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Because No-One Likes To Clean Up After Dinner

I’m having a super tight schedule today! I won’t bore you with the details but let’s just say I got up at 5am and I probably won’t be going to bed until midnight, so yeah, busy is the word. Somewhere in between all the craziness I’m supposed to cook dinner for my family – I could just go for takeout but it always makes me feel so guilty!

Instead, I’m going to make one of my favorite, super quick, one pan meals. What I dislike even more than really complicated and time consuming recipes, is the massive clean-up after dinner. So I’ve collected quite an impressive amount of simple recipes that don’t make a mess.

This roasted chicken and vegetables recipe is also a pretty inexpensive one! I often buy a huge batch of chicken thighs when they’re on sale, and then freeze them for later. Then just thaw them in the refrigerator overnight and they are ready to be cooked for dinner the next day.

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Quick Tip: Use any kind of vegetables you prefer!

Attention, Please! This Baked Pasta Is What You Need In Your Life!

Some of my favorite meals are Italian.  I will eat just about anything that is pasta layered in gooey melted cheese.

Add in just about any type of sauce (I’ll pass on the spicy ones, though) and I’m in total heaven.  This dish right here is the perfect Italian flavors combined into one and makes for a completely impressive dinner. My husband and kids absolutely loved this recipe. In fact, they just couldn’t get enough of it. This baked rigatoni is a real keeper!

This meal here is completely amazing.  You take rigatoni pasta (already boiled to al dente) and then stacked on their ends in a round pan. After that, you take a delicious meat sauce and layer it so it falls through the little rigatoni and covers the top end.  Then, you layer that in cheese and bake it til it’s ooey and gooey over the top.  Simply the best.

If you’d like to get a feel of an authentic Italian meal, then this recipe is made for you. It is just as perfect for busy weeknights as it is for special occasions – this is actually my husband’s choice every time I ask him what he would like me to make for date night!

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Quick Tip: This recipe makes 8-10 servings.

I Call This The Holy Trinity Of Food Ingredients!

I kind of have this funny habit of turning everything into combinations of three. I don’t know where I got it from, but I remember doing it ever since I was a kid. I guess maybe it somehow helped me remember certain things, or maybe it’s just the fact that I like the number 3 so it was fun to incorporate it in everything I did. I guess it doesn’t make a lot of sense but let me try and explain!

For example, my favorite homemade skin scrub includes coconut oil, brown sugar and coffee crumbs. When I stop by a cafe I always order ice cream, coffee and water (leave any of these out and it just isn’t the same!) When I go to the library I always bring home 3 books; a detective story, an autobiography and a diy-something-guide.

Needless to say, I also love recipes that combine 3 main ingredients or flavors. In this case, lemon, chicken and spinach. Which is one of the reasons I immediately fell in love with this recipe. As soon as I saw this, I knew I was going to like it! And it didn’t disappoint!

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Quick Tip: Use any kind of pasta for this dish.

Did you run out of bread without realizing it? Not a problem!!

Last week I had an epiphany. I was making dinner when I realized we didn’t have anything to serve with the hamburger soup I was making.

Not a single slice of bread or toast, no crackers, we had even used up all the dinner rolls from the freezer. I was way too busy to either run to the store or start making bread from scratch! So there I was, staring at the contents of the freezer when I suddenly noticed a bag of pizza dough balls in there.

Of course! How come I didn’t think of this before! Pizza dough is basically the same thing as bread though (at least if you ask me) so I grabbed a couple of those dough balls and rushed to the kitchen.

They say you should let them thaw in room temperature but there was no time for that… So I just microwaved them, a few seconds at a time, until they were soft enough for baking. Then I got my rolling pin and turned the dough balls into big squares. After that it is a breeze!

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Quick Tip: Serve with your favorite dip!

Oatmeal Is So Last Season!

You know what I love most about working from home? Breakfast. I feel very lucky because I usually have time to enjoy a peaceful breakfast instead of rushing out the door with just a cup of coffee in my hand.

I used to be that person who had to get up at times that most people would consider “the middle of the night”. I’d jump out of bed, make the coffee, brush my teeth and possibly grab and apple that I would later on eat in the car. I never had time for breakfast because I had such a long commute, and I wanted to spend the extra 30 minutes sleeping instead of rushing around in the kitchen.

Now that I do get to enjoy breakfast, I try to make it special for my family, too. My husband used to be the one who had to take care of the kids’ morning routines, so it wasn’t exactly a serene time of day for him, either…

These days I get up early, willingly, and try to come up with new breakfast ideas every day. Sometimes it’s homemade granola, sometimes a fruit salad, but the whole family enjoys breakfast casseroles the most. This recipe is one of our favorites!

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Quick Tip: Halve the ingredients if you’re making this for a crowd.

I love Italian food. Ahh, how I love a good pasta dish, full of sauce, hearty with meat and with loads of cheese over the top. It is just the epitome of a comfort dish. Any pasta dish can really be transformed into something amazing. Some of my favorites are ravioli and tortellini. I so easily take these and elevate them to become a better, fuller versions of what they are. Say, add a combination of two sauces, add some different spices, or try out a different cheese.

The options are endless when it comes to pasta and you can get as creative as you would like without ruining anything! Recently, I decided to make lasagna in the crock pot. I had found a recipe and though it was the coolest thing so I gave it a go. Well, when it was time to make it, I realized I did not buy the right noodles.

Actually, I forgot to buy them altogether. I was a bit disappointed, but then realized I could probably still make a great dish with these ingredients and some of the other pasta in my pantry. I searched for a good recipe with those ingredients and found this lasagna soup.

Photo and recipe courtesy of Shugary Sweets.

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Quick Tip: Serve this with toasty garlic bread.

The Best Gosh Darn Pasta Sauce You’ll EVER Make

Friends, I must say this is a recipe that I really, really appreciate. My days get so busy from time to time, I would love it if I had an easy meal just waiting for me in the freezer every day. Now, I could buy a dozen boxes of frozen pizza slices but that would probably just make me feel guilty… I’d much rather spend some time making a huge batch of this incredible pasta sauce and then freeze individual portions of it for later! Yum!

This recipe makes a whopping 18 servings, so it really is perfect for making ahead. On the other hand, if there’s a family gathering coming up and you’d like to serve delicious comfort food at its best, just make this and serve with your favorite pasta noodles and some fresh, crusty bread. I guarantee everyone will love it and you won’t have a drop of leftovers!

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Quick Tip: Feel free to halve the ingredients if you think 18 servings is too much even for freezing.