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When it comes to being a busy mom…we often struggle with finding the time to cook healthy home cooked meals for our family. We spend our days getting the kids to school, working in or outside of the home, running the kids to after school activities, running errands and then once we arrive home again, it’s dinner time.

In our busy lives it is easy to fall into the trap of purchasing take out or hitting a fast food joint and buying unhealthy food to feed to our families. As a mother you can solve this problem by investing in two very helpful must-have kitchen appliances.

If you want to prepare healthy meals at home and do so lickety split then I suggest that you invest in two quality kitchen appliances. Let’s take a look at those two appliances more in depth.

1. You should invest in a good quality crock pot. I suggest a 3 or 5 quart crock pot depending on the size of your family. The one that I own is 5 quart and made of stoneware which is super easy to clean because it can be placed into a dishwasher.

Slow Cooked Meal Suggestions: pork roast and sauerkraut, barbequed pulled-pork for sandwiches, beef stew, beef vegetable soup, chicken pot-pie, chicken corn soup, chili, short style spare ribs, chicken and pasta dishes, chicken and rice soup, chicken and dumplings and Salisbury steak and gravy are just a few delicious meals you can make in your crock pot.

2. You should invest in a high quality pressure cooker. In the old days I felt they were unsafe so I refused to use one. However…the past few years manufacturers have gotten with the program and now you can find very safe pressure cookers out in the marketplace. You can pressure cook your foods in half the time it takes to bake them and not only that…you will find that your meats will be more moist and taste delicious when pressure cooked.

You can do roasts, chicken, turkey, pork, venison and lamb in a pressure cooker in half the time of conventional baking.

If you are looking to get into crock pot and pressure cooking I suggest that you invest in a few good cookbooks that are geared towards each of those cooking methods.

Getting dinner onto your family’s table every night doesn’t mean that you have to spend hours in the kitchen making it. Invest in a crock pot and a pressure cooker and you will find that you can feed your family quickly and easily the healthy meals that they deserve.

Shelly Hill is a mother and grandmother living in Pennsylvania who enjoys cooking, baking and canning. You can visit Shelly’s online foodie and recipe blog at http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com for free cooking tips, cooking articles and recipes

Today I wanted to share a delicious recipe with all of our blog readers that makes for a great family dinner. Children and Adults love this dish and it’s easy to throw together.

Baked Spaghetti Casserole Recipe

8 oz. box spaghetti noodles
1 lb. lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrainded
1 (10.75 oz) can condensed tomato soup
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 bag shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook spaghetti noodles, drain & set aside.

Fry the ground beef in a large frying pan with the chopped onion until the ground beef is fully cooked. Drain off the grease. Stir in the diced tomatoes and canned tomato soup. Sprinkle in the ground black pepper. Bring the ingredients to a boil and then turn down to low. Stir in the shredded cheddar cheese until cheese melts. Remove from heat and pour into a 3 quart casserole dish. Stir in the cooked pasta and toss until all ingredients are mixed together. Cover and bake for 20-30 minutes or until done.

If desired, you can sprinkle additional cheddar cheese on top of the casserole during the last 5 minutes of baking time.

When my daughter was a little girl we used to have mealtime struggles on getting her to eat healthy nutritious foods. I would often hear “Mom, I don’t like that, I won’t eat that, I would rather starve” when it came to dinnertime. Over the years I learned that it was better to not fight and argue with her on her food choices, but to instead focus on what I had in my house. You know the old saying, ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind” came in to play.

Today I would like to share a few tips with all of the mother’s out that who deal with picky eaters. When I started the ‘change’ here in our home, I did it gradually so that she wasn’t really aware of what I was doing…I guess you could call me a ‘sneaky mom’, but it did work!

Here are my top 5 tips!

1. If the child wants junk food 24 hours a day, just don’t buy it or just buy it in moderation. There is nothing wrong with giving them an occasional treat, but it certainly should not be on a daily basis. If you are buying junk food and giving it to them occasionally, keep it hidden and out of sight.

2. Twice a week hold a family ‘new recipe’ taste testing night. Find a few healthy recipes that your child has never tried before and make them. Ask the child for his or her feedback. If they liked it, add it to your normal evening meal rotation. If they didn’t like it, toss it and find a new recipe to replace it. These family ‘taste testing’ evenings should be a fun family time, so hype it up and plan it out accordingly.

3. Let your child help you in the kitchen with the food preparation. Even young children can help stir ingredients together or toss a healthy salad. Getting them involved in the food preparation helps them to ‘feel’ like they are part of the decision process when it comes to preparing family dinners.

4. Keep healthy snacking foods available at all times! When you purchase those fresh vegetables, wash them right away and chop them into bite sized pieces. Refrigerate them accordingly so that they can get into the refrigerator and eat them whenever they choose to have a snack. As the first few weeks go by, they might not bother with the fresh vegetable sticks too often…but, if there is no junk food in sight and they are hungry, they will eventually snack on it. One way I was able to turn our daughter onto snacking on veggie sticks was for me to prepare homemade healthy dips to go with them. This replaced the potato chips and dips in our home.

5. Finally my most important tip! Children typically follow in their parents ‘food eating’ footsteps so if you are a picky eater who consumes unhealthy food…your children are more like to adopt that same bad eating habit. You need to make the change right along with your children and be a good food eating role model for them.

There are additional things that you can do to turn your picky little eater into a good healthy eater but I think these 5 tips will get you on the road to solving the problem. Just remember, it is your job as the parent to set the example in your household and you make the final decisions on what you prepare and feed to your children. If in doubt on what to do or if these tips don’t work for you, I suggest you talk to your physician or licensed nutritionist for additional suggestions.

