Pasta with Prosciutto, Asparagus, and Carrots

I love pasta dishes where half the plate is veggies. This dish screamed "Spring" to me with asparagus, snap peas, and carrots. I loved the flavor of the quick sauce made from chicken stock, heavy cream, and Dijon mustard. As a bonus, it was super fast to make for a weeknight dinner.

LESSON LEARNED: To make this dish in even less time, prep the veggies the night before. That's what I did!

Recipe for Pasta with Prosciutto, Asparagus, and Carrots

Curry Beef Noodle Bowls

I never worked with curry before, so I was super excited to try this recipe. I thought the curry paste that I chose was really flavorful because I tasted spices first and the heat slowly built up. It wasn't too spicy, but you can add as much spice as you like. Who knows, if I keep using curries, I might start making my own blend!

Thin slices of steak are browned in curry and stir fried with onions, garlic, red pepper, scallions, and edamame. A quick sauce is created from fish sauce and chicken stock. After the sauce simmers for a few minutes, you toss in cooked whole-wheat noodles and you are ready to enjoy this Thai inspired stir fry!

LESSON LEARNED: Don't be afraid of using curry. It adds a lot of flavor to a dish with little effort.

Recipe for Curry Beef Noodle Bowls

Creamy Mac & Cheese

Put away the boxed mac and cheese! This mac and cheese is quickly assembled on the stove top and is incredibly flavorful with no artificial flavors. It's really as simple as boiling pasta and adding ingredients to a pot.

First, the pasta is boiled and drained (remembering to reserve a bit of the pasta cooking water in case you need to thin the sauce). The pasta is returned to the pot and you add minced onion/garlic. Next, stir in your favorite cheese with a little milk, butter, and yogurt. Yes, yogurt! It's the secret ingredient that makes this dish light and creamy. You stir until the cheese is melted and you are ready to serve. Really, there is no excuse to not try this mac and cheese!

LESSON LEARNED: Use your favorite cheese. I used cheddar and Parmesan.

Recipe for Creamy Mac & Cheese

Orzo with Tomato Vinaigrette

If you feel like you don't have enough time to spend in the kitchen, this is a perfect recipe for you. It's a simple tomato & basil sauce that provides a TON of flavor with little work.

You begin by charring cherry tomatoes in a skillet until they become brown and smokey. You then blend the tomatoes with fresh basil, a little honey, a bit of vinegar, and salt to taste. Finally, you mix it into cooked pasta and top with cheese. SUPER easy and SUPER yummy!

LESSON LEARNED: Use any type of pasta you have in the house. It will be equally delicious!

Recipe for Orzo with Tomato Vinaigrette

Sausage Ragu

Moving is exhausting! We moved about two weeks ago and from the week before until right now, there's been a million things to do everyday. I decided to make this pasta sauce for two main reasons: (1) it makes a ton of sauce so you can easily freeze it and pull it out for a quick meal and (2) the simmer time is long - about 3 hours - which was the perfect excuse to take a nap. Yes, this recipe takes a little time up front, but the payoff is huge.

Onions, fennel, celery, and garlic are browned in olive oil until they are deep & rich in color and almost burnt. Then tomato paste is added and browned to further enhance the flavor. Everything is then deglazed in red wine. Sweet (or spicy) Italian sausage is added to the pan and browned to add another layer of flavor. Finally, water is added and the whole pot simmers for about 3 hours. The result is a rich tomato sauce which has TONS of flavor. It's perfect with any type of pasta and would be AWESOME in a lasagna.

LESSON LEARNED: Don't be afraid to let the veggies brown - this step adds a ton of flavor.

Recipe for Sausage Ragu

Carbonara with Bacon

Carbonara is definitely not a new, inventive dish, but it's a new dish for me to make at home. I'm not the biggest fan of eggs, so I never order carbonara in a restaurant. I decided to make it at home figuring that I could always eat something else if I didn't like it. I was pleasantly surprised with the taste!

