This is frighteningly good. It tastes like Pumpkin Pie without that pesky crust, or baking. Or time. Or any real effort. Are you the sort of person who remembers at 2:00 that you have a holiday party to attend at 2:30, and you still need to shower, dress, and bring a food item to share? Then this is the recipe for you.

Serve with Gingersnap cookies, or graham crackers if you prefer.

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Let me just come right out and say it.  I am not a huge fan of fish.  I never make it.  Ever.  But after listening to friends go on and on about how much they, and more importantly their children, love tilapia, I had no choice but to try it out on some unsuspecting soulsmy family.   And I will tell you right here… my children ATE FISH.  Not only that, they LOVED it.  Who woulda thought? 

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My children say that this is better than the stuff that comes in the blue box. I think tears welled up in my eyes and my hand involuntarily clutched my chest when they said this. It is such a compliment coming from those who think the most tasty foods are ones that come in colors not naturally occurring in nature.

For this recipe you will need:

1 box elbow macaroni
6T unsalted butter
6T flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups cream
(I used 3 cups of half-n-half, which I think is the same thing.)
3/4 tsp salt
ground pepper
3 cups shredded cheddar
3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
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Yet another thing that you can make from those bananas that are over ripe and in danger of going bad.

You would think that at this point of my parenting tenure I would be able to properly estimate the number of bananas that my children go through in a given week. But my children like to mix things up, just to keep this parenting thing challenging. Sometimes I buy a big bunch of bananas and NO ONE WANTS TO EAT THEM. Then the next time I buy only a few and all I hear is complaints because THEY WANT TO EAT BANANAS.
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I like saying jambalaya. Jahm-bah-LIE-yah. It sounds like something that takes a lot of effort and time in the kitchen. But the truth is that it is one of the simplest meals I make. Shhhhh, let’s keep that our little secret, okay?

Even better than saying jahm-bah-LIE-yah over and over while you cook, is the fact that all the magic happens in one pan. YES, one pan! Don’t you love that? Doesn’t that make you want to cook jambalaya?

You will need*:

1 lb sausage sliced, I use mild Italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
2 small red bell peppers, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 1/3 cups long-grain white rice
2 2/3 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (adjust this according to your own taste)
1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning (adjust or omit according to your own taste)
4 scallions

Step One: Brown sliced sausage over medium high heat.

Step Two: Remove sausage from pan. Put onion, bell pepper and celery into the already hot pan. Stir until vegetables are cooked thoroughly and onions are soft.

Step Three: Add sausage back to pan. Stir in rice, broth and spices. Bring to a quick boil.

Step Four: Cover pan. Reduce heat to very low and allow to cook for twenty minutes or so until all the liquid is absorbed. The same way that you would cook plain rice.

Step Five: Once cooked add the thinly sliced scallions and fluff well with a fork.

Enjoy your one pan wonder.

* I triple this recipe for our family, except for the vegetables. I use 2 lg onions, 3 lg bell peppers, and 4-5 celery stalks. I share this just to encourage you that recipe are not written in stone. You can change them up a bit and it will be just fine. Really. I promise you that cooking is not an exact science.

I am constantly on the look out for new pasta salad recipes. Pasta salad is the easiest summer side dish. It goes with anything you grill or you can even eat it by itself for meal. I love to make a large batch and serve it for a couple of meals… usually with dinner and a couple of lunches. Or for when you meet up with friends and have an impromptu dinner date.

And the best thing about pasta salad? You can make it early in the day, stick it in the refrigerator, and not think about it again until you are pulling the burgers off of the grill that evening.

You will need:

8 oz rotini pasta
1/2 c Italian dressing
1TB dijon mustard
1TB mayonaisse
1lb grilled chicken breast, cut into strips*
1 small can sliced olives
1 jar roasted red peppers, draned and chopped
1 can artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained and chopped

*I used the premade/precooked grilled chicken breast strips that come frozen at the grocery store to make the recipe that much easier. When I grill chicken breast for a meal I like to save a few breasts for using in recipes like this, but this time I didn’t have any.

Step 1: Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. Drain and rinse with cool water until the pasta is completely cool.

Step 2: Combine the salad dressing, mayonaisse, and mustard and pour onto the pasta. Stir to coat.

Step 3: Add remaining ingredients. Stir.

Step 4: Cover and refrigerate until dinner time.

Balloon tied to your chair optional, but why not. It makes meal time so much for festive. And by festive I mean cause your children to punch the ballon into each other constantly, and whine and cry until you threaten to spear the balloon with your fork. Not that I would know this from personal experience or anything. Ahem.

It is strawberry season. I think. I am basing this purely on the plethora of inexpensive strawberries available at the local grocery store, and not upon any first hand growing knowledge.

Shortcake is so easy to make that I afterward I always wonder why I don’t make it more often.
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Looking for a new summer side dish? I have a great one for you. This recipe is so easy that I do not even have photos of the steps because I think that you know how to open cans. Right?

You can make this early in the day and leave in the fridge until dinner time. Perfect for those days when you are going to be out of the house all day and just going to grill some hamburgers for dinner.

Also, it looks so pretty. Doesn’t it?

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

1/4 c Hellman’s Light Mayonnaise
2T lime juice
1/2tsp ground cumin
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup quartered cherry or grape tomatoes
1/2 c chopped red onion
2T chopped fresh cilantro (I left this out because I could not find any at my grocery store)

Combine mayonnaise, lime juice, and cumin in a medium sized bowl.

Stir in remaining ingredients.

Serve chilled or at room temperature.

This was loved by all. Except for the child who insists he doesn’t like beans, though I doubt that a bean has ever crossed his lips. So really he doesn’t count. The rest of my children said it was wonderful and that it should be made again and again. My eldest son even ate some of the leftover with his lunch, which says something because his general feeling is that leftovers are garbage that I store in the fridge.

So do you ever have questionable bananas but totally do not feel like baking banana bread?  And by questionable I mean bananas that now have slightly speckled skin and are therefore summarily rejected by the children who insist that they are rotten, even though they are not.

And do you also ever have stale bread?

Then this is the recipe for you. I have made this for people who have insisted that they hate bread pudding. Turns out they just hate dry bread pudding. Good bread pudding is just like French Toast on steroids.

You will need:

1/2 cup butter
loaf of stale French bread (or whatever) cut into cubes
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
4 cups half-n-half, (or milk if you want it to be lower fat, but really it is a dessert, a treat, and therefore should be high in calories and fat)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp vanilla
4-5 sliced bananas

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place your stick of butter in an 11″x13″ casserole pan. Stick it into the warming oven to melt the butter.

Once the butter is melted, remove baking dish from oven and stir in the cubed bread.

In a large bowl mix together all the other ingredients EXCEPT the bananas.

Pour the egg mixture over the bread and mix thoroughly. You want all the bread to be soaked. That is what makes it turn pudding-like. Then gently stir in the banana slices.

Place in the preheated oven and back for 40-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

You can eat it hot, right out of the oven, which is usually what happens with half of it,because my children do not have patience. Or you can put it in the refrigerator and let it chill, which is my personal favorite.

This entire pan was gobbled up in record time, with my children asking if I could buy rotten bananas again soon.

I am stuck in the never ending baseball hellseason here at my house. Almost every night we have somewhere to be right around dinner time. It has seriously stretched my abilities to make quick, easy, and nutritious meals for my family. Or more accurately meals fitting that description that my children will actually eat.

I hit on this incredibly easy, really too easy to even be called a recipe, recipe this week and it was a raging success. An enthusiastic 14 thumbs, albeit sticky thumbs, up. It is one that will be made over and over again at my house, especially when the summer hits.
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