From my #SundayDinner Table to Yours

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Let’s talk Sunday Dinners. Are they a staple in your home?

When I was very young and living here in MI, I remember going to my grandmother’s (father’s side) every Sunday for dinner. There would be a ton of people crammed in this little bitty house. All us kids had to be banned to the ‘back room.’ I don’t remember it being a lot of fun, but I do remember being there. As I got older and we moved away to OK, those Sunday dinners were our way of saying goodbye to that side of the family before we embarked on our 1500 mile journey home. While living in OK, my mom always made it a point to make sure we had dinner together and she was big on trying to make sure Sunday dinners were something special. My mother put love into everything she ate, even when we went through dirt-poor periods and were left to 99 cent boxed dinners. She always added her magical touch to make them better somehow.

Now that I have a little family of my own weekend meals are important since that’s the only time our family unit is complete. Since kiddo is only here 2 days, I try to make sure to use cooking time as teaching time and dinner time as open family discussion. My younger self Sunday traditions might spill into Saturday and Sunday for my older self, but that’s because I want to make sure kiddo has the best meals while she is here. It’s a lot of hard work cramming what normal people do with their kids 7 days a week into 2, but we do our best and pray she takes what she can from is each weekend.

We’re on that time of the month where my sponsor, Foodie.com and the Glam Network want me to write-up my sponsor post. When they mentioned it was going to be about Sunday Dinners I was excited. Of course I have dinner recipes to share! Of course I want to talk about how important family meals are!

Cause they are y’all. They just are.

Without further ado, here are my 12 Favorite Sunday Dinners. From My #SundayDinner Table to Yours. These are all my recipes 😉  In no particular order:

Gorgonzola Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese.  This is a personal favorite. Husband doesn’t like squash and even though you can barely taste it, there was still enough of a taste for him to not really be a fan. Kiddo loved it, but the Gorgonzola had to strong of a flavor for her little taste buds. So, if you have someone who is not a squash fan, this might not be a good fit. If the cheese is worrisome, you could always swap it out for a hard cheese that doesn’t have such a strong flavor.

Jasmine Chicken and Rice. Chicken and rice are a traditional stand by. My mother made it. Husbands mother made it. I get fancy sometimes by using Jasmine rice instead of regular white rice. I have made this once with brown rice and it just did not taste the same. I like brown rice so I am not sure why it doesn’t work. But, brown rice flavor did not fit well with me for my chicken and rice. So, every once in a while I splurge and enjoy some white rice. My husband begs me for this at least once a week. Honestly, I probably make it once or twice a month. It’s budget friendly for sure.

Apple and Sage Crockpot Spare Ribs. My crockpot and I are trying to be BFF. I work from home so I don’t have that dire need for a ready-meal when I come home from work. I do the whole crockpot meal process so I can appreciate that feeling of having a meal ready, especially since I tend to toss my stuff in the crockpot when I am making breakfast. This was a recipe I tried on day on a whim. Found some ribs on sale and wanted to try something different with them. Turned out really well. Made me wish I had purchased the other package and cooked more.

The Best Shepherd’s Pie.  Our new family favorite. My husband comes from a Irish/Scottish background and I come from an Irish. We’ve been trying over the years to make our family perfect pie. We’ve changed this recipe or that. I finally found one that is not only amazing to eat, it’s actually pretty beautiful.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. A frequent Sunday dinner at our house is Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. On Saturday I will roast a whole chicken. Whatever meat is leftover is pulled off the bones and used for the soup. The skin, bone, and parts we don’t like are boiled for chicken stock. Then we make noodles from scratch. It really is an amazing weekend when we make this meal. Kiddo learned to take a cheap chicken and turn it into something wonderful and amazing by using all the parts for more than one meal.

Skinny Potato Leek Soup. I never knew my family would be so interested in Potato Leek Soup. If I did, I would have tested it out on them sooner. This might very well be their new favorite soup. It’s another one that can be budget friendly. Where I live we can get a bundle of three leeks for about $3. We can make them last longer by keeping the end in a cup of water. The first time I made this soup they ate the entire pot and I had to make another batch. It’s pretty awesome for a quick meal. I liked it so much I had to make a low carb version so I was not so overloaded with potatoes.

Guinness Beef Stew. Remember, the alcohol cooks out. Guinness is a great compliment to beef as it will deeply enhance the flavor. This stew is dumped over scallion mashed potatoes for a wonderful comfort dinner.

Mushroom & Egg Ramen Noodle Soup. This soup is my most favorite thing ever. I wasn’t thrilled that I used packaged ramen instead of getting the better stuff at the Asian mart. But, its only 10 cents a package and you can leave out the season packet. So, husband and I tried this after I saw that yummy egg in Cooking Light magazine. Why it works? Because family members can pick their own toppings from the Ramen Bar.

Guinness Grilled Steak and Shrimp. You can never go wrong with steak, shrimp, and Guinness. Add a side salad , some vegetables and some rice.

Ranch Roast. With Easter right around the corner this is a perfect recipe for a switch from ham. We  made this for a pre-Christmas dinner and it turned out amazing. We’ve made it quite a few times since then. What I like about this is that it can be cooked in the crockpot so you can purchase the cheaper cuts of roast meat and they’ll still turn out with that moist fall-off-the-bone feeling. For this recipe I slow cooked it in the oven.

Homemade Bean and Bacon Soup. I love the process of taking dry beans and making soup out of them. It’s one of my favorite things. Ham and Bean soup is also one of my favorite soups so it makes me feel good knowing I can feed my family something healthy on Sunday. I also make a mean ham and bean soup.

French Onion Roast with Gravy. This is much like the Ranch Roast but with different seasonings and we use the juice to make gravy for the mashed potatoes. Perfect Sunday dinner. This recipe is slow cooked in the crockpot.

There is my Sunday Dinner round-up. I truly hope you’ve added  at least one of them to you ‘to-make’ file!

 Which one made the top of your ‘to-try’ list?

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