If you are like me, you are always looking for easy snacks that your children actually enjoy AND that are good for them. This recipe can help with that search! My youngest loves this recipe straight from the jar whether it is still warm from the crock pot or cold from the refrigerator. My oldest likes the muffins I make with the applesauce with the recipe that I got from Chocolate Covered Katie. I love that they are getting tons of yumminess with NO added sugar.

In addition to a snack with no added sugar you also benefit from the vitamins and minerals from the apples and spices. Apples have fiber, are sodium free, and also contain vitamin C and potassium. Cinnamon has manganese, calcium, iron and even a bit of Vitamin K. Cloves are purported to boost immunity and nutmeg can act as an anti-oxidant, boost kidney function and increase blood circulation.

This is a recipe that I made when we had been given a TON of apples and I had to find a way to use them before they went bad. It is super simple and easy. You end up with delicious spiced applesauce or apple butter depending simply on how long you let it cook. This applesauce is perfect to use in recipes like Applesauce Muffins. If you cook the apples long enough in the crockpot to cook out all the extra water then you end up with delicious apple butter which still works beautifully in applesauce muffins, but can also be used as a delicious and nutritious spread for toast and biscuits. Another idea I just got from my mom was to add it to the basket built around the Artisan Bread that I give my daughters’ teachers as their Christmas gifts. I may make up another batch just for gifting this Christmas season. You also end up with a decidedly Christmasy smell filling the house as the apples simmer in the spices!

Apple Sauce Recipe:

6 pounds Apples (I have used many different varieties)

2 tablespoons Cinnamon

1 teaspoon Cloves

1 teaspoon Nutmeg

Applesauce Directions:

1. Quarter and core apples.
2. Place all apple quarters in crock pot.
3. Sprinkle seasonings over apples.
4. Cover and cook on high for 6-8 hours*.
5. Stir and mash the apples a few times as they are cooking.
6. Spoon cooked apples into food processor.
7. Puree apples to chop the skins finely enough to remove any lumps.
8. Spoon into jars to can or serve.

*If you are wanting apple butter you want to cook the apples until all of the liquid is gone. It may be more like 6-8 hours for the apple butter. The processing is the same, it just produces a thicker consistency when the liquid is cooked away.

If you try this recipe be sure to comment below and tell us how it goes. If you try any substitutions, please share!

As we try to gear up to return to school, after-school snacks automatically come to mind. I don’t know about you, but both of my daughters and most other kids their age, that I know, are positively starving after school. That means it is up to me to have tasty and healthy snacks for them to consume or they will fill up on convenient junk. One of the recipes I have tried this summer will be a great addition to our after school snack repertoire. This summer, I was gifted a huge amount of various produce. Some of that produce was apples. At one point I had at least 15 pounds in the house. Although, my husband loves to have an apple a day in his lunch box, there was no way we would make it through 15 pounds of apples before they spoiled. So, I made applesauce. My girls will eat applesauce sometimes, especially my youngest. But they will not eat it often or for a prolonged period of time. So, I knew that I was making applesauce for baking. I think their lack of love of applesauce stems from when they would be required to eat a snack sized applesauce every day in order to get their essential mineral drops. We have changed to them taking them in juice and that seems to work the best out of all the things we have tried.

 I have a recipe I saved in my little notebook of recipes for applesauce cake. This applesauce cake is super delicious!! It also has 3 cups of sugar. That is not the kind of snack I really want to be feeding the ladies for an after-school snack or a convenient breakfast. So, I looked on Chocolate Covered Katie’s website for an applesauce cake recipe. She is known for low sugar sweets and treats that are still delectable and that keep people coming back for more. Luckily for me and for my family’s health, she had one. Fortunately, her recipe keeps with the promise of her treats and sweets of being delicious and healthy. I’ve actually even been asked for the recipe and if it was on my website a couple of times by my mom and sister who both had some when I made them the first time. I loved how little sugar this recipe called for and the fact that it was the only sugar in the recipe since my applesauce did not have any sugar in it. My applesauce was just apples, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Since I added these spices to my applesauce I did not add any additional spices to the muffins. I have made this recipe as muffins and small loaves of applesauce bread (that you see in the picture at the top). It works well as both! The bread does take some additional cooking time, though. I am including the spices in the recipe on here in case your applesauce is not spiced as mine was.

Applesauce Muffins Recipe:

1 cup Applesauce

3 tbsp Oil OR additional Applesauce (I used additional applesauce and they did NOT take on too much of that chewy texture that there sometimes is when you use fruit instead of oil)

2 tbsp Milk of choice

2 tsp Vanilla extract

2 tsp Apple Cider or White Vinegar

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour (there are other flour options listed on the original recipe)

¼ cup Sugar

½ tsp Salt

½ tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Baking Soda

¼ tsp Cinnamon (omit if you have spiced applesauce)

Optional handful of raisins, walnuts, etc. (I included chopped walnuts in mine since a bunch of those have been given to me as well)

Applesauce Muffin Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, cinnamon (if using) ingredients together

3. Add applesauce, oil (if using), vinegar, milk and vanilla

4. Whisk together until completely combined (the original recipe calls for all of the wet ingredients to be combined before adding to dry ingredients. I did not read through that direction prior to mixing mine up and found that it worked just fine this way as well.)

