Pasta

Need a light, but VERY flavorful new pasta dish to make on a week night? This is the recipe! Puttanesca is a sauce that is made of garlic, anchovies, tomatoes, olives, capers…. it is delicious and SO easy to throw together. It can be on the table in 30 min flat! I like to add shrimp, but you can add chicken or salmon or no protein and just enjoy the pasta.

I like to use a hearty thick pasta like bucatini, but any pasta that you have on hand will work. Do not run to the grocery store for pasta! And if you don’t already have olives, capers and anchovies in your pantry you need to have these items in stock. They last forever and they are always good to have on hand for a quick meal.

There are obviously many versions of puttanesca since it is such an old “recipe”. I like my sauce on the […]

Yes, Thanksgiving is right around the corner and all I am seeing is Thanksgiving recipes and I promise I have some great ones coming, but until then we still need to feed our families and they don’t want turkey.  So, this is a great quick, easy, hearty dinner to put on the table during this crazy season.  By the way, how the hell did we get to November?  The middle of November no less! I am trying to wrap my head around all that I need to do in the next 6 weeks and it just makes me want to pour a glass of wine and get into a hot bath and go into denial mode!

But, since Mom and Dad don’t get to rest here is a great recipe the whole family will love.  It is just an easy version of lasagna-I’m sure you picked that up in the title, but just in case… Serve this with a side salad and dinner is DONE!

One thing to make this even easier or quicker, I should […]

When we think of Fall we think of pumpkins! Yes, I have not ONE pumpkin on my porch. I have just not had time to go get any, but I have made a pumpkin dish-does that count??? It has just been a really busy fall and I honestly cannot tell you what I have been doing that has been keeping me so busy, but I have been falling into bed every night exhausted. So, I can promise you I have had very little time and energy to make fabulous, elaborate dinners. This Baked Pumpkin Rigatoni with Italian Sausage is super easy and your family will love it.  I made this for my crew and did not tell them what it was because I was afraid that if I said it was pumpkin they would turn their noses up, so I just said it was pasta with sausage.  After my son went back for seconds (maybe he was hungry because I starved him with no after school snack, lol) I told him what […]

Ok I am not going to try and spin this recipe into something healthy because its not! It is not healthy AT ALL, but it is delicious and sometimes we just need delicious to the damn family will eat it! And I promise your family will love this.  I did another test run last night with this Chicken Cordon Bleu Lasagna with 7 teenage boys and my husband and they all loved it and asked for seconds. That is a win in my book!

Now, like I said this is rich and filling so I serve a big side salad with a very vinegary dressing. I did try to cut the calories as much as I could by using 2% milk and 1/3 fat cream cheese, but lets face it its still not a kale salad, but oh well every now and then we just want delicious!

This recipe is not hard or complicated but it does take a little bit of time so just know going in that it is not going to be on the table in […]

I still can’t figure out why the first of the school year is so crazy busy.  Its not as if I haven’t done this for years and years and years, but every year I feel like I am running around with my hair on fire in Sept trying to get my to-do list done before my employers get home from school. Because once they get home the real work starts with driving all over town, appointments to get to, yelling, cooking dinner, yelling, helping with homework, yelling, bedtime… so what I need is EASY dinners to get on the table in a short amount of time. And I need to be able to make dinner and still drink my glass of wine so it better be simple.  This recipe for One Pot Creamy Pasta with Italian Sausage is just that-SIMPLE. Serve this with a side salad and some fresh bread and dinner is served! And the best part is you only use ONE POT so clean up is quick.

Use a large deep pot with a lid for […]

Trying to find healthful dishes that don’t compromise the taste is almost impossible.  It is very hard to convince a teenage boy to eat quinoa because it is healthy.  All they care about is, how does it taste?? And, being a self proclaimed foodie myself it is hard to convince me to substitute spaghetti squash for the real thing.  I like spaghetti squash and I think it is a fine side dish, but you cannot put turkey meatballs and pasta sauce on squash and expect me to think it is real Italian pasta.  It just doesn’t work.  I would rather have a small portion of real pasta than a tub full for “fake” spaghetti.

If it is 4:30 in the afternoon and you just popped on my site to get an idea for dinner this is the perfect recipe for a last minute dinner.  Ravioli Lasagna is the lazyman’s lasagna, but no one will ever know.  In between activity drop offs, run into the grocery store and grab a couple ingredients and pull off a meal that looks like it took a lot of planning. 

Last week was a really busy week and we ate out several times.  It was easy for me to not have to cook, but my kids kept asking me for a dinner at home.  I know, so strange! My kids do not like to go out to eat. So, in a desperate mad rush to come up with something to feed them I made Chow Mein.  If I had planned I would have had chicken to put in the chow mein, but I did not and the kids got a vegetarian dinner.  And…they loved it.  There is just something about Chinese food and kids.  They like the salty, umami flavors.  

So, we finally got some Fall weather and I could not be more excited!  First, you don’t sweat through your clothes by 10am.  Second, all those beautiful fall dishes you are seeing in magazines and on Pinterest you actually feel like making now because it feels like pumpkin season.  And third, most importantly, you get to wear bulkier clothes to cover up all those areas that don’t look like they did when you were 25. Frankly, I think the third reason is the reason I look so forward to fall/winter:) 

Sometimes I am feeling organized, it is rare, but it does happen just like a blue moon.  And, when I am feeling organized I will cook a couple things at a time.  One thing that saves well in the fridge is Stuffed Shells. So, if I am making dinner and I have a bit more time I will throw this dish together and pop it in the fridge and that is dinner later in the week.

Trying to find recipes that are easy, healthy and taste like comfort food is hard. I love to cook, but dinner comes at the worst time of the day.  At 6pm the house is crazy and some sort of s*%t is hitting the fan and it is hard to start cooking. It is so much easier to just order take out, but ironically sitting down to a homemade dinner calms the beasts down.  

So, tonight was one of those nights where everyone was going in a million directions and my husband was headed to the airport.  I had about 5 minutes to make dinner.  I knew we were not going to be able to sit down tonight as a family and this recipe is perfect to just wait on the stove until someone is ready to eat.

Well it’s Monday and I am exhausted from the weekend. I don’t know about you, but I look forward to the weekdays when the kids are in school and I don’t have to drive hours to cheer on someone for some game. Don’t get me wrong I do love watching my boys, but we have 6 teams between the 3 boys and our weekends are ALL games.  I know, I know one day I will miss these days, but right now I am tired and I have lost my voice from screaming their names and talking with my friends. I promise I am watching the games, but while I am there I might as well catch up with my friends, right?