I have a confession to make. Are you ready? Here goes nothing. I've never made mac and cheese from scratch. Actually, I've never even made it from a box. Well, not for myself anyway. Back in my babysitting days, I would make it for the kids I watched but I never actually ate it with them. It kind of sounds sad now that I'm typing it out. How can I have never desired to taste the greatness that is mac and cheese? Especially considering my deep love for pasta and cheese?!! I am a strange one. Correction, I was a strange one. I recently saw this recipe on Izy's blog and thought yes, yes, and yasssssss. Mac and cheese with special ingredients like buttermilk and cream cheese AND the addition of tortellini? If I was going to try mac and cheese for the first time ever, this would definitely be the way to try it. Obviously, I wasn't disappointed. This stuff is seriously so marvelous that I don't even want to waste another second explaining how marv...

I did it. I jumped on the zucchini noodle bandwagon... but that's not even the greatest part about this post. The greatest part is this crazy amazing spiralizer I used to jump onto the bandwagon! Check it out y'all, it's a handheld spiralizer . And it's so easy to use. It's got a non-slip grip AND a handle for you to hold down and turn your vegetables with. My brother isn't using it in this picture because he's macho man, but you'll definitely want to use it when you get to the end of your vegetable because it keeps your hands safe. The handle also doubles as a cap for safe storage! Basically, I want to spiralize everything now. Starting with POTATOES! I want ALL THE CURLY FRIES. Because, you know, they're my reward for having a nutritious zucchini noodle dinner. It's all about balancing out your diet. But seriously, zucchini noodles. They're not so bad. I prefer mine extra wilted since I'm not too big of a fan of the ra...

...Or as I like to call them, beanballs! But whatever you do, don't introduce these as beanballs to your family. Meatballs is just fine. It's just enough to get them to take that first bite. After which, they'll be so in love with them that they won't care what they're made of. Then you can be all like, there's no meat! There's no meat! I feel like I'm a little too excited about these. I can't help it. I'm a meat lover. And a pasta lover. My thighs hate both. Do you see my problem? Now, I wasn't ready to switch over to spaghetti squash just yet, so I went halfway and tried these meatless meatballs. Fun fact: I actually hate beans and never eat them, unless they're in cake or brownies . But you know, covering the bean taste with lots of sugar wasn't really helping. So I went the savory route to avoid any and all sweetness. And I liked it! The texture of these isn't quite like meatballs, but I like it! I suppose I...

Who's ready for a break from all the pumpkin? Well, even if you're not, you're still getting one! And you're not just getting a break from pumpkin; today we're also taking a break from desserts! Because today is all about my favorite food group: pasta. Actually, I lied. Today is all about almonds. You see, my friend and fellow food blogger Cate has an aunt who published a cookbook dedicated entirely to them! And I, along with Cate and the rest of our blogging buddies will be sharing a recipe from said book today as well as giving away 3 copies! Make sure you scroll down and enter via the giveaway widget below. But first...pasta!

Hello and welcome to part 2923349 of how to sneak vegetables into your own food. In our last episode, we snuck some broccoli into these patties . Today, we'll be concealing carrots, zucchini, and peppers in lasagna roll-ups. And with us today to help us along is none other than my favorite ingredient, CHEESE. Actually, we've got THREE cheeses today! One for each vegetable. The first thing you'll do is roast your vegetables. Basically, what this does is make them smaller, so they'll be easy to hide. Then, you'll mix the vegetables in with your ricotta cheese mixture. At this point, they'll just look like specks of color in your cheese. Nobody will be able to tell their true identity. Next, what you'll do is spread this ricotta mixture over your lasagna sheets. And then you'll sprinkle a bunch of mozzarella cheese on top to cover those "specks" up real well. After that, you'll roll the lasagna sheet up and place it seam-side down ...

Who's excited for some real food today? I'm excited. It's been a while. Cupcakes, muffins, and cookies are lovely but some of you may have a husband at home and/or some kids that are hungry for something savory. So we're going to cater to their needs today. Behold, pasta that's baked in a skillet. It's genius. And it can be on your dinner table in 30 minutes. So whether you're a working wife/mom who comes home late and needs to prepare something quick, or a stay at home wife/mom to a hungry and impatient husband/child, this is perfect for you. 

