One of my all-time favorite meals from childhood is lasagna.

My mother and grandmother made this recipe and every other lasagna I’ve ever had fails to live up to this one. I’ve made my own tweaks here and there throughout the years…but kept it pretty much true to the original recipe. I know some people swear by using Ricotta Cheese in lasagna, which I’ve tried substituting for the cottage cheese in this recipe but I find that my personal preference is cottage cheese. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great with Ricotta as well but I crave the original recipe I grew up with.

I sometimes change up the recipe by adding some fresh from the deli Mozzarella on the top of shredded Mozzarella, just for some extra creamy flavor. There is, however, one thing that I will not change to try a different variation…the meat. It must be pork sausage, and my go-to is Bob Evans Original Roll Sausage. I love the flavor that the pork sausage gives to the sauce…no other meat is going to give you that.

Another substitute is using garlic powder in place of the fresh garlic…if you don’t have any garlic on hand it will do in a pinch, just add about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of garlic powder to the meat sauce in place of the minced garlic.

To make ahead, assemble lasagna layers and refrigerate, increase bake time to 45 minutes.

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Are you craving a noodle dish but not the heavy pasta sauce?

Then this recipe is the perfect match for you! The garlic butter, white wine sauce gives a perfect balance of spice from the red pepper flakes to tangy sun-dried tomatoes. It’s a favorite of mine and is a copycat recipe from Maggiano’s Little Italy…sadly they no longer serve this amazing dish at the restaurant, which was devastating to me when they removed it from the menu. I mean, seriously I had dreams about eating this! It was my choice for dinner when we went to Maggiano’s and I still search the menu over every time we go hoping they will bring it back…why would you get rid of your best dish???!

Luckily they gave the public a peek at the recipe and I’ve made it several times over and it’s spot on!  I no longer see the recipe on their site anymore…thankfully I saved the recipe! Maybe they removed it because they no longer serve it, or because the recipe was flawed. For example, they didn’t tell you when to add the garlic or the spinach which left me scratching my head the first time I made it. I substituted the broccolini for broccoli and Calabrian peppers for red pepper flakes. 

The Aglio butter (Aglio being Italian for garlic) is a mixture butter, olive oil, garlic, and spices…and usually always has a little bit left over which is perfect to use when sauteing vegetables such as green beans or using to top a baked potato. This would also be wonderful with a mild fish like mahi-mahi or halibut….hmmm I’m thinking this might have to happen soon! Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my chin.

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I love the Fiesta Party Seasoning from Tastefully Simple!

It’s the one item that I keep buying over and over again…and no I’m not getting paid to say this. 

No other fajita seasoning compares to the flavor that is packed in that bottle…and as a dip it is amazing! A little bit of mayo and sour cream mixed with the seasoning…dip some fresh sliced red peppers-oh my word!! My favorite! It is the perfect flavor for this dish, of course, you can use any fajita seasoning you want…but trust me when I tell you this one is better.

You can get it here: https://www.tastefullysimple.com/shop-our-products/fiesta-party-dip-mix

Roasting fresh tomatoes under the broiler gives another flavor entirely to any dish rather than using a can of diced tomatoes. My husband doesn’t like tomatoes but can tolerate diced tomatoes in dishes…so I decided to try my hand at roasting a few I had leftover from my garden. They passed the test, he liked them and ate several bowls full of this spicy pasta dish. If you don’t like heat then I would suggest cutting the amount of the fiesta seasoning in half…but I like a bit of heat. You can also substitute roasting your own tomatoes with a 10 to 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes if you prefer but I highly recommend firing up your broiler and giving it a try!

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Sometimes a heavy tomato based pasta dish is just what the soul needs…scratch that, it’s what the soul craves most of the time. Occasionally though, your waistline needs something a little lighter.

Summertime means tighter clothes and bathing suits, which means healthier foods-well not all the time but definitely more often! And this pasta sauce is light and is filling.

I generally don’t care for pesto…anything pesto…but I found a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis for a pesto that was a little different because it had goat cheese and cream cheese in it…so gave it a try and I have to say it was pretty darn good. The second time around making the recipe I tweaked a few things by adding turkey sausage and an avocado (which I have recently become obsessed with) and some lemon juice. I started eating spoonfuls of the pesto I liked it that much.

It will be hard to try any other pesto recipes after this…I think this is my go-to pesto now! Adding a few chopped cherry tomatoes from the garden on the top to garnish might be good too.

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I was watching Kelsey Nixon make her “Baked Tomatoes Stuffed with Creamy Stovetop Bacon Mac and Cheese” on tv and caught myself drooling and knew I had to make it.

My husband Jason however, doesn’t like tomatoes. So I adjusted the recipe a tad and put them in some soup ramekins.

Now, I’ve made mac & cheese many times and always had the issue that Kelsey mentioned in her program of having a “gritty” texture to the cheese. This recipe’s claim was to not have that grittiness due to the combination of Muenster and Cheddar cheeses. I admit I had never tried Muenster in my mac & cheese…and now I am sold!

Talk about creamy! There wasn’t any grit at all-no cheese separation. I did, however, cringe at the amount of bacon fat used…and I almost changed it to all olive oil-perhaps next time I will….who knows, maybe a little bit of sauteed onion too? Recently I have had to adjust my diet to be nitrate free for health reasons…but I can still enjoy this every so often by using uncured bacon. Uncured bacon still contains some nitrates even though the packaging says “nitrate free” but it has natural nitrates such as celery powder instead of chemicals like sodium nitrate. So fear not if you have restrictions- you can still partake in this gooey delight!

I really would like to try it in a hollowed out tomato the way Kelsey did next time for myself. I did add a cut up cherry tomato from my garden to my bowl and it was so yummy!

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