⏱Comfort Food Recipe Collection

No matter how carefully I plan, there are days when I just don’t know what to make for dinner. Sure, I’ve got my meal plan…but for a variety of reasons that dinner may not appeal to me. Maybe I haven’t been shopping and don’t have the ingredients. Maybe the weather and the meal don’t fit. Or maybe I just don’t want to make what’s planned.

It happens.

When it does, I turn to one of my go to meals I know will satisfy the Hectic Family. It’s our version of comfort food. Every family has those recipes. Ask your kids “What do you want for dinner?” and you’ll get the same answers most of the time. The most common answer I get around Hectic Manor is “Casseroles!”. By that, they mean Chicken and Rice Casserole and Potato Casserole.

There are a couple of other foods, sometimes entrees and sometimes sides, they’ll request without a lot of prodding. Over time I’ve figured out if I put these comfort foods into our regular rotation everybody will be happy at least once in a while.

One of the strokes of genius I had several years ago was to create a notebook containing all the comfort food recipes. I have an Evernote notebook with the recipes along with a 3-ring binder holding printed versions. When the kids want casseroles and I’m not home, they can pull out the binder and jump right to the recipes. As a further stroke of genius, the printed recipes are in plastic sheet protectors so they don’t become grease-stained works of art.

While it’s a simple thing, this comfort food recipe collection has improved our lives immensely. The recipes are made from things we have in stock, no matter how long it’s been since I’ve been to the store. They’re generally easy to prepare. And most importantly, the family likes them.

If you don’t have a comfort food recipe collection, I’d highly recommend creating one. Grab a 3-ring binder, envelope, or manila folder and start putting the family favorite recipes in there. It doesn’t matter how you store them. Just put them in one place and they’ll be ready to go the next time you’re wondering what to make for dinner.

As an added bonus, make a copy of the recipes for your kids as they move out of the house. When they’re far away and lonely in their new digs, they can bring a little bit of home right into their kitchen. Now that’s comfort food!

Seriously, is there any better way to make it a great day in the kitchen?