Where you are always allowed to play with your food!
Here are a few meals I have made over the last few days. Hope they inspire you to cook at home!
Here are a couple dinners we have had this week that my family loves! Happy cooking!
Traditional Meatloaf
I have made versions of this meal before. It is a super easy throw together dish that is always a hit. I cooked the pasta in super salty water for about 6 minutes or so. It is going to cook more in the oven, so you don’t want it to get mushy. I browned the frozen meatballs in a bit of olive oil, then covered them with some jarred sauce. Then I added the pasta to the sauce and meatballs. I covered it with mozzarella cheese and baked until the cheese melted and had some pretty brown bubbly spots, about 30 minutes. I wasn’t able to get a picture before Rebecca dug in 😉 The 4 of us devoured the entire dish!
I opened the fridge and realized I only had eggs, cheese, fruit, and beer. I could survive if it was just me, but alas, I have to feed my family 😉 I went to the store to get some staples for a few days this week.
Decided to make this pasta mash up. Took two easy quick pastas and added fresh ingredients plus a pre-made sauce. Never feel bad for using what is already created in the grocery store for you. While I love cooking, that doesn’t mean I have to cook everything homemade all the time!
Chopped up the onion and rough chopped the mushrooms. Cooked them down in two tablespoons of both oil and butter, about 10 minutes. 4 tablespoons of fat. You could even add bacon fat and add bacon to this, but that is not the direction I went. You can play with any recipe once you see how to work the ingredients. Then add the spinach to wilt. Add salt and pepper to taste.
While the veggies were cooking, I added the pasta to a boiling pot of salted water. Then added the sauce to the veggies; combined and heated. Added the pasta to the sauced veggies plus a tablespoon of Parmesan and mixed well. Once plated, topped with more Parmesan.
So I am on a roll in the kitchen cooking up a storm and loving it! I think I just needed a break for a bit to realize how much I missed it.
Tonight I did not have carpool duty, so I decided early on to make a pasta bake for dinner. I wasn’t sure what meat I was going to use, but I knew it couldn’t be “fake meat” because my husband does not care of it. When I got to the grocery store, I saw that meatballs were on sale, so I decided to make a meatball pasta dish. I settled on Cavatappi, which is the pasta shaped like corkscrews.
It was super easy to throw together. I cooked the pasta 2 minutes less than the package said, while I cooked the frozen meatballs in the jarred sauce. Then I added the pasta to the sauce and meatballs.
I covered the entire dish with mozzarella cheese and baked until the cheese melted and had some pretty brown bubbly spots, about 30 minutes.
I also made these delicious Mozzarella Bruchetta…
I grated a clove of garlic in a heaping tablespoon of butter to make garlic butter. Then I sliced an Italian loaf of bread in medium sized pieces and slathered on the butter and topped with a slice of fresh mozzarella. I put that in the oven on the second rack halfway through the pasta baking. It about 10 minutes to melt the cheese and toast the bread. Keep an eye on them. You don’t want to smoke out your kitchen!
I chopped up 2 tomatoes, some fresh basil, and mixed it with a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of balsamic glaze with a bit of salt and pepper. Topped the cheese toast with the tomato mixture and topped with more balsamic drizzle and basil. I honestly ate 4 pieces and really wasn’t hungry for the pasta, even though I still had a few bites. I could eat this everyday forever and ever…
Fun Foodie Family 