Ratatouille Pasta

The classic French vegetable dish turned into an amazing sauce for a meatless pasta meal!

I have never had ratatouille but I really wanted to try it and I took the opportunity to try it when Nick was away for army training because it's meatless. The kids were not the biggest fans of it because they don't like eggplant and only Cami likes zucchini. I, however, enjoyed it a ton because it's a pasta dish with a bunch of fresh veggies. I definitely want to try actually ratatouille at some point, so if anyone has a tried and true recipe for it - point me to it!!

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Boats

A low carb lasagna made with spaghetti squash!

This recipe was one I had to monkey with in order to get it to where we would all enjoy it. The original recipe utilized ricotta cheese and roasted the squash whole, there were some differences in amounts of different ingredients. None of us like lasagna, but we have tried a few different recipes and the one we like the most uses cottage cheese, which funny enough none of us like either. There is something about how cottage cheese cooks down though that makes for a great recipe. We started eating spaghetti squash when Nick was doing keto in 2019 and I actually was pleasantly surprised - although it will never replace pasta for me - it was still very delicious.

Honey Garlic Chicken Stir Fry

Quick stir frys are the best kind of dinners to use up some fresh veggies!

I was so excited to try this stir fry because I am used to stir frys being broccoli, carrots, and bell peppers. I rarely see squash in them and that made me such a happy camper. I love squash. I will happily eat all the squash and all the recipes with squash. This recipe is especially wonderful because the honey garlic sauce is mouthwateringly good! It's the perfect balance of salty and sweet and savory to compliment the veggies and chicken. The best thing, of course, about stir frys is that they are quick. This one can be made in under 30 minutes!

Chicken with Bruschetta Veggies

The weather is warm and farmer's markets are open, so take advantage of seasonal produce with this lovely recipe!

This post is going up a little later than normal due to my current task of trying to retrieve as many files and restore them as I can off of my desktop computer, including all of my recipe pictures for the stuff to come. I may be fervently in my kitchen trying to remake some foods due to some of the pictures being permanently gone. YAY! So I have been concentrating as much as possible on recovering files instead of blogging like I should be doing.

Today's recipe is a great chicken recipe topped with all sorts of veggies with a kick of balsamic vinegar to top it off. I am so happy it's warmed up in Tennessee and look forward to all of the fresh produce the season has to bring.

One Pan Crispy Garlic Parmesan Chicken with Veggies

Crispy chicken along with some of that delicious crunch on the veggies makes for a delicious meal.

The best kinds of recipes are ones that you can throw into a pan and bake. I am easily thrilled when a recipe contains zucchini and/or squash. I cannot get enough of these veggies and would eat them with every meal. I have had zucchini in spaghetti and bbq pulled chicken. Just give me all the zucchini! I love that this recipe took the excess coating for the chicken and tossed it with the veggies, so that nothing went to waste.

Ree's Burrito Bowls

Load it up or keep it simple, these burrito bowls are perfect for a crowd who wants to customize their dinner to their tastes!

Another burrito bowl recipe hits the blog...I think I have at least 2 or 3 more. *nervous smile* I am just in love with these because they remind me of how you build your own Petros (frito pie). You pick your toppings and everyone is happy. My oldest kiddo, Matthew, is really picky with toppings, so he opted for beans and lettuce. My daughter, Cambria, likes a lot of things, but NOT guacamole. I am the least picky of the family, so I loaded mine up! I love that this recipe also included zucchini and yellow squash because I feel like I never make those enough and they are two favorites.

This recipe makes a great deal of food, so if you are needing to feed 6 to 8 people...this is the recipe you want. It's seriously such a great recipe!

Kielbasa & Pierogies with Summer Veggies

The perfect way to use up some of your garden harvest with hearty pierogies and delicious kielbasa

I swear one of these days I will stop posting my recipes soooo late at night. But I am so distracted during the day and then by 7 or 8 o'clock, I realize I have had my draft open and haven't updated it past uploading the pictures. Whoops! So here I am at 10:30 at night trying to scramble to think of what to say.

So let's get to this recipe! It was my first time having pierogies and I can't think of a better way to experience them for the first time than this recipe. Nothing was covering up their taste or overpowering them and the vegetables and crisp kielbasa were wonderful with the pierogies. I can count myself a pierogi fan. I cannot wait to try them in more recipes!

Sausage Stuffed Summer Squash

It is no longer summer, by a long shot especially here in New York, however, it seems like our stores have more zucchini and yellow squash in stock than were available during the summer. I have had quite a few zucchini boat or stuffed squash recipes, but never got around to making them. I've been trying to coax my kids to eat yellow squash a bit more and they usually will eat it when it's paired with spaghetti or pasta of some sort. So it only makes sense that this recipe would be good to test out on them. They both loved it. My 6 year old can smell Italian sausage from a mile away, so he didn't hesitate to gobble it up.

Roasted Veggie & Sausage Pasta

This amazing bowl of veggies and sausage and pasta is something that seriously makes me reconsider spaghetti with tomato meat sauce being my favorite meal in the whole entire world. It's really funny because I just recently started liking sausage and Parmesan. So it's crazy to have something that hasn't been a food I would choose to eat in the past become something that I would choose over regular spaghetti. But it's THAT good. The veggies are roasted to perfection and you really just have the flavors of the veggies and sausage doing the talking for this recipe.

What is also just awesome about this pasta dish is that it makes a HUGE batch - well, not HUGE, but it fed myself and the kids...and then the next day it fed myself and the kids plus our two friends. If there's one thing that can't be beat...it's a large quantity of a really great meal.