The flavors of this dish are a little deceiving if you don't know how it's made. Justin asked me if it had butter or cream in it because the sauce was creamy, buttery, and very smooth. The recipe has no butter or cream - just egg yolks tossed hot pasta along with a touch of pasta cooking water, a tiny bit of fat from the bacon drippings, and salty Parmesan cheese. I also mixed in some crispy bacon and topped the dish was freshly ground black pepper. It was DELICIOUS!

LESSON LEARNED: Reheat any leftovers of this pasta very gently. If you are not carefully, the eggs with conceal to create a scrambled egg sauce.

Recipe for Carbonara with Bacon

Cherry Tomato & Tortellini Soup

My husband is always willing to try a new tomato soup recipe. He was even more excited when I told him that this recipe has cheese tortellini in it!

I really like the technique of forming the tomato sauce base in this recipe. You begin by heating some oil in a large pot with a lid, add the cherry tomatoes, cover, and shake occasionally until the tomatoes pop open. It really reminds me of cooking popcorn! The sauce is further flavored with minced garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes. Then you add chicken (or vegetable) stock, bring to a boil, and cook the tortellini. I accidentally grabbed pasta that was shaped like little purses, so it really doesn't matter what shape you go with.

The flavor of the soup is very light and pleasantly tomato-y. I garnished the soup with sliced scallions, basil, and strips of Parmesan cheese. It was even better with hunks of homemade bread!

LESSON LEARNED: Adding a little spice really adds depth to the flavor in this simple soup.

Recipe for Cherry Tomato & Tortellini Soup

Citrus Noodle Stir-Fry

Looking for a quick weeknight meal? This noodle stir fry dish is sweet, spicy, and chock full of vegetables and chicken. I used red bell pepper, snow peas, edamame, and scallions, but you can change up the vegetables depending on what you are in the mood for or what's in season. The yummy sauce is a mixture of orange marmalade, chicken stock, soy sauce, and hot sauce. This meal was ready in under half and hour and gobbled up even faster in our house!

LESSON LEARNED: The recipe I used called for whole wheat noodles. Even though I'm usually not a fan of whole wheat pasta, I really liked the nuttiness and texture they added to the stir-fry.

Recipe for Citrus Noodle Stir-Fry

Mac & Cheese Soup

My husband LOVES mac and cheese. I think I could make just about any type of mac & cheese and he would happily eat it. We discovered this recipe in a food magazine last year and we've made it 4 or 5 times. This is a lot in our house because we try new recipes for almost every meal. I do a majority of the cooking, but he has made this by himself about half the times we've had it. That's how much he loves this recipe! Personally, I could take or leave mac & cheese, so he usually makes this when I don't feel like eating much for dinner.

The base of this recipe has much of the same components of a soup (sauteing onion, carrot, celery & adding chicken broth) and some components of a traditional mac & cheese recipe (milk, cheese, and macaroni). The soup isn't as dense as typical mac & cheese and it has a lighter, fresher flavor from the added vegetables. I would almost dare to say this is healthier since there is less pasta and milk compared to a traditional mac & cheese!

To add extra flavor, I chopped up some roasted tomatoes for my bowl.

LESSON LEARNED: As you make the soup, make sure you taste the soup for salt. It can go from being bland to overly salted pretty fast. One time when my husband was making this soup by himself, he asked for my opinion for flavoring and I was a little heavy-handed with the salt. Opps!

Recipe for Mac & Cheese Soup

Coconutty Chicken with Spinach & Pasta

When I first mentioned to my husband that I was making a coconutty chicken dish, he was not very excited. He absolutely hates coconut. It's one of the foods that he won't even try to eat, so consequently, I don't make very many sweet or savory dishes with coconut. So, needless to say, I wasn't expecting very great reviews of this dish. I was SHOCKED when my husband ate two helpings of this dinner!

I'm pretty sure that it was the sauce that made this dinner EXTRAORDINARY. I would describe it as a creamy, Asian inspired sauce. It contains coconut milk, cider vinegar, and soy sauce with garlic and an earthy flavor from bay leaves. The chicken is cooked in the sauce, then broiled to give crisp the skin. The sauce is tossed with spinach and served along side orzo pasta.