Shelly Hill is a mother and grandmother living in Pennsylvania who enjoys cooking and baking a variety of healthy foods for her family. You can visit Shelly’s online foodie blog at http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com for free menu ideas, cooking tips and free recipes.

When it comes to making Mexican-style dinners for my family’s dinner we love to use easy to prepare recipes that use readily available ingredients that are found in our normal grocery store. As a busy mother and wife…I just don’t have time to look for speciality ingredients.

The following two recipes will take 15-20 minutes to prepare and then while they bake you can do your other activities. The Tex-Mex Lasagna should be prepared 6-8 hours ahead of time so I like to prepare it early in the morning and refrigerate it for when I get home from work. I then just pop it into the oven. Each of these recipes will easily feed a family of 4-5 people.

Tex-Mex Lasagna Dinner Recipe

12 pieces lasagna noodles, uncooked
3 cups spaghetti sauce (with meat or mushrooms works great)
1 cup water
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained
1 (10 ounce) package frozen yellow or white corn, thawed
1 packet chili seasoning mix
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups low fat Monterey Jack cheese, grated

In a large mixing bowl combine together the spaghetti sauce, water, red kidney beans, yellow corn and the packet of chili seasoning mix. In a 9″ x 13″ baking pan, spread 1 cup of the sauce mixture across the bottom. Arrange 4 pieces of the uncooked lasagna noodles on top of the spaghetti sauce layer. Pour 1 cup of the sauce mixture on top of the noodles. Pour half of the ricotta cheese on top and then another cup of the spaghetti sauce…working in layers as you go along. Gently spread the remaining ricotta cheese on top and then arrange the final 4 lasagna noodles on top. Finish up by pouring the remaining spaghetti sauce on top. Cover the baking dish and place into the refrigerator for 6-8 hours. Cover your baking dish with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes. Remove aluminum foil from the pan and sprinkle the grated Monterey Jack cheese on top. Place baking dish back into the oven and bake uncovered for an additional 15 minutes.

Fiesta Bake Casserole Recipe

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 (28 oz.) can baked beans
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup picante sauce
1/2 cup crushed tortilla chips
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large frying pan, brown your lean ground beef with the chopped onions and peppers. Drain off fat. Stir in the can of baked beans and the picante sauce and simmer for 2 minutes. Spoon the meat mixture into a 2 or 3 quart casserole dish. Crush the tortilla chips and place on top of the meat mixture. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle the shredded cheddar cheese on top. Place back into the oven and bake for an additional 5-7 minutes or until all of the cheese has melted. Remove from oven and let casserole sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Shelly Hill is a mother and wife living in Pennsylvania who enjoys cooking, baking and canning. Shelly is the owner of the popular online foodie blog called Shakin ‘N Bakin in the Kitchen at http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com where you can find menu ideas, cooking articles, cooking tips and free recipes.

If you love the taste of homemade peanut butter cups but don’t want the fuss or mess of making them then I think you should try this easy bar recipe to make homemade peanut butter bars from my step grandmother. They are delicious but I will warn you…very sweet!

Homemade Peanut Butter Bars Recipe

1 3/4 cups crushed graham crackers (you want fine crumbs)
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup melted margarine or butter (I use butter)
2 cups confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
1 1/2 cups melted chocolate chips

Lightly coat the bottom and sides of a 13×9″ glass baking dish with margarine or butter. Press your graham cracker crumbs onto the bottom and about 1/4″ up the sides of the baking dish.

Mix together the smooth peanut butter, melted margarine and confectioners sugar and pour on top of the crumbs. Melt your chocolate chips in the microwave or on the stove top and pour melted chocolate on top.

Cover baking dish and chill until firm. Cut into 2″ square sized mini bars or 4″ square full-sized bars. Store bars in an air tight container.

Family Dinner – Baked Chicken Mozzarella Recipe by Shelly Hill

As a busy mom and wife, I am always looking for easy and time saving chicken recipes, and this one fits all of those ‘mom’ requirements.

What I like about this recipe is the fact that it is made with every day ingredients that you most likely have on hand. To save time, I will make step 1 the day before and then refrigerate it in a container. The next day, I will reheat the step 1 ingredients in the microwave for 1-2 minutes and then proceed with step 2. I do this so that I am not spending an hour in my kitchen on a busy work or school night.

Chicken Mozzarella Recipe

Step 1 Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs. of boneless, skinless, chicken breasts

2 eggs, well beaten

1/2 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce

3/4 teaspoon dried basil leaves

Cut chicken breasts in half and remove skin. In a small bowl, beat eggs. Dip meat into eggs and then dip into dried bread crumbs. Heat butter in a large 12″ round frying pan until melted. Place breasts in the frying pan over medium heat and simmer until it has browned on all sides. Stir in the tomato sauce and basil; reduce heat. Cover and cook over low heat until done, about 30-40 minutes.

Step 2 Ingredients:

1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/4 teaspoon paprika

In a small bowl, combine the Mozzarella cheese with the paprika until blended.

Arrange chicken pieces in an un-greased 9″ square baking dish along with the rest of the ingredients from step 1. Sprinkle the cheese mixture on top. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake in your oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until cheese has melted and is bubbly around the edges.

Shelly enjoys cooking and baking for her friends and family. You can visit Shelly online at her recipe blog at http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com for additional family-friendly recipes.