Ok so I’m a working mom, I’m pregnant, and despite being a great cook when I was younger, the children have somehow sucked all of that skill out of me, I’ve gotten lazy or maybe I’m just too exhausted to put something healthy together or maybe I’ve lost that creative cooking inspiration, who knows. Either way I’m working really hard to get my sh*t together! I normally rely on eating out a lot but it’s both expensive and horrible for you so I’ve decided to start meal planning. I know this is a huge undertaking and instead of going cold turkey I’ve been cooking at home and plan on taking some baby steps to get into full swing, So I’ve been spending a ton of time in my new kitchen and I have to say a spacious, well organized kitchen (Thank you Jake!) has made the biggest difference in my getting back into the habit of cooking! So in the past week or so I made lemon bars for my friends wedding, pulled together a super easy and yummy beef stroganoff! …..side note on the stroganoff that almost didn’t happen, my 4 year old decided to throw a huge tantrum at the entrance to the grocery store and even though I wanted to yank her out of the cart, run straight to the car and go through the drive thou and be done with it, we took a few deep breaths and both got it together….I also tried a fun breakfast this morning too, I’ve been making waffles (use butter and jam if you run out of syrup, it’s delicious!) in lieu of cereal but today we tried egg and sausage english muffins, HOLY CRAP they’re good, thing 2 wouldn’t have it but the rest of us ate them up! Here are the recipes…

Lemon Bars

Ingredients:

1/2c butter softened (I use the good stuff, kerrygold!)

1 1/3c all-purpose flour (I ended up using organic whole wheat King aurthurs flour cause it’s what I had in the pantry)

1/4c White sugar

3/4c white sugar

2 TBSP all-purpose Flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 1/2 TBSP lemon juice (fresh squeezed!!!!)

2 Eggs

Directions: 1. preheat oven to 350 2. To make crust, mix together first 3 ingredients with a fork until crumbly then press into a 8 in square pan. Bake for 20 min, the crust WILL NOT BE BROWN! 3. Combine everything else in a blender until thoroughly mixed and pour over crust, bake for another 20 and let cool before you cut!

Easy breezy beef stroganoff

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 med. onion, chopped
1 T. Cornstarch *
1/4 cup cold water
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 (16 oz.) pkg. dried egg noodles
1 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt)

Brown beef and onion in skillet till meat is done and onion is transparent. Drain grease. Dissolve cornstarch in cold water and pour onto meat. Stir in garlic powder, salt & pepper and soups. Cook for five minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer for another 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cook noodles according to pkg. directions. When done, drain . Remove meat mixture from heat and stir in sour cream and mix well. Add to noodles and mix till well blended.

*So in all the excitement of the store tantrum and me wanting to give my children away I completely forgot to get cornstarch at the store, I just left it out along with the water and it turned out just fine so don’t stress if you’re missing something, I also added fresh mushrooms cause I love them!

Palmertree McMuffins!

So these guys are crazy easy, you can even make them ahead of time, put them on a sheet pan and freeze for an hour then individually wrap them and freeze them for up to a week! That’s my kind of easy!

sausage, just cook as usual (I used a skillet but I’m sure you could bake them too)

heat oven to 350, put eggs in a muffin tin and bake for 10-15 min. I love runny yolks but can’t eat them right now because of miss Lucy so I cooked them a little longer

toast english muffins

once they’re all ready put them together and sprinkle with cheese and you’re done!