 LESSON LEARNED: A sauce can make a typical chicken dish taste special.

Recipe for Coconutty Chicken with Spinach & Pasta

Spinach Lasagna

Oh man! This is comfort food at it's best. This lasagna is super creamy and cheesy with layers of Parmesan bechamel sauce, pureed cottage cheese, and shredded Fontina cheese. Spinach, garlic, and shallots add to the flavors of rich lasagna.

This isn't a traditional lasagna with layers of meat and tomato sauce. My husband was skeptical at first when I said I was making lasagna sans tomato sauce. But, as I assembled the lasagna and the aroma of it baking filled the house, he quickly became a believer in the yummy-ness of this type of lasagna. The hardest part of the lasagna is waiting for it to cool after it bakes. You definitely need to let it set so you can cleanly cut a piece out of the pan. It WILL be a big mess if you don't wait - not that I know from experience or anything like that :)

LESSON LEARNED: Even though this lasagna isn't what you typically think of when you say lasagna (or as psychologists would say "your schema of lasagna"), it tastes wonderful!

Recipe for Spinach Lasagna

Orecchiette with Roasted Brussels Sprouts

A lot of people that I know don't like Brussels Sprouts. I think I'm on a one-women mission to slowly change their ideas about this under utilized vegetable. I've already converted my mom and husband!

Most people think of boiled Brussels Sprouts, but they have so much more potential. One of my favorite ways to prepare them is roasting. This is simply tossing them with olive oil, salt, and pepper and baking at a high heat until they are brown and crispy. The browner, the better. However, if they turn completely black, you've probably burnt them :)

This simple dish combines roasted Brussels Sprouts with a creamy pasta sauce. The sauce is flavored with garlic, scallions, and wine (or chicken/vegetable broth). I used little "ear shaped" pasta, but any short round pasta shape you have on hand would work.

LESSON LEARNED: Roasting Brussels Sprouts is simple, easy, and makes this vegetable taste delicious!

Recipe for Orecchiette with Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Chicken & Noodles

When the weather is cold, I feel like comfort food. One of my favorite comfort foods is chicken and noodles served over mashed potatoes. My family and I used to travel to Amish country in Indiana and one of the restaurants we always ate at featured chicken and noodles. This dish definitely reminds me of my trips to Amish country.

You begin by making homemade egg noodles. I love these noodles because they require very few ingredients and take just a few minutes of work. Even though I have a mixer with a dough hook I normally use for kneading, I prefer to knead these by hand. It's very therapeutic! After the dough is kneaded, it's rolled out thin, and cut into strips. You let the strips dry while you bring a pot of chicken stock to a boil. Next, you add the noodles, cooked chicken, and dried thyme. Everything is gently simmered for 15 minutes and you are ready to serve! I mashed up Yukon gold potatoes to serve with the chicken and noodles. YUM!

LESSON LEARNED: Homemade egg noodles are a snap to make!

Recipe for Chicken and Noodles

Homemade Tomato Sauce

In our household, tomato sauce is one of the staples I keep in the freezer (along with homemade chicken stock!). It makes for a super easy meal on days where I don't have a lot of time or motivation to cook an elaborate dinner. Over the last few years, my husband and I have tried A TON of different recipes and this is the one that we keep going back to time and time again.

Here's why this recipe works. First, you use canned whole tomatoes so you can easily make this year round. I splurge and get the imported Italian San Marzano tomatoes. These cans have D.O.P. serial numbers on each can and run about six dollars a can. I think they taste have a really rich tomato flavor and are slightly sweet. They are totally worth the extra money, but any canned whole tomato would work just fine. Second, the sauce is slightly spicy from red pepper flakes and is full of vegetables. The neat thing about this recipe is that you broil a mixture of carrots, celery, onions, and garlic until they are slightly charred - which gives them a ton of extra flavor. Third, this sauce freezes beautifully. The recipe makes enough for 2-3 batches of pasta, so you put the work in to make the sauce and can reap the benefits in the future.

LESSON LEARNED: Sauces that you can make ahead and freeze are time-savers.

Recipe for Homemade Tomato Sauce