5. Fill lined or greased muffin or bread tins 2/3 full

6. Bake muffins for 20 minutes, the mini loaves may take up to 10 minutes longer. The middles should dome and a knife or cake tester should come out cleanly. Take out and let cool completely, if you can, without eating them. These are delicious warm from the oven. However, like mentioned on Chocolate Covered Katie’s website, they have even more flavor after a day or two in the refrigerator.

Try these for a snack or easy breakfast and let me know what you and your family think of them. I hope you enjoy them as much as we all did!! Now, for those who have been asking this recipe finally is up on this website!! What are your go to after-school snacks for your family?

My husband, Adam, used to own a restaurant. The restaurant he owned was the restaurant he worked at all through high school and his first time at college. He’s since gone back a couple of different times to earn multiple degrees. And his favorite meatloaf recipe comes from the owners of that restaurant. He remembers it from when he was just a high schooler learning the ropes. After we got married and I had made meatloaf a few times, he called his friend who happens to be the son of those restaurant owners, and now has his own restaurant in town, to get this recipe. It’s the one I have used ever since. The only adjustment I make to this recipe is that I triple the Worcestershire Sauce it calls for, at my husband’s request. It’s a big deal for him to request a change to a recipe! Especially one from his beloved Martinez family!! So, when he does, I make it. Tonight I tried this recipe as meatballs.

We generally buy pre-made meatballs and then I just warm them in the cast iron skillet and cover them with BBQ sauce and a little water. I serve those with a vegetable of choice and mashed potatoes. You could also serve either the meatloaf itself or the meatballs with a loaf of Artisan Bread. My whole family really likes our pre-made meatballs, including me. I don’t however like the soy that is in the pre-made meatballs. I have made meatballs from scratch a few times before, but they have always seemed too dense. I got the idea of trying this meatloaf recipe as meatballs the last time I was mixing it up and my daughter was helping mash all the ingredients together and then just started rolling the mixture into balls. We went ahead and made the traditional loaf and froze another that time, but the idea to try it as meatballs stayed with me. My husband was less than excited tonight when he got home as I was finishing dinner and heard I was experimenting. BUT, he said the meatballs were pretty good.  

I really liked how much lighter they were than the times I had made them with just meat. I did have trouble keeping them together during cooking. I’m wondering if it is best to make them up ahead of time and freeze them first to help with keeping them together. I am also thinking as I type this that it might be helpful to use a cookie scoop to get the meat into the balls because that would press the meat together more tightly. If you have any insights or suggestions please share them in the comments below.

Now on to the recipe of this hearty, home cooked dinner!

Meatloaf Recipe:

1 1/2 pounds Ground Beef

1 large Egg

1 8 ounce can Tomato Sauce (I have used ketchup multiple times when I haven’t had tomato sauce on hand.  Okay, so maybe two changes to the recipe sometimes!!)

1/2 cup chopped Onion

1/2 tbsp garlic powder or minced garlic (I’ve used both)

3/4 cup Quick Oats

1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce (I use 3 tbsp in ours)

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Meatloaf Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and mash together until VERY well incorporated. 

3. Place in a 2 quart casserole dish shaped into a loaf in the center of the dish

4. Bake for 45-60 minutes

5. Serve with mashed potatoes, favorite vegetable, artisan bread (or your family’s favorite sides)

Let me know how your family enjoys this dinner!  What are the recipes your spouse remembered form growing up that you make for them now?

This past Friday was the girls’ joint birthday party. Even though we try to limit our guest list to my and Adam’s immediate family (occasionally one or two friends may get invited) that is over 20 people who come to the girls’ parties. It is a HUGE blessing to have so much family close by, but it is also a big thing to feed all of these people. We generally just do desserts, but it can still be a lot of cake or cupcakes.

This year I suggested cookie decorating and the girls thought that would be a great idea. I always want to make everything myself from scratch and often end up overwhelmed and in tears trying to get everything done. This year I told my husband that he was in charge of making sure that we bought any mixes we needed or anything store bought that we should get in order to keep me from making myself and our family miserable trying to do everything myself. I don’t know if really thought I could handle everything, or just forgot his job when we were grocery shopping, but we did not buy any pre-made cookie dough or mixes, although I did buy pre-made icing.

