Mexican Food Weekend!

What kind of weekend are you planning? Is it going to be the same old food faire from your kitchen, or would you rather spice things up a bit? I propose a Mexican foodie weekend!

Prepare and feast only on Mexican dishes for the entire weekend and delight your friends or family with your cultural appreciation and kitchen prowess! And then...go Salsa dancing.

Okay, maybe pick a few of the tasty recipes below to try for just one day this weekend and see how it goes over. You might be surprised how alluring all those fresh scents wafting from your kitchen are...

Mexican Salsa

Santa Fe Chicken

Easy Chicken Tacos

Mexican Casserole

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I snuck in a cookie recipe...so what? With Super Bowl just a few weeks away, another fun idea would be to host a Mexican themed Super Bowl party and serve all kinds of Mexican dishes. Visit Annie's Recipes for more recipe ideas or connect with us on Facebook and share your favorite Mexican food or recipe!

Delicious Dinner Ideas

Now that the holidays are behind us and a new year lays ahead, you may be looking for new ways to improve your life and yourself as well as setting new year's resolutions and goals. Many people's resolutions include weight loss, healthy eating or improving cooking skills.

I am on board with the last one completely. It's not that my cooking skills are too terrible. I just don't have much variety to speak of when it comes to family meal times. I find myself fixing the same old recipes. So, in the spirit of new year's, resolutions and self improvement, I've collected some fun family friendly recipes to get us all started in adding to our recipe repetoire!

Frugal Hamburger Soup

Chicken Broccoli Noodles

Crockpot Pepper Steak

Beef Ziti Casserole

Ground Beef Macaroni Tomato Casserole

Regardless of how you plan to improve your self or your kitchen, go ahead and try one of our easy dinner ideas. Connect with us on Facebook to share your favorite dish or visit Annie's Recipes for many more recipes to try.

Happy New Year 2013!

How's your new year going so far? We're only three days in to it, but I have a great feeling about this year. Do you have any new year's resolutions made? One of mine is to get more adventurous in the kitchen and try new things.

So in the spirit of adventure and resolutions, I found some interesting looking recipes with enticing names for you and I to try out. If you decide to give one of these recipes a go, consider taking a few pictures and sharing them with me. I'll feature them on Facebook, here on the blog or even on site on the recipe page.

Hobo Dinner

Green Rice

Mandarin Lettuce Salad

Mexican Chicken Noodle Soup

Mimi's Sticky Chicken

So be brave, get your kitchen adventure for 2013 started and enjoy the food! Connect with us on Facebook to share your favorite new recipe for 2013 or visit Annie's Recipes for more adventurous and inspiring recipe ideas!

What's For Dinner After The Holidays?

Happy Holidays! Or post holiday, or whatever you prefer. Anyway, I hope this post finds you healthy and not too full of Christmas leftovers. Don't get me wrong - I love leftovers. But sometimes...they can become a tiny bit boring.

So I gathered a few of my favorite go-to recipes that are easy to pull together but add a bit of fresh taste to your normal dinner menu. I dug up several beef recipes and threw in a pork chop recipe just for fun! I hope you try one out on your family this week.

English Beef Pot Pie

Beef Carbonnade

Alene's Pork Chops

Basic Meat Loaf

Crock Pot Onion Swiss Steak

Regardless of what's for dinner, enjoy the rest of your holidays and for some of you, winter break!

Connect with us on Facebook to share your favorite post holidays easy meal or visit Annie's Recipes for more great dinner recipes and ideas!

All Souped Up for Christmas!

Outside my front door the wind is blowing and howling and gusting and wreaking havoc with my trash bins! One trip to the mail box and I am chilled to the bone. So it has me pondering life's great question: What's for dinner? Soup!

With all hurry and scurry and flurries leading up to Christmas, who has time to make a huge detailed dinner every evening the next few nights. You'll busy wrapping, laughing and merry-making. So keep dinner simple. Make soup. I've gathered a few of my favorites to make it just that much easier on you! Enjoy.

Beef Stew

Chicken & Dumplings

Crock Pot Chili

Crock Pot Goulash

Crock Pot Potato Soup

Whether it's snowing or blowing in your neck of the woods you and your family will appreciate a warm, filling soup or stew this evening! Connect with us on Facebook to share your favorite hearty soup or stew recipe or visit Annie's Recipes for more soup ideas!

Divine Desserts for the Holidays!

Can you believe Christmas is less than two weeks away? It's literally just around the corner. I don't know about you but I have plenty of shopping, wrapping and baking left to do. Thankfully, my approach to the holidays is a laid back one - whatever I get done, I get done.

And speaking of done - I've rounded up some delicious desserts for you to bake this holiday season to share with loved ones or enjoy at home. These lovely concoctions are sure to make your Christmas taste divine!

Angel Food Cake

Blueberry Pie

Boston Creme Pie

Blueberry Square Cake

Brownie Pudding Cake

However you prepare for the festivities of the season, enjoy a little time in the kitchen creating something sweet and inspired! Connect with us on Facebook to share your favorite holiday dessert recipes of visit Annie's Recipes for more divine dessert ideas!

Happy Holidays!

More Homemade Gift Ideas for Christmas

I love giving gifts at Christmas. And I don't want to sacrifice the meaning behind the gift. My mom taught me a secret to gift giving at Christmas. She bakes a lot of her gifts. Mom (to this day) makes Gingie cookies using my great-grandmother's old German recipe.

(Sorry, it really is a protected family secret.) She packages them up for special people like my grandfather and uncles' families. And it's a once a year thing. Making the Gingies is truly a labor of love. It takes all day to make one or two batches and (having helped many times) it's strenuous for a cookie recipe.

My grandfather looks forward to his bag of Gingie cookies more than almost any other gift. He freezes them and only takes out one or two per week, making them last well into March! He treasures those cookies because they remind him of his mother, now passed on.

I challenge you to find your own signature holiday recipe that you can create and pass on for years to come, and that your family will come to treasure. Here are a few recipes to get you started.

Fudge Sandwich Cookies

Peach Cobbler Crumb Cake

Apple Butter

Oatmeal Raisin Spice Cookies Mix

Rock Candy

Make your gift giving a little easier by baking the gifts this year. Visit Annie's Recipes for more dessert and holiday baking recipes or connect with us on Facebook to share your favorite Christmas goodie recipe!