the BEST (and easiest) homemade Mac & Cheese (with Bacon!)

I have tried all sorts of homemade macaroni and cheese, the kind where you make a white sauce gravy then add cheese, the kind you bake, with crackers breadcrumbs, etc...

I FINALLY found the BEST tasting and easiest to make Mac & Cheese recipe. It is SO yummy you'll never go back to the boxed kind (well you might in an emergency, but you won't enjoy it)! I made mine with bacon and asparagus, but you can make it plain or add your favorite meat & veggie combo.

Chicken Florentine Bowtie Pasta

This is a really yummy way to introduce kids to spinach- it's so creamy and cheesy they'll love it.
*Modified recipe from Picky Palate.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
4 cups baby spinach leaves
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken breast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
8 oz cream cheese, softened
3-4 tablespoons milk
1 pound whole grain bowtie pasta or other small noodles
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring pasta to a boil and cook according to package directions.

In the meantime, heat olive oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add spinach leaves, chicken, salt and pepper. Cover and cook until wilted, about 2-3 minutes.

Add cream cheese, stirring until melted. Stir in milk to thin the cream and prevent sticking to the pan.

Drain pasta and stir into chicken mixture. Transfer to baking dish and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until cheese is melted.

Pasta al Pomodoro

This is my favorite version of spaghetti. Doesn't look like much, but the flavor of fresh basil and creamy butter is so scrumptious. It's another one of my last minute go-to meals.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3-4 fresh tomatoes, diced (or canned- using juice to thin sauce)
Salt, to taste
handful of fresh basil leaves
12oz whole grain spaghetti or angel hair pasta
2 tablespoons real butter
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
2-3 tablespoons milk, to thin sauce

Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain.

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until soft. Stir in garlic and cook for one minute. Dice tomatoes (You can puree if you prefer a smoother sauce). and stir into onion mixture. Season lightly with salt. Add basil leaves, cover and cook stirring occasionally until sauce thickens and flavors meld, about 20 minutes. Add additional diced vegetables if desired.

Stir in milk to reach desired consistency. Remove basil leaves and toss tomato sauce with pasta, stir in butter. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

*Recipe modified from Bon Appetit

Lemon Chicken Picatta with Roasted Potatoes

Do you get this magazine? If not, you totally should. It has amazing yummy eay recipes. Then again...you could just read my blog because a good portion of the yummies I make come from this magazine. Like this chicken picatta with roasted potatoes I made for dinner last night. So delicious...

Lemon Chicken Picatta

3 large lemons

2 large chicken breasts

1/4 cup mayo (or 1 egg beaten)

1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs seasoned with italian seasoning & garlic salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter
Whole wheat pasta

Slice chicken breast in half width-wise to make four thin pieces of chicken (mine was actually thick enough to be cut into 4 large and two small pieces). Spread mayo on both sides of each chicken slice (the Pampered Chef silicon brush works great for this) and coat with bread crumbs.

You can make your own bread crumbs by broiling bread in the oven for 2-3 minutes, flipping to brown on both sides. Bread should be very crisp. Add to food processor to fine crumbs.
Cut 4 thin lemon slices from half of one lemon; squeeze juice from remaining lemons (can microwave for 30 seconds to make it easier). Set aside.


In a large pan cook half a box of angel hair pasta according to package directions, drain.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Cook chicken for 5 minutes, turn and cook for another 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

In the same pan add lemon juice and chicken broth and cook over medium high heat 6-8 minutes or until slightly reduced, stirring occasionally. Add butter and lemon slices and cook 3 to 4 more minutes.

Place chicken over pasta and pour lemon sauce over top and sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Roasted Potatoes

4-5 medium potatoes cubed (or sliced for smaller potatoes)

6 slices of bacon chopped
3 tablespoons Italian Dressing

2 teaspoons fresh chopped parsley

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 400.

Put potatoes on 15x10x1" pan. Top with bacon and zesty italian dressing. Bake for 45 minutes stirring halfway through.

Top with parmesan cheese and parsley.

*the original recipe had a sauce of mayo, lemon juice and garlic to pour over the top but these potatoes were so flavorful I didn't think it needed the extra step...

Vegetable Rotini

Taking a break from cupcakes...for a moment at least...

I love quick and easy meals that include lots of veggies so I don't have to go to the extra work of preparing a side dish. This is a super easy last minute meal and if you add lots of veggies it's super healthy. And kids love it.
This is also great meatless. I don't cook with a lot of meat but I always have those frozen Italian meatballs on hand and just cut them up in small pieces and mix in. I have made this to feed my family of 5, but you can easily double it by increasing the noodles and sauce.

