Raise your hand if you grew up eating Hamburger Pie, the recipe no doubt selected from the 1970's guide-to-being-a-working-mom cookbook: Better Homes and Gardens. I loved that recipe growing up. That's why I kept all of the ingredients in tact and just made a few adjustments to the processed ingredients. This Hamburger Pie Recipe made from scratch will bring you right back to the dinner table of your childhood. And, it makes a great dish to take to a friend in need of a comforting home cooked meal.

Katie MilesOctober 31, 2013Family Meals, Dinner, Fall Comments

Low Fat Turkey Chili

In the evenings, my favorite thing to do (besides watch terrible reality television and eat fudgesicles) is to surf my favorite blogs. While perusing the web, I saw that The Pioneer Woman did a post last week on making healthy freezer dinners. Before my first child, when I actually had an ounce of energy left at the end of the day, I used to make healthy freezer meals for my husband to take to work with him. He never gets to come home for dinner and I feel really bad that he has to eat take out every single night. I still don't have a lot of energy in the evenings, but I figure I could skip one night of the Bachelor to get my fudgesicle eating butt into the kitchen and make up a freezer meal. Cooking this turkey chili is about as easy as it gets. Just throw everything into the pot and let it simmer for about an hour. Easy enough. Portion it out into pint size freezer ziplock bags and freeze flat. That way you can fit more into the freezer and you or your significant other can easily slip it into a briefcase to take to work.

Katie MilesJuly 30, 2013Healthy, Dinner, WinterComment

Grilled Watermelon and Shrimp Salad

My husband recently told me that he read about grilling watermelon and I was like, wait, what??? You can do that? Then my mind began to ponder all the amazing ways you could serve up some grilled watermelon. All summer long, I've been trying to think of a creative way to serve grilled shrimp. But grilled shrimp with grilled watermelon? Oh lord, I think we found a winner. I was super nervous about the dish turning out because we had invited guests over for dinner, but it was fan-f-ing-tastic. I added Thai inspired spices to counter the sweetness of the watermelons and bring out the flavor of the shrimp. If your looking to wow your guests at your next cook-out, give this salad a whirl.

Katie MilesJuly 17, 2013Appetizers, Dinner, Summer, SaladsComment

Kale Spaghetti with Grilled Turkey Meatballs

I love this time of year more than any other time of year mainly because of the abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits. I get so overwhelmed with all of the fresh veggies and fruits at the farmer's stand that I sometimes find my fridge full of items that I'm not sure what to do with. Luckily, I grew up with an Italian momma and I'm able to make a pasta dish with my eyes closed. Recently, I bought a bunch of kale and didn't know what to make with it so I looked up kale pasta recipes but couldn't find anything that looked appetizing. So, I came up with my own recipe that you can throw together in a jiffy for a healthy and quick family meal.

Katie MilesJuly 10, 2013Family Meals, Dinner, Healthy, Toddler Food, SummerComment

Basil Garlic Chicken Burger

I don't know about you, but I crave a burger on about a weekly basis. Now, if I ate a beef burger on a weekly basis I would have to get my big butt to the gym a whole lot more than I currently make it there. So instead of letting the beef burger get the best of me, I like to substitute with healthy ground chicken. A weekly chicken burger has curbed my burger cravings, kept my waist line at a reasonable circumference and (bonus) fulfilled the toddler-will-eat entree requirement for one night a week. I like to add basil, garlic and Worcestershire sauce to my chicken patties to give them a little zip. Enjoy!

Katie MilesJune 20, 2013Healthy, Family Meals, Dinner, Toddler Food Comment

Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce

Hi friends. Today I've got another one of my favorite family recipes. Homemade fish sticks, rather than store bought frozen fish sticks, are definitely the way to go. They taste about a million times better and are way more nutritious if you use fresh fish. Also, I'm not sure if you have ever made your own tartar sauce instead of using the jarred kind, but homemade is definitely the way to go in the tartar sauce department. It is so tangy and fresh with fresh lemon juice and fresh onions and it only takes about 5 minutes to prepare. Plus, while your making it, you can pop 2-10 gherkin pickles in your mouth making the cooking process a whole lot more fun. This meal is so quick and easy to make, that I end up making it about once a week. It seriously only takes about 25 minutes from start to finish. I like to serve the fish sticks with baked sweet potatoes, sauteed spinach or a smoothie. My toddler really loves this meal and so does her father and I. I guarantee your family will love it too!

Katie MilesJune 18, 2013Family Meals, Dinner, Toddler FoodComment

Ham and Beans with Skillet Cornbread

Lately, I have been looking for new family meals that my entire family will enjoy, including my southern husband and my picky toddler. This recipe was derived from the southern ham and beans recipe but I added my northern twist to it making the beans with ketchup, mustard and brown sugar to give them more of baked bean flavor. The skillet cornbread is a MUST with this recipe because the juice from the beans is so yummy and flavorful that you have to have something to mop up all that goodness. Over the next couple of months, I will be sharing many of my original family/ toddler friendly meals with you. So please stay tuned!

Katie MilesMay 23, 2013Family Meals, Dinner, Toddler Food, WinterComment

Beef Broth Fondue

Broth fondue can be a bit intimidating, since you're asking your guests to do some cooking of their own. Hot beef broth over an open Sterno flame is used to cook raw cubes of beef. This technique is similar to the Japanese dish shabu-shabu that has recently become pretty popular. Our guests were a little wary at first, but once they realized that the broth really does cook the meat completely, they loved it! If you keep the meat in the broth for about 30 seconds the meat is medium rare, but if you keep it in longer (as some of our guests did) it will get completely cooked through. It's important to cut the beef into small pieces to allow them to cook in a reasonable amount of time. The flavor of the broth infuses into the meat and it is very tender. For our 70s theme party we decided to serve the meat with A1 sauce and creamy horseradish sauce.

Guest UserFebruary 25, 2013Dinner, WinterComment

Cheese Fondue

A cheese fondue is the perfect way to start a fondue party. It's a great first course because it's a classic fondue dish that will immediately get your guests into the fondue spirit. (Although, I'm relatively certain that you could coerce your friends into any spirit with a pot full of delicious melted cheeses.) Emily and I did a little research on cheese fondues and came up with our own recipe. We decided to omit the Kirsch (cherry brandy) because we felt it didn't really add that much to the flavor and we hate having to buy a bottle of liquor for a recipe when you only use a few tablespoons of it and the rest ends up sitting in your pantry collecting dust. The rest of the ingredients are pretty standard for cheese fondue except that we chose to use three different types of cheese. Really nutty swiss cheeses are delicious so we wanted to have both Comte and Emmental. And, of course, you have to have Gruyere cheese to make it a traditional Swiss fondue.

Katie MilesFebruary 25, 2013Dinner, Vegetarian, WinterComment

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Pears

Katie MilesJanuary 2, 2013Dinner, Family Meals, FallComment