In an effort to keep from overwhelming myself or the family, I decided that since I WAS making everything from scratch to make some cookies each day since I wanted at least two different types of cookies to decorate. The first ones I tried were 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies and they turned out really well!! So well in fact, that I ended up having to make another batch on Thursday to make sure we still had enough for the party on Friday! The next ones on the list were sugar cookies. We had to have sugar cookies since they are the quintessential decorating cookie. The tricky thing about sugar cookies in our family is that they are my husband’s favorite cookie. That means he is pretty particular about them. I knew the recipe I picked was a winner when he tried them and said they were good. I even probed further to be sure, and asked if they were good as in I shouldn’t worry about serving them or if they were actually good. He said they were actually good. They were a little hard when he tried them, but that was because I was storing them in the refrigerator to keep them fresh. I took them out of the ‘fridge a couple of hours before the party, added half a slice of bread to the air tight container to add moisture and they were soft and chewy for the party. The other thing that makes this recipe a winner for me is that they were simple for me to make. I used my food processor for ease. It also helped since I was late getting my butter out of the refrigerator and didn’t want to have to wait forever for it to soften. I was super nervous after I got them mixed up and read the rest of the directions or commentary in the recipe. I often find myself in a predicament like this where I just start mixing looking just at the recipe, without reading all of the directions through. THis time the concern was that it said not to over mix your butter. I certainly did over mix my butter by using my food processor in comparison to the stir in directions from the recipe itself. Fortunately, despite my over mixing, my cookies did not rise in the oven and then fall when they came out. I linked the original recipe above if you want to follow their mixing directions for safe outcome purposes. I am sticking with my food processor mixing technique myself, since the cookies turned out so well and ease is always something I am looking for as long as it doesn’t sacrifice the quality! Here are the ingredients and directions for how I made these sugar cookies.

Sugar Cookie Recipe:

1 cup Butter

1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar

1 large Egg

2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional, I left it out of mine because I didn’t have any at the time, but I do think it would enhance the flavor to include it)

1/4 cup Granulated Sugar (for rolling scooped cookie dough in before baking)

Sugar Cookie Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Place butter, sugar and egg in food processor and mix until completely combined
3. In a separate bowl mix together flour, salt and baking powder
4. Add about 1/3 dry ingredients to food processor and blend until combined. Repeat twice with the remaining two thirds of dry ingredients.
5. Add vanilla if using and mix final time until fully incorporated
6. Place remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar in a shallow tupperware container
7. Use a small cookie scoop and scoop dough into balls
8. Roll cookie dough balls in sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet 1 1/2-2 inches apart(you can choose to flatten the balls if you would like, the cookies in the picture above were not flattened prior to baking)
9. Place cookie sheets on two separate racks in the center of your oven
10. Bake for 5 mintues
11. Switch the trays to the opposite racks and bake an additional 5 minutes or until the bottom edges of the cookies are starting to brown
12. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes
13. Remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling, store in an air tight container.

As you can see I really, really mixed my cookie dough A LOT. But the cookies turned out really, really well!! Although sugar cookies are Adam’s, my husband’s, favorite cookie, I am not generally a big fan of sugar cookies. These however, have a buttery, sugary goodness that I cannot resist! I hope you find them equally delicious and easy to make!! I look forward to hearing how making them goes for you! Please be sure to comment below if you try this recipe. Let me know if you use the recommended vanilla!

Tonight we had another super simple supper. It truly is a one dish meal and the sides we had with it are optional for you and your family. I am excited about sharing this one with you because, like the Creamy Chicken Casserole, it again changes up the flavor palate and gives a different journey for your taste buds than other Simple Suppers I’ve shared.

I originally found this recipe as a recipe for Campbell’s Soups. We had it several times and then I just stopped making it. Recently though, I felt like we were getting into a rut of having the same meals over and over again. So, I started looking through different recipes I have and came across this one. I keep a spiral bound set of note cards with some of our favorite and most used recipes written in it. That is where I found this recipe. It struck a chord for having it for dinner this week for several reasons. One was that we had not had it for a really long time. Another was that everyone liked it when we had it before. It is also super easy to make. And that ease makes it a great addition to the easy supper meal recipe collection that I’ve been building. I can’t wait to share it with you, so here we go!

Beef Taco Skillet Recipe:

1 pound Ground Beef

1 can Tomato Soup

1/2 cup Salsa

1/2 cup Water

1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese

6 Tortillas (we used flour, you can use either flour or corn. We have used both, I actually prefer the flavor and texture of corn, but my family prefers flour.)

Beef Taco Skillet Directions:

1. Brown Ground Beef, or as I did when I made this tonight, warm your frozen browned ground beef.

2. Add salsa, tomato soup, and water.

3. Bring mixture to a boil

4. Reduce heat to low and cook another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Slice tortillas into strips (I use a pizza cutter to do mine.)

