Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

We live within an hour of Nashville and we try to make the best of every opportunity to visit tasty eateries in the city when we go. That said, there are some rather good Mexican groceries that have little eateries within that are better than the "local" Mexican food. There are a few "taco huts" that make living here pretty doable. Mostly, I've learned to make-do with what is available and make my own Thai, Mexican, etc. We moved here from a literal border town and seriously miss 6 tacos for 2 dollars and borracho beans. Good luck to you~

My kids ask for chicken and dumplings almost every time I ask them what they might like for dinner. I make them at least once a month during colder months. My tips are to first have a very flavorful broth, have the broth at a high simmer/almost boil for the entire time you are cooking the dumplings, stirring often. I used to use Bisquick's product and method, but I was out of Bisquick once and made my own homemade biscuit mix using a recipe from HillBilly Housewife for biscuit mix. I use my own broth as the liquid in the dumplings, roll them to about 1/4-inch thickness, cut with a pizza cutter and drop into near boiling broth. The baking soda/powder make them lighter than most that I have had and not being little globs, they have a great texture. HTH

My kids are allowed to use a microwave during lunches so leftovers are a big part. Oldest dd usually takes a wrap or sandwich with a yogurt and some fruit. She drinks water at school. Younger dd likes pasta and my little guy gets chicken, macaroni and cheese or pasta. He takes a frozen Stonyfield yogurt stick most days as well. Fresh fruit or applesauce and a thermos with milk round it out.

We used to go to der Weinerschnitzel after a night out. My favorite meal to ward off a hangover was a hamburger (no cheese) with saurkraut on it and an order of chili-cheese fries with diced onion and jalepenos. It's a wonder I was so slender during college.

When my dh's grandmother died, there were many small children in attendance and the funeral was early in the day. One of the best things I remember being sent was a large platter of homemade mini-muffins along with a nice spread of fresh fruits. Though my grandmother-in-law was an older woman, her death was sudden and we had to travel a long way in a short time. The breakfast foods were so nice as it gave our little ones something to eat before the service and it kept well. There were also paper goods that made cleanup easy on the family.
Funeral food isn't always just for the immediate family. Often the family has a houseful of unexpected guests and the food is extremely helpful in allowing the family to mourn and not have to worry with hosting duties.

Fresh produce grown in Mexico skeeves me to no end. We lived on the Texas/Mexico border and I know what they did to the river. They water their crops with that water and sell them to US grocery distributors. E. coli anyone?

I take this one to the hospital (I work there) everytime we have a potluck of late night snacks. There is never any left.

Friona Cheeseball

2-8oz pkg cream cheese
1 envelope dry Ranch dressing mix
1 cup chopped chicken (canned white meat is good)
Toasted Chopped Pecans
Dry Parsley

Mix cream cheese, Ranch dressing mix and chicken. Place in plastic wrap and chill until moldable. Roll into a ball or flattened disc, then cover completely with an equal mixture of pecans and parsley. Serve with toasted baguette rounds.

I do have a large family of big eaters, so prices have affected us. I won't give up buying milk at Publix (with no antibiotics/hormones) but I do buy a lot less fish and meat. Instead, I look for the best buy for our dollar. I bought 30 pounds of sirloin yesterday because it was on sale for $1.87/lb. for a whole sirloin tip. The butcher ground half of it and the rest was sliced into steaks. That was a big expenditure on the front end, but will keep up in lean beef for the summer! I think we will continue to work on doing more with less.