Baked Vegetable Rotini
1/2 package rotini (or penne) pasta
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
2 cups cheese, mozzarella, cheddar or monterey jack
1lb Italian sausage (optional)
1 T. olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/2 small onion, chopped
Favorite veggies chopped (broccoli, peppers, carrots, peas)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cook pasta according to package directions, add vegetables with pasta and cook until tender. Heat oil in saucepan and saute onions and garlic with sausage. Drain pasta and veggies and pour into 9x13 baking dish. Cover with tomato sauce and smother with cheese.

Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted.

If you are in a hurry or just hate to have to get 2 dishes dirty- simply stir the sauce, pasta and veggies into the same pan you cooked the sausage, top with cheese and cover with a lid. Heat until cheese is melted.

Chicken Ranch Pasta

Being a busy mom, I usually don't feel like cooking at the end of the day, so I LOVE meals that don't require much preparation, are quick to cook and include lots of veggies.

I got this recipe from my friend Joann and it is a perfect kid-friendly and mom-friendly meal. It will be added to our regular meal rotation. And FYI- I don't like cottage cheese in the slightest- but when it melts you cannot tell that it's cottage cheese, so don't let that ingredient stop you from trying it.

I halved her recipe because I only had half the cottage cheese required, we fed all 5 of us and still had a bowl of leftovers... so I'm including the halved version here...but she says it freezes well, so check out her site if you have a big family or are doing freezer meals.

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt & Pepper
1/2 box Farfalle pasta (or any other pasta)
1-2 carrots, diced
1 crown broccoli, chopped
1 cup frozen peas or lima beans
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1/4 cup ranch dressing (made from packet or other high quality brand)
Parmesan cheese, grated

Cube chicken and cook in saucepan over medium heat with a dash of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, and about 1/8 teaspoon of salt and pepper or other garlic seasoning. Cover and cook until chicken is no longer pink- about 10-15 minutes.

In a large pot, cook pasta according to directions. Add carrots and broccoli and cook until tender. Drain.

Add cottage cheese to the saucepan with the chicken. Stir until cheese is completely melted (mixture will be runny). Add ranch dressing and stir in pasta and veggies. Let sit 5 minutes until thickened.

If you have small children, this is where I stir in the frozen peas because they act as little ice cubes and cool the meal down. If you don't have heat-sensitive munchkins, go ahead and add the peas when you first stir in the pasta to the sauce.

Top with grated parmesan cheese (I didn't have any on hand and used feta- tasted just as delicious).

Garden Pasta Salad

I typically don't eat pasta salads because they are mayo based and I am not a big fan of mayo. This pasta sald is so easy to make and is so delicious (not to mention healthy) and the feta cheese gives it such an yummy touch. I like to make it and eat it with the noodles still a bit warm for dinner and then as a cold salad the next day for lunch.

3 cups whole wheat rotini pasta cooked and drained
1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 cup halved cherry (or sliced garden) tomatoes

1 cup chopped cucumber

1 cup fresh chopped zucchini and or yellow squash

1/2 cup sliced black olives

1/4 cup chopped red onions (I am not a fan of raw onions so I usually leave out)

1/2 cup zesty italian dressing

Cook pasta according to directions and drain. Slice all vegetables. Mix pasta, vegetables, zesty italian dressing (click here for dressing recipe) and cheese. Serve warm or cold.

*another healthy addition to this salad are garbanzo beans and frozen green peas, thawed

Oven baked Salmon with pesto & sun dried tomatoes

I usually don't eat seafood. Ever. The smell of fish makes me ill. I assumed that anything that came from the sea must taste as awful as it smells. I am yet again proven wrong.

A few months ago I saw a cooking show that discussed cooking salmon in a pan and the trick to avoiding the "fishy" smell is to cook it on one side until golden, flip it, put the lid on, turn the stove off and walk away. After about 8 minutes it will be done and there will be no noxious odor. I tried it for my husband (I've banned all fish from the house since we've been married) and it worked! No fish smell. He was happy to eat fish for the first time since being home from Kuwait and I was happy because my house still smelled nice. I even took a bite. It wasn't bad. I didn't love it, but I also didn't hate it.

So...when we were in Utah my lovely friend Leta invited us to dinner and said she was thinking about making salmon. I agreed since I didn't mind it the last time I tried it, plus she mentioned pesto and sun dried tomatoes- so I couldn't resist. I was pleasantly surprised! I've determined to make some type of fish at least 2-3 times a month now until my tastebuds learn to LOVE it. Or at least desire it. It's such a healthier alternative to chicken and pretty easy to prepare. I'm sure I made it different from what she did, but this is what I could remember and my family loved it.

