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pasta

Sausage and Spinach Stuffed Shells

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Date: 4/26/2012

Recipe: http://annies-eats.com/2009/02/27/sausage-and-spinach-stuffed-shells/

Modifications: I got diced tomatoes for the “chopped tomatoes” called for in the recipe – I’m not sure if there is a different thing actually called chopped tomatoes, but if there is, I couldn’t find it. I only made 2 8×8 pans, and for my preference, there wasn’t NEARLY enough sauce. I added a large can of crushed tomatoes to the top – a 28oz can split pretty evenly between both pans.

Time to table: 1 hour prep, ~1 hour baking time

Servings: Three 8×8 pans (but I got only 2 + some extra)

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Like

Notes: This made a little more than 2 8×8 pans for me – but the remaining weren’t quite enough for another pan. I used my small pampered chef cookie scoop to stuff  the shells – about 2 scoops per shell. I froze the 2nd 8×8 pan prior to the baking step. This is very similar to the other stuffed shells recipe we tried, but I liked this one better, especially since I knew to add a lot more sauce. The filling was especially rich and delicious, probably due to using sausage versus turkey.

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Pasta carbonara

Pasta Carbonara

Date: 4/13/2012

Recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/09/cooking-with-ryan-pasta-carbonara/

Modifications: None

Time to table: 40 minutes

Servings: 6 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Notes: Erin and I made this for a “stay at home” date night, where we put both kids to bed and then made ourselves dinner. It was a lot of fun to be able to just focus on cooking food and eating it without the usual distractions. We’ve made this dish before, and it was just as delicious and unhealthy as I remembered it :) It made a ridiculous amount and we ate it for several lunches in the next few days.

Pasta Carbonara

Pasta Carbonara

Chili Macaroni and Cheese

Chili Mac n Cheese

Date: 4/18/2012

Recipe: http://weelicious.com/2011/02/02/four-bean-chili-mac-cheese/

Modifications: I added a lot of sour cream since I was using 2% milk and because sour cream is delicious, and I think I used too much pasta so I added more chili and cheese to compensate.

Time to table: 20 minutes

Servings: 5 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: Again, this was so easy – I LOVE the concept of using leftovers to make a slightly different meal. We will definitely be trying this more! We all loved this meal in both forms – Annie probably enjoyed it a bit more here – mostly she just picked out each noodle though :)

Annie eating the noodles

Annie eating the noodles

Chicken Spaghetti

Chicken Spaghetti

Date: 3/26/2012

Recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/chicken_spaghet/

Modifications: We used an entire chopped red pepper and a whole onion too. This was split into 2 portions, each in a 8×8 pan.

Time to table: 1 hour prep (including cooking chicken and shredding it), 30+ minutes baking (it’s closer to an hour if baking from frozen)

Servings: 4 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: This is one of our freezer meals – I’ve blogged about it on my other blog several times but it’s never been featured here. It’s a big hit around our house. I think it would be good with different veggies in it too – maybe some chopped broccoli instead of the pepper.

Annie's chicken spaghetti
“Now picture of Annie’s food, too”

Baked ziti

Baked Ziti

Baked Ziti

Date: 2/17/2012

Recipe: http://annies-eats.com/2009/07/02/baked-ziti/

Modifications: None

Time to table: 45 minutes prep, 75 minutes to bake

Servings: 8-10 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Love (the 2nd time with no distractions)

Notes: This dish fills a 13×9 pan completely and makes a massive amount of food.We had our friends over on Friday to eat this and we barely had half of the pan for four adults and two toddlers. We gave them a meals worth of leftovers and we have ourselves a meals worth of leftovers still, very good bang for the buck

I made this the night before and refrigerated it. Even after 75 minutes this still wasn’t hot in the middle, but it was certainly warm enough to eat. We THINK Annie liked this, but she was so wired from having guests over that she barely ate anything.

Baked Ziti

Smokey Mac and Cheese with Squash and Spinach

Smokey Mac & Cheese with squash and spinach

Date: 2/6/2012

Recipe: http://www.acouplecooks.com/2012/01/smoky-mac-and-cheese-with-squash-and-spinach/

Modifications: I ended up having a ton of gouda, so did not add any additional cheddar. This probably just made it even better, and certainly helped the “smokiness”.

Time to table: 30 minutes

Servings: 4 adults

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: We all enjoyed this – as Sonja indicates in the recipe, by far the hardest part is peeling and chopping the squash (so it’s not that hard really :) – but if you do that in advance, this all comes together pretty quickly! This is very similar to this recipe - I enjoyed both, but it is nice to skip the roasting squash and baking step if you’re pressed for time!

Annie with her mac & Cheese

Annie has wised up to my dinner photo routine – now instead of just continuing to eat while I take photos of her, she helpfully holds out her bowl as well, so I can take a pic of it like I took one of my own :)

Stuffed shells

Stuffed Shells

Date: 12/12/2011

Recipe: http://weelicious.com/2009/11/02/baked-shells/

Modifications: We added a large handful of spinach, chopped up, to the shell filling.

Time to table: 90 minutes

Servings: 8 adult servings

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: The prep time is about an hour for this, but the nice thing is that you can make them the night before and just bake them the next day. We had Erin’s family over for dinner and it served all six of us plus Annie and we had enough leftover for Erin and Annie to get another dinner out of it, so it’s certainly a good dish for a crew. We should have used more sauce on top as they were a little dry. This will make a great freezer meal in preparation for baby #2 due in February.

Family dinner

Pasta with turkey pesto meatballs

Turkey Pesto Meatballs and Tomato sauce

Date: 12/5/2011

Recipe: Meatballs: http://weelicious.com/2010/06/01/turkey-pesto-meatballs/

Tomato Sauce: http://weelicious.com/2009/10/06/weelicious-tomato-sauce/

Time to table: 30 minutes prep, 25 minutes bake time

Modifications: Not many – I think we probably used nearly double the pesto because that’s what we had frozen, and it still worked out fine.

Servings: 35 little meatballs – we baked half with all the tomato sauce, and froze the other half and half the meatballs served our family of 3 perfectly.

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: This was very easy, especially with frozen pesto. The tomato sauce also came together quickly, making this a great weeknight meal. I always love recipes that we can get 2 full meals out of – we froze the meatballs as she indicates in the post, prior to baking so that’ll be an easy one to just pull out and have with more tomato sauce. We served this over spaghetti.

Tomato Sauce

Turkey Pesto Meatballs and Tomato sauce

Crockpot lasagna

Crockpot Veggie Lasagna
Date: 12/1/2011

Recipe: http://weelicious.com/2011/09/14/crock-pot-veggie-lasagna/

Time to table: 30 minutes prep, 4 hours cook time

Modifications: We used a head of cauliflower and a handful of spinach for our veggies.

Servings: 6 adult meals

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: I actually liked this more than I thought I would, especially with some sriracha :) There were enough leftovers to skip lunch and just have it for another full dinner, which is always nice.

Crockpot Veggie Lasagna

Crockpot Veggie Lasagna

Mexican vermicelli

Mexican Spaghetti

Date: September 6th, 2011

Recipe: http://weelicious.com/2011/06/06/mexican-vermicelli/

Modifications:  I swapped the chicken for sweet potatoes, and used more than 2 cups, maybe closer to 3. I also added some garlic, cause why not?

Servings: 2 adult dinners, 1 toddler dinner, 4 adult lunches

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Love

Notes: This was a great recipe, and we got to use our recently made salsa! Annie absolutely loved this dish; it’s always so relieving to see her eat something you’ve made that’s actually healthy. If I make this again I would use even more sweet potatoes as it still seemed kind of pasta heavy. I also considered adding some spinach to it, which would have been a good addition.

Mexican Spaghetti

Mexican Spaghetti

Annie eating Mexican Spaghetti

Learn some manners kid.