6. Stir in Tortilla Strips

7. Sprinkle Cheddar Cheese on top of skillet (I added a little extra, since we really like cheese!)

8. This step is optional due to how you like your meal. I placed our skillet in the oven under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to really melt the cheese.

9. Serve immediately with your choice of sides like refried beans, tortilla chips, salsa, avocado, additional cheese, or sour cream

I pray this meal brings easy nourishment to you and your family! What old favorites have you been uncovering as you are cooking at home more during all of the ups and downs in our world? Please share if you try this recipe below, and other favorite recipes you’ve been making again!

This is the fifth simple supper recipe so far. I’m excited because this makes a full week of suppers. I know it doesn’t cover the weekend unless you have left overs. I’ll keep working on that. I wasn’t sure until last night what recipe I could use to get this series up to five. Since this was a last minute decision, I don’t have a recent picture of this meal cooked. But since I needed a picture for this post I pulled together the ingredients from my freezer and pantry. Hmmmm… maybe we’ll have it for dinner tonight! I’m just missing the crackers!

This recipe lightens things up a bit and changes the flavors from the recent meals I’ve shared. It is can be a one dish meal depending on your meal prep, so that makes not only the cooking, but the clean up easier! I got this recipe from my sister, Haidee. She made it for a family dinner or when I was over for dinner one night. I’m not a big fan of casseroles, but this is one that I really do enjoy! All of my family enjoys it also, so that’s a double win! I have made it with a lot of different types of chicken. I have used left over shredded chicken breasts or thighs, canned chicken, fajita chicken and chicken breasts or thighs I cooked just for this dish in the skillet, crock pot or instapot. As with several of the other dishes in this simple supper series, there are also plenty of options for variations of the vegetables in this dish. Another variation option is in the amount of sour cream you use. The more sour cream you use the creamier it is, but also the less of the chicken flavor that comes through. The sour cream we buy is in 16 ounce containers. So, I only need half of it for this recipe. I’ve been known to use a little less or a little more depending on what I have left in the container from other meals, how far I need this meal to go or if I have more sour cream that needs to be used up.

For me cooking doesn’t have to be an exact science. It is a chance to allow yourself to be creative and try new things. One of my biggest challenges with writing a lot of these recipes is taking the time to measure and pay attention to what and the amount of ingredients I use. Since the flavors are lighter in this meal it is more of a summer pallet to me. Although it is still warm and creamy which makes it an amazing comfort food for any season.

If you leave off the crackers or sub cheese crisps this could possibly be a keto friendly meal. You would need to be mindful of your portion size due to the carbs in the Cream of Chicken soup and make sure that the veggies you use are keto friendly options. The frozen vegetables I use most often have peas and carrots in them, so that would not be the best option for someone looking to limit their carbohydrate count. But you could use zucchini or summer squash or even mushrooms and that would lower the carb count.

I hope that you and your family are finding these recipes helpful in making family dinner an easier and more realistic option. These times continue to be hard for us here at our house as we are under another quarantine from family right now. At the same time, I am facing the uncertainty of what school will look like for me as a teacher and for the girls as students when we go back in just under 5 weeks. These are heavy times, thoughts and struggles. I want nothing more than to be home with my girls permanently, but that is not in the plans for us right now. I am trying to accept the TRUTH that God’s ways are higher and better than mine. However, the faith of a broken heart is faltering and painful. I need things like cooking and supper to be as simple and easy as possible while still providing my family with inexpensive, nourishing and delicious food. I pray that they are nourished when I cook for them. I pray your life is easier and your family is nourished by these recipes as well!!

Creamy Chicken Casserole Recipe:

4-5 Chicken Breasts OR 2-3 cups Fajita Chicken OR 1 large can chicken

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 bag Frozen Mixed Veggies

8 ounces Sour cream

1 sleeve Circle Crackers (think Ritz)

1/2-1 stick butter

Cream of Chicken Casserole Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook and shred the chicken breasts OR cook the fajita meat OR open the canned chicken.
3. Mix the cooked/canned chicken, the frozen/fresh veggies, the Cream of Chicken Soup, the sour cream together well and place in a 2 quart baking dish
4. Salt and Pepper to taste
5. Crush the crackers in their sleeve or in a ziplock bag until they are small crumbs
6. Sprinkle cracker crumbs over casserole
7. Slice butter into pats and place on top of crackers
8. Cook in oven for 20-30 minutes until bubbly and crackers are a golden brown.
9. Serve immediately alone, with your favorite crusty bread, or a green salad!

I have tried to mix this in the skillet I used to cook the chicken or in the baking dish to make this a completely one dish meal. I have found though to get all of the ingredients truly mixed well, I do need a bowl to mix it in. Sorry about the extra dish, but it does make for a more even flavor for the dish. Let me know in the comments below how your family enjoys this meal. What kind of chicken did you use? What are your favorite easy meals and meal prep tips?