Rigatoni with meatballs

Instead of the usual white sauce recipe, I just came up this recipe this morning when I ran out of lunch box ideas for my big K . I didn't make the usual white sauce because I did not have cream cheese at home. So with the heavy whipping cream in the fridge staring at me, I decided to make something simple with whatever ingredients I had and it came out good. Well Kiddos loved it and that makes me a happy mom ☺. 

Ingredients :

Rigatoni -  1 box

Heavy whipping cream - 1/2 cup

Pamersan - grated, 1/4 cup

Salt

Dry Basil leaves

Meatballs - 12 no.s

Ok so this is what I did....

1)Cooked rigatoni pasta with salt and drained.

2) To the hot pasta, added a tablespoon of butter and heavy cream 1/2 cup, added a 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan

3) Added cooked meatballs to the pasta. Gave a quick mix to coat the meatballs in the instant white sauce

4) Add some dried basil leaves.

Lunch ready for kiddos in 10 minutes. Happy children Happy Mom !!!

French Bread Pizza

This one the kids will love no doubt... I used pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese, capsicum and pepperoni toppings, you can use any thing you like , mushrooms, chicken whatever. Its so tasty and its an easy 4 pm snack for the kids when they get back from school.

Take the bread, slice it in thin pieces or medium sized pieces, spread some pasta sauce , some cheese, bell peppers of your choice , and meat of your choice , put some sliced butter squares on the baking tray and bake it in a toaster oven at 350 degrees till the cheese melts. Enjoy one- just one along with your kids ;)

Beef macroni and parmesan

All I know is that before you know it, it gets over. I made it last week and my kids & their friends just loved it. They kept asking for more. That made a happy mommy more happy !!!

Here's how you make it...

Minced Beef
Onion - 1 (chooped)
Ginger garlic - 1 teaspoon (chopped)
Green Chillies - 3-4 (adjust according to your taste )
Pepper Powder - 1 teaspoon
Pasta sauce
Pamesaon cheese grated 1 cup
Macroni - Cooked and drained ( reserve a little of the pasta water, so that it doesn't get too dry)

1. Boil water in a pot, cook macron, drain and keep aside, reserve some water.
2. In a skillet, add onions, cook them till translucent, add ginger garlic, green chillies, cook well.
3. