Recently, I’ve become very motivated to find easy and nutritious dinner recipes (okay, and dessert too… who can resist? I’m always on the lookout for something to satisfy my sweet tooth). I’ve actually tried a number of new things, so I thought I’d share a few of our favorites!

1. Easy Chicken Fried Rice. If you have a hankering for Chinese food and don’t want to spend money to eat out (or don’t want to buy a new pair of jeans because you overindulge at the Chinese buffet), this recipe is perfect.

2. Mac and Cheese. My Dad-in-law and I are obsessed with the mac and cheese from Cracker Barrel (he and I are pretty much twins and always order the same entree when we go there… what can I say, I lucked out when it comes to having awesome in-laws). Anyway, I’ve tried about a zillion different recipes to try and duplicate that oh-so-creamy-deliciousness, but I’ve always ended up disappointed… until now! This recipe is so easy- I actually left out the breadcrumbs and bacon, and it definitely wasn’t lacking in the flavor department. You can’t forget to make buttermilk biscuits to go with it!

3. Super Bean Burritos. Can you say “imitation Chipotle”? (I am just now realizing that all these recipes are imitations of restaurant food…). This one took a bit more preparation in advance, but putting it all together in the end was simple. It probably made about 13 burritos total, so we got about three dinners out of it. In the future I might try to freeze some burritos to eat later.

4. S’more Cookie Bars… or as I like to call our version, a “s’mores mess”, since we didn’t have any patience to wait for them to cool before we dug into them. Oh well! The appearance doesn’t change the taste!

5. Fudge Brownie Cupcakes with Cookie Dough Frosting. I made these for Michael and Jeff while they watched the new Spiderman movie. When they each took a bite, there was nearly a chorus of “mmmmms”.

Have fun trying some new recipes (hopefully I didn’t make your stomach growl too much)!