My mom made lasagna a lot when I was a kid. I remember loving the combination of flavors melting together and eating it with crunchy garlic bread. My kids love it too, and it’s the perfect comforting dish to end a long day.

While you can change the recipe up a number of ways, this here is the basic…

ingredients:
1 box lasagna noodles

1 pound ground beef
1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 eggs
salt
pepper

1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
5 cups marinara sauce (make your own or buy, whatever)

Boil the noodles according to package. Drain and set aside. (*note: I am not a fan of no boil noodles. Old skool is best. The end.)

In a pan brown the ground beef with the garlic – season with the salt, pepper, oregano and onion powder. Mix with 2 cups of marinara sauce. Set aside.

In a small bowl combine the ricotta cheese, 2 cups mozzarella cheese and the eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside. (There is a lot of ‘setting aside’ going on here…)

Ok, FINALLY, time to assemble. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9×13 inch pan by greasing it with olive oil.

On the bottom layer, spread about 1 cup of marinara sauce. On top of that place one layer of noodles, 1/3 of your ricotta cheese mixture, and then half of the ground beef mixture. On top of that sprinkle 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.

Next layer: lasagna noodles, 1/3 of ricotta mixture, another 1 cup of sauce.

Third Layer: another layer of noodles, the rest of the ricotta cheese mixture, and the rest of the meat mixture.

Final layer (you’re almost there!): The last of the noodles, 1 cup of sauce, and then sprinkle 1 cup of parmesan cheese.

Cover the pan with foil and place it on a baking sheet in case it bubbles over. Bake for 50 minutes, uncover and cook for another 5 minutes.

Let sit, and then serve.

The kids love lasagne – the Kid and I prefer vegetarian, but if the Baby has any say – this ground beef version is the way to go.

I always thought alfredo sauce would be hard to make for some reason, but after seeing how easy it was in Giada’s Everyday Italian cookbook, I thought I’d give it a go. I changed her recipe a bit, but my gosh was it delicious and the kids just loved it.

ingredients:
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 Tablespoons butter
3 teaspoons lemon zest
16 ounces fettuccine
1 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon pepper+
1/4 teaspoon salt+

In a large pot boil water and add the fettuccine. Cook about 10-12 minutes, then drain. DO NOT RINSE.

In a large skillet stir 1 cup of the cream (saving the other ½ cup for later) together with the lemon juice. Add the butter and melt over medium high heat. Once the butter melts, take the pan off the heat. Stir in the lemon zest.

To the mixture add the drained pasta, the other 1/2 cup of cream, the parmesan cheese and the salt and pepper.

Turn the pan onto low heat and stir until the sauce thickens and comes together. Add more salt and pepper if you like.

This tastes amazing when served immediately. The kids loved and the clean up was WAY easier than a red sauce. How does the Baby get pasta sauce IN HIS EARS I’ll never know…

Eating soba noodles on New Year’s Day is supposed to guarantee you long life. Hm. So much for ‘an apple a day’, I guess.

Anyway, I took the kids to the Japanese American National Museum where they had an ‘Oshogatsu’ New Year’s Day celebration. They showed the kids how to put together a bowl of soba noodles and then the kids got to eat it too! Not bad for a FREE museum day.

ingredients:
12-14 ounces dry soba noodles (buckwheat noodles)
dipping sauce
nori (dried seaweed)
green onions
kamaboko (fish cake)
cucumber

sauce ingredients:
2 cups dashi (soup base)
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup mirin

First make the dipping sauce, put the dashi, soy sauce and mirin in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and cool. Quite honestly – I’m not gonna be a stickler here – you can get a bottle of dippin sauce for like two dollars at the Japanese market if you are so inclined. I won’t say nothin’.

Fill a large pot with water, approx 4 – 6 cups. Bring to a boil. Add the dry soba noodles and stir – usually this take only 2-3 minutes. Drain the noodles well and rinse with cold water.

You can top the noodles with anything really. Cucumber cut small, nori cut into fine strips, sliced kamaboko. Shredded chicken or char siu works too. (See somen salad recipe.)

