Hi, Nice to meet you!

Welcome to Real Life Dinner!

I started this blog 2 years ago as a place to share fabulous family friendly recipes. My love for cooking and eating has always been my biggest motivator in life and sharing recipes with others makes me happy happy happy!

When my husband and I were first married we were both attending University and doing our best to steer clear of student loans. We lived in a tiny 400 square foot basement apartment that we paid $195 a month for and had an $80.00 a month food budget. We loved having people over for dinner and didn’t let our small food budget stop us. Using coupons had never occurred to me, so needless to say, I had to get very creative. I learned to utilize seasonal ingredients, cook from scratch and became an expert at creating healthy meals with the most affordable ingredients possible.

I continue to incorporate these skills in my recipe development and cook this way for my family of six. We now spend between $400.00 and $450.00 a month on groceries. And we still love to have people over for dinner.

Family

My kids are my biggest fans and biggest critics. I know they love something when they say, “Put it on the blog Mom!”

Conner is our oldest and somehow managed to be born without a sweet tooth. That boy can actually turn down a candy bar or a treat…blows my mind. His very favorite meal I make is Chicken Chimichangas. Ramen Noodles are a close second. (for shame)

Thatcher, #2, is his mothers child and loves food. He’s just like me and has to have a bite of everything. The whole, no sharing food at school during lunch rule, was probably made just for him. I can just picture him begging everyone for a taste of whatever is in their lunch box. His favorite meal I make is Hawaiian Haystacks. He also really loves Berry and Peach Crisp.

Charlotte, the lone girl in a sea of boys, is a frozen-pea addict. She’d eat an entire bag every day if I let her. She recently saw the video posted this page and when she saw the part with me dumping frozen peas into the rice cooker, she said, “Mmmm, I love those. Can I have some?” Crazy girl! Her favorite meal I make is definitely Amazing Spaghetti Sauce over any kind of noodle. Her runner-up meal would probably be Quesadillas dipped in Homemade Re-fried beans.

Trever, Trever, Trever, the baby of the family is my pickiest kid to date. Not sure what I’m going to do with him. He’s starting to at least try things but has no reservation about promptly throwing it on the floor if it’s not up to his standard. However, he does love this Oven Baked Spanish Rice and last time I made Shredded Pork he ate it like it was the best thing he’d ever had. He would live on graham crackers and Mini Frosted Shredded Wheats soaked in milk, if we would let him.

Sim, like any good husband, will eat whatever I put in front of him. Never complains…even though there have been some total flops over the years. He also supports my love of cooking by doing an unnerving amount of dishes on a pretty regular basis. He’s a keeper. I try to reward him by making his two favorite meals, Pork Adobo, and Sloppy Joes as often as possible.

Thursday Nights

The main purpose of this blog is to share delicious recipes with you but the other reason I started this blog was to be a Real Life Advocate. (Look at that I’m giving myself a title.) Being a tired, busy mom is tough and sometimes, if you’re like me, you have moments where you think everyone has it more together then you do. Their kids are better behaved, their marriage is better, their house is cleaner, their teeth are whiter, they’re more involved at their kids school ect. ect. ect.

Every Thursday night I blog about our dinner and our day. A little snapshot of our “Real Life.” Hopefully seeing that some Thursdays are good, some Thursdays are bad and some Thursdays are down right ugly, will help us cut ourselves some slack and realize there is no such thing as normal and it’s okay if every part of our life isn’t Pinterest worthy.

(You may have noticed I took a few months off from the Thursday Night posts. I got a little worried about sharing too much of our personal life on the internet…there are some scary people out there.)

If you have questions about any of the sections on our blog, click the Start Here Page to learn more.

You can also contact me with any questions or concerns at reallifedinner@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you, but be warned, any spammers will be flogged with dirty diapers.

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