I do not always to get sit down around the dinner table every evening and share a meal and the day's happenings. Sometimes we eat at different times. And sometimes in different rooms even. But we do try to make a point to all sit down at the table as a family for dinner at least 2-3 times a week. Quick, tasty, and easy dinner recipes are one way to ensure that those family dinners happen in our home. My go-to dinner recipes for busy weeknights often involve a jar of one of our favorite Ragú sauces... 

Menu Planning Made Easy With Alexia Foods

Even though I feel like an old "pro" at making a weekly menu plan, there are definitely weeks when I need a change.  When I need something that will add a new tasty spin on some of our usual family favorites.  And bonus if these new tasty additions also happen to be quick and easy!

Recently I discovered the Alexia Foods line of frozen foods, and it has been a game changer for my weekly menu planning. Alexia offers a delicious selection of frozen potatoes, appetizers, breads and side dishes made with real ingredients. Each of Alexia's gourmet products are made with premium, natural ingredients in creative and delicious flavor combinations. They are the perfect addition or complement to any of your family's favorite dishes. Best yet? Most can be ready in 25 minutes or less! :)

Armed with three of my family's Alexia favorites- the BBQ Sweet Potato Fries, the Crispy Onion Rings, and the Spicy Sweet Potato Fries, I set out to make a tasty and easy menu plan for the week for my family...

Latin Veracruz Chicken & Black Bean Burrito Bowls

I am partnering with Imagine® Organic Culinary Simmer Sauces today to bring you all this super simple recipe for Latin Veracruz Chicken & Black Bean Burrito Bowls that you can make at home in around 30 minutes...

I just discovered something new this past week, folks...

I love burrito bowls!

I know, I know. I am a little late to this bandwagon. 

Many of you have probably been die hard fans of burrito bowls for a while now and may be scratching your heads at my newly professed love for them. ;)

And I cannot really tell you why I have not tried one until recently. 

But what I can tell you is that I now love them.

Now I know all about the beloved take-out version of these, but we all know how long it can take to get through that line. 

With the help of the Latin Veracruz Imagine® Organic Culinary Simmer Sauce, I was able to get delicious burrito bowls on the table for the entire family in around 30 minutes!

And the best part? Everyone can make their burrito bowls exactly the way that they like them. ;)  I just set out our usual burrito toppings and let the family have at it. Less work for this mama! 

Portobello Red Wine Mini Meatballs

I am partnering with Imagine® Organic Culinary Simmer Sauces today to bring you all this super simple recipe for Portobello Red Wine Mini Meatballs perfect for a busy weeknight...

I have to be real with you all for a moment- I love having a few easy to throw together, quick dinner ideas at my disposal.  Even with the best of intentions and a well planned out meal plan for the week, there are nights when cooking from scratch just goes out the window.

I know you all know what I am talking about... ;)

Those evenings when a day at home with the little ones has been just a little too long.

Those evenings when you come home and the office has managed to wipe out every last bit of self motivation you may have left.

Those evenings when the kids' practice, that work meeting, the traffic has taken just a little longer than you had planned for.

Those types of evenings happen at least a few times a month in this home.

I defrost chicken or ground beef that morning only to come home and realize that I just do not have it in me to make the recipe I had originally planned to use them in.

In fact, this very such thing happened to me when I came home one evening and had ground beef thawed in the fridge. My original plan was to make a pot of chili with it, but I was wiped out. All the chopping, and browning, and simmering just didn't appeal to me at all.  I was just about to cave into the fast food drive-thru when I remembered that I had a pouch of the Portobello Red Wine Imagine® Organic Culinary Simmer Sauce sitting in my pantry! :)

That pack of ground beef quickly became tender mini meatballs smothered in a rich and creamy Portobello Red Wine sauce...

Summer Tomato Pasta with Greens

This fresh & bright Summer Tomato Pasta with Greens is the perfect way to use up those summer tomatoes...

One of my favorite flavors of summer has to be juicy, straight from the vine tomatoes. Tomatoes just never taste as good as they do right now.  They are in season and the varieties are plentiful.  

And though I love a good homegrown tomato, I seem to have very little luck myself growing them. But fortunately for me, my local farmers market was just teeming with freshly picked tomatoes in vibrant reds and oranges this past weekend.  I snatched some up for a recipe that caught my eye on the Yahoo! Food site a few days earlier.

Yahoo! Food is quickly becoming my new favorite foodie site.  You can find it all there from their all-star team of talented food editors- surprising and sophisticated recipes, stories on the top food trends, the best cooking tools, new techniques, and everything you need to feel inspired in the kitchen. 

Yahoo! Food is also partnering with some of the best publishers in the business to bring you their expertise and ideas, including Bon Appetit, Epicurious, Food52, Martha Stewart and more.  It is a foodie's online resource come true, my friends.

This fresh & bright Summer Tomato Pasta with Greens is a perfect way to use those end of summer tomatoes and is just the first of many recipes I will be trying in my kitchen from Yahoo! Food...

Creamy Parmesan Basil Chicken Pot Pie

Compensation was provided by General Mills via Federated Media.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of General Mills. 
For more easy dinner ideas, visit http://progresso.com/Products/Recipe-Starters

You probably all think that the family of a food blogger eats something new and exciting every day of the week, don't you?  To be honest, we have a handful of tried and true recipes that are my go-to's week in and week out. Recipes that are no-brainers for me & that I know my family will not complain about, more or less.

But even food bloggers run into weeknight dinner ruts.  

In fact, I was in the midst of one just a week or so ago.  I failed to do my usual weekly meal plan just because I felt totally uninspired and unmotivated. 

I was winging it from one evening to the next- which I should mention that I loathe- but I just couldn't sit down and write out a menu for the week.  And all my usual go-to's just sound so, well... usual (aka, boring.)

Thank goodness for the Progresso Recipe Starters I happened to have in my pantry that week! I just needed a few ingredients, one of their tasty recipe starter sauces, and around 30 minutes to come up with a dinner idea that my family would love and that wouldn't bore my socks off.