Put some soba into bowls, top with the toppings you like and add a small ladle of the sauce. You don’t want a soup, you just want your noodles to be wet. Aaaaand…eat!

A traditional mac ‘n’ cheese starts with a roux. This is not a traditional mac ‘n’ cheese. This is easy fo’ sheezy mac ‘n’ cheese where you get your kids to do most of the work so you can kick it and watch Oprah. And the kicker? It’s baked with a topping of crushed up Goldfish crackers! How cheesy is that? No child (or adult) can resist…

ingredients:
1 lb pasta (I prefer pennette)
4 cups cheddar cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 bag goldfish crackers (save 1 cup, crush the rest)
1 Tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9×13 pan. Boil the pasta according to the package.

While it’s boiling, in a large bowl, combine THREE cups of cheese (setting aside one cup), cream, milk, salt, pepper and paprika. Set aside.

Set aside one cup of goldfish crackers, and put the rest in a freezer bag. Now get a kid full of aggression who likes to bash things, luckily, I have one – give him a rolling pin and stand back. Let him go at the freezer bag of goldfish, til all are crushed. Take away the rolling pin. (This is for your own safety and sanity.)

By now the pasta should be ready. Drain it in a colander, then immediately pour into the bowl of cheese and stuff. Stir ’round until it’s all melty and combined. Pour into your prepped pan. Top with the reserved one cup of cheese and the crushed goldfish crackers AND the whole goldfish crackers. You are putting the whole ones just cause the kids get a kick out of seeing whole goldfish crackers sitting on top of the pasta. Add dabs of the butter here and there on the top of the crackers.

Place your pan on a baking sheet – this is in case it bubbles over. No one wants a cheesy oven to clean up – trust me. Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on your oven, until bubbly. Let cool a bit before serving.

This makes a good side dish OR main dish. And the kids really get into helping since it’s just mixing and crushing! Sure this is kid’s food but uh…I like to sneak a few bites late at night. Usually while standing over my sink in my pjs…

Sometimes you just can’t leave the house and you have to pull from the pantry. That’s how I came up with was this quick but hearty soup. (If you don’t have pastina you could use rice just as well.) Even the meat-hating Kid loves this!

ingredients:
2 cans chicken broth
4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/8th teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon oregano
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 cups meatballs (I keep these in my freezer)
1/2 cup corn
1/4 cup pastina (tiny pasta)

I like to make meatballs from scratch and then just keep them in the freezer. I like to use this recipe – ifreezing them for later makes it easy to add them to pastas, or soups or sometimes I just give them to the boys as a main dish. Otherwise just buy frozen meatballs for this recipe.

In a large pot add the chicken broth and water and bring to a boil. Add the onion powder, paprika, oregano and chopped garlic.

Then add the meatballs, corn and pastina.

Pastina is just super tiny pasta. I like it because it adds a little heft to a soup but without being large pieces of pasta overwhelming the soup. If you don’t have pastina you can substitute with rice instead. Just cook until the pasta or rice is softened.

I like to serve this soup with Sweet Cornbread Muffins, the Kids love this meal on a cold winter’s day. (It’s 75 degrees here in November, shh.)

I love Greek Salad – it’s the feta. I wanted to make a lightly dressed salad that would be good as a main dish OR a side dish.

ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package tortellini
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons minced garlic
salt
freshly ground pepper
1 cup cucumber – cubed
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup pearl tomatoes
1 cup black olives

I like to use tortellini cause of the size and the filling adds a lot to this recipe. You can use other pastas if you want, the taste will definitely vary a bit.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the tortellini, and cook according to the package directions. Drain well.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, parsley, oregano, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl toss the tortellini with the dressing. Set aside.

Add in the cubed cucumber, feta, tomatoes and olives. Toss and refrigerate. I like this dish served cold, right out of the fridge. The crunch of the cucumbers and the flavors of the dressing and feta go really well with the pasta. It makes a great main dish or a nice side to chicken!

