Dinnertime … depending on the day, I either love it or hate it. While hate may be too strong a word, I can’t deny that there are definitely days when I don’t love dinnertime. I generally enjoy cooking tasty (and hopefully healthy) meals for my family, but on some days the prospect of pulling together a meal that my kids may or may not eat doesn’t sound very appealing.

Having a meal plan in place definitely helps dinnertime go more smoothly — check out the meal planning chapter in “Happy Homemaking” for more tips — but one trick that makes it easier to throw together last-minute meals is to have a handful of favorite and versatile ingredients on hand. If you snoop through my fridge, here are four ingredients you’ll likely find:

Plain yogurt. I keep a 32-ounce container of plain, unflavored yogurt in my fridge at all times. (We usually have other types of yogurt on-hand, too). Some of my favorite recipes, such as the Chicken Curry in a Hurry recipe in our book, call for plain yogurt. I love to pair it with granola for a simple breakfast, use it in place of sour cream and toss it in smoothies.

Lemon. I love anything lemon flavored, so I always keep a few lemons on hand. I use them in sweet (like lemon bars) and savory (like Beach Street Chicken Linguine ) applications all the time. Lemons are a great addition to homemade salad dressings, and even a drizzle of lemon juice on greens works in a pinch. You can also use lemons as a disinfectant — for more on that read the cleaning chapter in our book.

Avocado. Avocados are a source of healthy fat and a great way to add interest to a meal. Use it to make guacamole or corn salsa . Plain avocado is great on it’s own, too — I like to schmear it on sandwiches and paninis or dice it into omlettes or salads. Yum.

Pesto. Pesto is another ingredient that takes an ordinary recipe and makes it something special. I frequently use it on bruschetta, toss it with pasta (kids love it with tortellini) or use it inside stromboli. In the summer, it’s a cinch to make from scratch and readily available at grocery stores year-round.

One of the few dishes I remember my dad preparing for me as a child was ramen noodles spiced up with curry powder. At the time, I liked ramen noodles (don’t all children?) but the addition of curry was not a welcome surprise. I recall being totally disgusted by the creation, and I wondered why my dad liked curry and other strange things like peppers and hot sauce.

Fast-forward twentysome years. I now hate ramen noodles but love anything curry. (For the record, I love peppers and hot sauce, too). I add curry to so many dishes that my kids refer to it as “that spice that turns everything yellow.”

Fall is the perfect time to prepare curries and use curry powder. We included my favorite Chicken Curry in a Hurry recipe in our book . Here are two more of my favorite curry-infused meals:

 Carrot and Squash Curry Soup

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 large yellow or white onion, diced

3 whole carrots, sliced thin

4 whole yellow squash, sliced thin (can use 2 yellow, 2 green)

1/2 to 1 tablespoon curry powder

48 ounces chicken or vegetable broth

Directions

Heat olive oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add garlic and onions and stir to coat. Add carrots and cook for a few minutes until soft. Sprinkle with small amount of kosher salt. Add squash. Stir and cook until squash is soft and tender. After a few minutes, add salt to taste and curry powder. Add in chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for one hour. After one hour, taste and adjust seasonings. Turn off heat. Puree soup using an immersion blender or in batches in a regular blender. Return to soup pot and bring to a simmer.

–Recipe adapted slightly from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, the pioneerwoman.com

Thai Peanut Wraps

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups white or brown rice, cooked

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

Red curry paste or curry powder (for seasoning chicken)

1 small red cabbage, shredded thin

1 bunch cilantro, stems removed

2 stalks green onions, diced

8-10 flour tortillas

Peanut Sauce:

1 can light coconut milk

3/4 cups natural peanut butter

1/3 cups soy sauce

1/2 cups brown sugar

1 teaspoon ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon curry powder or curry paste

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper (depending on spice)

Directions

Cook rice and set aside. While rice is cooking, heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. When chicken is cooked, season with the curry paste/powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. To make sauce, combine peanut butter, coconut milk, sugar, and spices in a saucepan and simmer until thick.  If sauce is too thick, you can add a little water until it is the consistency you would like. You can adjust the sauce spice to have either more spice or more sweetness by adding more sugar or red pepper flakes.

To assemble wraps, place approximately 1/4 cup rice, 1/4 cup cooked chicken, green onions, cilantro and a handful of red cabbage in each tortilla. Drizzle with peanut sauce or serve sauce in individual ramekins for dipping.

-Recipe adapted slightly from Deals to Meals, www.dealstomeals.blogspot.com

My mom is the consummate homemaker and somewhat of a “from-scratch” snob. And I mean that in the best way. Growing up, I don’t remember her ever buying boxed baking mixes — cakes, brownies, cookies and the like are always made from scratch at her house.

I generally follow in her footsteps, because I think baked goods made from scratch taste better and are only slightly more time consuming than using a boxed mix.

This no-fail recipe for brownies is easy and gets rave reviews every time. The brownies aren’t too cake-y or fudge-y, and has a nice chocolate taste without being too rich. Enjoy!

Mom’s Brownies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

3 tablespoons cocoa

3/4 cup flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 8-by-8 inch baking pan. Melt butter and combine with sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, beating well. Add cocoa and flour, beating until well incorporated. Pour into prepared baking dish and bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the middle of the dish comes out clean. (If doubling the recipe, bake for 35 minutes).

Summer meal planning is tricky — at least in my opinion. I tire quickly of typical BBQ fare but can’t get excited about turning on the oven, either. I also crave lighter dishes and the fresher food tastes, the better.

This is a recipe that I make all the time but is especially great in the summertime. The marinade gives the dish so much flavor without requiring much time. I’ve shared it with many friends and neighbors who have loved it, too. In fact, I like this recipe so much that we included it in the cooking chapter of our soon-to-be-released book, “Happy Homemaking: An LDS Girl’s Guide.”

I found this recipe a few years ago on the Deals to Meals blog. And I’ve made it at least once a month since then. (Fun fact: Shandra Madsen, owner of Deals to Meals, was one of the expert sources interviewed for the food storage chapter in our book.)

Enjoy!

Beach Street Lemon Chicken Linguini
1 pound linguini
2 tablespoon olive oil
Zest from one lemon
Juice from one lemon
½ cup chopped green onion
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Marinade:
½ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, whole
2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 chicken breasts, sliced (you could add one or two more breasts for a meatier entree)

Combine the marinade ingredients in a Ziploc bag. Slice thawed chicken. Pat dry and toss in marinade to coat. Refrigerate 1-12 hours. Cook marinated chicken with the marinade sauce in a large saute pan on medium heat until chicken is cooked.

Cook linguini in boiling salted water until done. Drain well and rinse noodles. Combine juice of one lemon, zest, olive oil, green onions and fresh parsley together in large bowl. Add hot pasta into bowl and toss well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add chicken with marinade into the large pasta bowl. Toss in parmesan cheese to taste and serve warm.

– Recipe from DealstoMeals.blogspot.com

I love the tart flavors of lemon and lime, and this recipe for Citrus Bars marries both for a tasty end result. This is a great summer dessert, perfect for making ahead of time and toting to a BBQ, potluck or party. The recipe utilizes two of my favorite and most well-used kitchen tools: a microplane rasp grater and juicer .  It’s also very adaptable; use more lemons or more limes depending on what flavor you prefer (or, if you’re like me, what you have on hand). Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the crust:

1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

For the filling:

6 large eggs at room temperature

3 cups granulate sugar

2 tablespoons grated lemon and lime zest

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice

1 cup flour

Directions