Thought Provoking Thursday

I've mentioned this before, but the truth still remains the truth, I am a MUCH better cook since I began clipping coupons.

My parents are both very skilled in the kitchen (and on a BBQ), and I can only remember once during my growing up years, where dinner was inedible (red cabbage soup + kids = disaster!!!) and we went to McDonalds instead, but this memory still haunts me! I cringe at the thought of one of MY dinners be so bad that a greasy spoon would be a far better alternative!

Slowly and steadily, over the years, I have added to my 'tried and true' (AKA: cannot possibly fail) recipe collection. I have go-to recipes for parties, perfect recipes for a dinner party, excellent last minute dinner recipes, great snack recipes... classics, if you will, and boy do I have friends and family fooled into thinking that I am a wonderful cook... wink!

Some of the best places to start accruing easy and inexpensive recipes, are by looking on the packages of items that you've purchased (shredded cheese package recipes usually look yummy), magazines are often chock full of quick dinner ideas, and even the coupon section of the Sunday paper typically features a recipe or two per week!

I used to think that companies that featured recipes beside their products were just trying to push their products (yep, they are obviously doing that too), but I've come to appreciate that this pushy form of advertising actually places fresh meal ideas at my fingertips!

Companies must truly believe that a recipe will be delicious every single time that it is prepared to risk promoting the use of their beloved product inside a given recipe! Have you noticed the famous Campbell's Green Bean casserole recipe splashed on the page beside the Campbell's coupons around the holidays? Have you ever tasted a bad Green Bean casserole?

So when I'm feeling at a loss of "what's for dinner Mom?" or stuck in the 'same old/same old' dinner rut, I can pull out my stash of little clipped recipes (yep, I LOVE little clipped pieces of paper... double wink!) and find something that's new, easy and almost guaranteed to be tasty!

Do YOU ever try magazine/newspaper recipes? Have a tried and true 'family favorite' recipe to share?

PS: I have to thank my friend Paula, the blog author of Monroe on a Budget! Yesterday, Paula posted that her dinner would include corn bread and I asked for the recipe. Paula shared 'her' recipe, which was straight off the back of her package!