This is an easy meal, and kids love to eat out of the little ‘bowls.’. I was lucky enough to find the world’s cutest Hello Kitty pasta, but any small shape will do!

ingredients:
melted butter
1 package pasta (small shapes are best)
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
salt
pepper
1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep six large ramekins (or 8 small) by greasing the inside with melted butter. Set aside.

Boil pasta according to directions. Drain and set aside.

While the pasta is boiling, start the sauce. In a large pan saute the chopped garlic and onion in olive oil for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, oregano, basil and salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the sauce with the drained pasta and spoon into your prepped ramekins. Top with the shredded cheese, sprinkle with a tiny bit more salt and pepper.

Place ramekins on a baking sheet (in case they bubble over) and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool a bit and serve, careful kids – those ramekins are hot!

Sure, this meal is cuter because of the Hello Kitty pasta, but you can use any shape and it’s still a fun dinner for the kids. As for the dino shaped garlic bread, yeah – there’s no changing that. It’s a must.

Part of my own personal ‘Iron Chef: Battle Lemons’ series.
This can be a main dish, but I prefer to use it as a side. The lemons give this pasta a nice fresh flavor. This is adapted from Giada’s recipe – Everyday Italian: 125 Simple And Delicious Recipes For Dinner Tonight, but frankly, I can’t stand spaghetti, I don’t know why, but cappellini I am perfectly fine with. So. That’s what I used.

2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup chopped basil
zest of one lemon

one package of pasta

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Boil the pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1 cup of liquid before you drain it.

Toss the pasta in with the lemon mixture, then add the zest and the basil. Add the reserved pasta water a little at a time, you may not need all of it, you just don’t want the pasta to be dry.

Serve immediately. I like this as a side dish to chicken or fish, but it is great on it’s own.

I make this pasta salad A LOT. I never really thought to put the recipe up until I started doing a series of Chicken 2 Ways meals for the kids. So when I made some buttermilk fried chicken, I added it to the pasta salad and it was FANTASTIC.

There are a lot of ingredients to the dressing, but DON’T let that deter you. The flavor is exactly what you are looking for. Please don’t be tempted to wimp out and use that bottled dressing crap. It’s full of preservatives and so much oil that it will never stick to the pasta anyway. You won’t regret it, I promise.

ingredients:
8 ounces of pasta
1-1/2 cups cooked broccoli
1 cup chopped green/red/yellow peppers
1/4 cup sliced olives
2 cups buttermilk oven-fried chicken, cut into cubes

dressing ingredients:
4 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
6 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
3 Tablespoons dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano

Obviously, make sure you make Buttermilk Oven-Fried Chicken in advance of this recipe.

Boil the pasta according to package directions. Drain, but do not rinse. If you don’t want to cook fresh broccolli (I never do) just defrost Trader Joe’s frozen broccoli. It’s always frozen at the height of freshness so when it’s defrosted it tastes just fine.

Put all the dressing ingredients into a shaker and shake well to combine. If you don’t have a shaker, mix it in a bowl!

In a large bowl toss the pasta, broccoli, peppers, olives and chicken with the dressing. You don’t need to use all the dressing if you don’t want, just as much as you need. Mmm, you’d be surprised how good this is – it’s great for parties.

The kids decided they liked green beans. This gave me the go ahead to incorporate it into a full blown meal. Yay for veggies! This recipe is really quick when you have very little time to make dinner. Just throw it together and serve it up.

ingredients:
8oz bowtie pasta
1 cup saved pasta water
6oz dry salami
1-1/2 cups frozen green beans
6oz mozzarella
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
cracked pepper

Boil the pasta according to the package, in salted water.

While the pasta is boiling, chop up the salami into strips. Defrost the green beans. When the pasta is ready to be drained, reserve 1 cup of the water that it was boiled in. This helps the pasta stay moist and keeps everything together.

In a large bowl, toss the drained pasta with the salami, beans, mozzarella, parmesan, lemon and pepper. Slowly add the reserved pasta water. Toss and serve immediately while still warm.