Guys, I am so excited to finally be sharing this dish with you! I have wanted to for so long but every time I made it, I wasn't able to take pictures of it because by the time it was ready, it was way past daylight hours. BUT thanks to the recent springing forward of our clocks, I got the chance to make it and photograph it before sunset this weekend, and I could not be happier.  This dish, it's fabulous. It's a spin-off on Lauren's spinach and artichoke lasagna that I spotted way back in June. The first time I made it, I left the recipe as is and although it was delicious and devoured by my family within an hour, I found myself trying to avoid the bits of artichoke. So, I thought, why not make it into an entirely spinach lasagna next time?

I know what you're thinking. Pizza pasta pie? How exactly does that work? Is it a pizza with pasta? Or a pie with pasta? Or a pasta with pizza? Or a pie with pizza inside of it? It's actually none of those things. It's cooked pasta made into a pie crust, and then topped with a layer of ricotta cheese, a layer of meat sauce, and a sprinkling of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. So, it basically looks like a pizza, and I'm guessing that's where it gets it's name from. I found this recipe in my Eat More of What You Love cookbook, and though I don't usually like to try recipes from cookbooks, especially ones that don't have pictures to go along with them, I couldn't pass up something called pizza pasta pie. I mean, those are the three P's of palatable joy. Plus, a quick glance at the ingredients told me that there was pasta, sauce, and cheese involved so that pretty much confirmed that I needed to make this as soon as possible. Wel...

Tomorrow, at approximately 7 pm Eastern time, I will be on a plane bound for Algeria. For those of you who don't know, Algeria is a large country situated in North Africa and it's also my home country. I've been there a couple of times before, but always in the summer, so now that I'm going in the winter, I'm not quite sure what to expect.   There are a few things, however, that I know for sure I will find, and that is, a lack of penne pasta, mozzarella cheese, jarred spaghetti sauce, and Philadelphia Italian Cheese and Herb Cooking Creme. Unfortunately, I can't take all of these ingredients over there with me because all of my luggage is already overweight. So, I decided to enjoy them in this outrageously delicious dish before I go.   And by enjoy, I mean literally devour. Aside from my brother having a few servings, I basically ate the entire pan of this baked penne with beef ALL BY MYSELF. No shame. Cause I have no doubt you'll do the same o...

This was not supposed to be my next post. These spinach and cheese stuffed shells, they were supposed to be chocolate graham cracker cupcakes with toasted marshmallow frosting. That's what I wanted to share with you guys. Really, really bad. I made them spontaneously for a friend of mine, and they came out SO perfect that I was like, STOP EVERYTHING, these cupcakes have to go on the blog! But then something horrible happened. I made the mistake of not taking pictures of them before I took them to that friend of mine. And then I made another mistake by not frosting the extra cupcakes immediately and letting the marshmallow frosting deflate. And if that wasn't bad enough, I tried to make another batch of frosting the next day and it was a complete failure. I'm a believer of fate, so I'm gonna go ahead and say it wasn't meant to be. But still, I don't handle failure very well. Soon after I realized that my second batch of frosting was not going to hold...

Manu from Manu’s Menu was our Daring Cooks lovely June hostess and has challenged us to make traditional Italian cannelloni from scratch! We were taught how to make the pasta, filling, and sauces shared with us from her own and her family’s treasured recipes! I, for one, was very excited about this challenge because a) I love pasta even though my hips don't and b) I actually have a pasta machine at home! In fact, I had all the ingredients/equipment required at home and there's something about having everything at your hands that just boosts your motivation to make a particular dish. That, and seeing that there are no tomatoes or red sauces involved in the recipe, just a wonderful bechamel sauce. That pretty much sealed the deal for me because I knew that my dad would be able to eat it too :) It came as an advantage that I had some prior experience using a pasta machine; I've made pasta many times before with my mother. What I haven't done is ac...

My dad was diagnosed with acid reflux disease a little less than a year ago. Since then, my mom has had to make lots of changes to his diet. This has ultimately resulted in changes to the rest of our diets as well. As generous as my mom is, she just can't spoil us all the time. Making two different kinds of meals, one for us and one for him, gets pretty annoying, not to mention, is very time-consuming. She does her best to find a happy medium, but it can be difficult at times with picky eaters like my siblings and I. To make life easier for her, I often contribute/cook yummy looking, acid-reflux safe recipes that I find online; this three cheese pasta bake being one of them. First off, let me just say that I had tortellini Alfredo for the first time ever at a wedding last month and I don't know how I have lived before it. It took pasta to a whole new level for me, a level that I didn't even know existed. So you could probably imagine how excited I was when I saw...