Semi Homemade dinner idea and a Garlic Herb Butter recipe

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As a mom, things can get quite hectic and busy, especially this time of the year. Spring is in full force, the kids are getting ready for after school activities, vacation times, testing and what not, but mom handles it all with bravour. As a crazy mom of 3 that also works outside the home, I know the struggle is real.

My New Year’s resolution has been that I will cook as much fresh and homemade as I can and so far I have been staying true with my resolution. Yay me! That doesn’t mean that I can’t get a little helper every now and then. I however cut out all the drive thru meals and discovered a lot of homemade short cuts and so far loving the fresh semi-homemade dinners and snacks I dish up to my family.

While shopping for my weekly meals at Walmart the other day I also picked up a few helpers that would complete my meal, a favorite in our home are the STOUFFER’S®  Family meals like the STOUFFER’S® Mac & Cheese or the STOUFFER’S® Lasagna. Did you know they are as close to homemade as you can? Yes, No Preservatives and Real Cheddar and they are made with love, just like you would make them. We love them so much they are always in our freezer and ready to go when we need a delicious Family Meal.

I always add veggies to our dinner table and one thing I started to make ahead of time about once a month or more is my homemade Garlic and Herb butter. It goes so well with a lot of different dishes, is delicious, fresh and everyone loves it. So while my STOUFFER’S® Mac & Cheese was in the oven I whipped up a batch of this delicious spread so we can top our pork chops and glaze our carrots in it as well. I thought this would be the perfect companion to the STOUFFER’S® Mac & Cheese and will make a great and quick comfort food that everyone will enjoy.

Wasn’t this super easy? I love Garlic Herb butter and it is amazing on baguette or on veggies. A little bit will go a long way, trust me you will find many new ways to use this butter and find yourself whipping up a batch more often. You can even freeze it if you like, in my house it never makes it to the freezer.

While my STOUFFER’S® Mac & Cheese  was bubbling away in the oven, I put my carrots with about 3 nice fill tablespoons of the  garlic and herb butter mixture in a pot on the stove, low heat, simmering for about 20 minutes till the carrots were tender and by that time my STOUFFER’S® Mac & Cheese was ready to roll as well.

We also grilled some pork chops to round out our meal. Voila, a delicious, hearty meal all in no time at all and cleanup was a breeze. Thanks to the help of STOUFFER’S®. I wasn’t a slave in the kitchen all night and had lots of family time to share before we all headed off to bed to start the crazy and busy day all over again.

See, dinner has to be dished up every night, don’t sweat it. Take a few short cuts and let someone help you feed your family, there is even an Ibotta offer (buy two family size or bigger 28 oz., earn $2.00) making it a really good deal. So next time you are in need of dinner ideas, just think how you can gather around the goodness of STOUFFER’S®.

I also love to Meal Plan making things that much easier. I plan our weekly meals 2 weeks at a time, we all sit down on Sunday and make a list of food and meals we like to have. I create a meal plan and grocery list so come Monday 5 o’clock we all know what’s for dinner and no one has to figure it out. We all know how that goes, your phone and text messaging goes off the hook and you have to come up with ideas and hear “No, I really wasn’t in the mood for this” and probably end up running to a fast food place. Yeah, not in my house anymore!

Keep it all neat and organized and things will run that much smoother. I created a simple but very effective Meal Planner, check it out and feel free to print it for you and your family to have the best time you can have around the dinner table.

Dinner hast to get done make it fun, make it easy and prepare, let STOUFFER’S® help you every now and then and spend more time with your family and keep within your budget and in the end you can feel good about knowing that you dished up the best meals for everyone to enjoy.

Would love to hear what meals your family enjoys and if meal planning works as well for you as it does for us, leave me a comment below, let’s chat over dinner.