2 salmon filets

Basil pesto

Sun dried tomatoes

Angel hair pasta (or any kind!)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Top each salmon filet with a heaping spoonful of basil pesto. Bake in preheated oven until salmon is cooked through, about 12 to 15 minutes.

While salmon is cooking, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. Stir in 1/2 jar (or more to taste) of sun dried tomatoes until pasta is well coated.

Serve salmon over pasta and top with parmesan cheese, if desired.

If you're like me and prefer small pieces of salmon, or if you're feeding kids, you can shred it with a fork and stir it in the pasta. Healthy. Delicious.

Cream Cheese Alfredo Sauce

I usually make alfredo sauce with cream, but I ran out and thought I'd try a cream cheese recipe. I was pleasantly surprised. It tasted fabulous. It would be great over fettucini or any type of vegetable pasta medley. We served it over some cubed chicken, broccoli, carrots, peas and whole wheat penne pasta.

1/4 cup butter
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1 garlic clove, minced
1 to 1 1/2 cups milk (to desired thickness)
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Melt butter in saucepan, add garlic and cook just until soft. Add cream cheese and stir with whisk until melted and smooth. You will get to a point where the sauce is so lumpy you wonder if cream cheese was a good idea- just keep whisking it will get smooth. Add milk a little at a time while whisking until sauce reaches desired thickness. Stir in cheese and pepper. Sauce will thicken as it cools so thin with additional milk if necessary. Serve warm with your favorite pasta and vegetables.

Pasta eFagioli

I love Olive Garden's Pasta eFagioli and have found this recipe to be pretty similar. It tastes even better the next day when the flavors have had a chance to infuse overnight. By adding more pasta and sauce you can make a huge pot. I like to make it large and put some in the freezer for a night when I just don't feel like cooking. The only thing that makes it better is serving it with yummy garlic breadsticks (you can freeze those too!).

1lb ground beef (or sausage)
1/2 onion diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot julienne
2 stalks celery chopped
2) 14 1/2 oz cans diced tomatoes
1) 15oz can red kidney beans
1) 15 oz can great northern beans
1) 15oz can tomato sauce
1) 12oz can tomato juice
2-3 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 lb elbow noodles (whole wheat), cooked according to directions

Cook ground beef with onion and garlic, stir in celery and carrots. Cook pasta according to directions on package. Add all ingredients to stock pot and cook until heated, approximately 15 minutes.

Chicken Noodle Soup- from scratch

This is one of those recipes that seems daunting but it's actually quite simple. When we're in a hurry for dinner we love getting those rotisserie chickens from the deli- that's the perfect way to start chicken noodle soup. If you don't want to make the soup in the next few days- fine- put the bones and skin in a ziploc bag and toss in the freezer.

When you're ready, put it in a pot. Fill with water- the quantity really depends on how strong you want your soup to be flavored, I filled my stockpot halfway. Then add a rough chopped onion (with skin on), rough chopped celery and other seasonings as you desire although the skins should have pretty good seasoning already- all I do is add a bit of salt if needed (you're going to throw all this out afterwards so don't waste a lot of time chopping). I like actual chicken in my soup- so throw in one or two frozen chicken breasts or if you already have cooked chicken it's a great way to use leftovers.

Boil this concoction for an hour or two until the chicken is no longer pink inside- really you can't go wrong here- if you can smell it and it tastes like soup then it's done. Strain all that icky stuff out of there (kinda gross I know, try to squeeze out all the flavor) then throw it away (if you added chicken breast make sure to shred it before putting back into stockpot), pour your soup back into the pot and return to a boil. Add chopped carrots, celery or frozen mixed veggies and cook until tender. Now for the fun part!


Basic Egg Noodles

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 pinch salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
(can add frozen chopped spinach or other herbs to flavor the pasta)

In a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Add the beaten egg, milk, and butter. Knead dough until smooth, about 5 minutes. Let rest in a covered bowl for 10 minutes.

On a floured surface, roll out to 1/8 or 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired lengths and shapes. An easy way to get uniform shapes is to roll the dough up and slice into thin strips. Cook pasta in boiling chicken stock until tender 8-10 minutes.

See? It couldn't be simpler. Or tastier. And if you're like me and hate leftovers- a great way to use the rest- strain off most the broth and serve on top of wild rice. Enjoy!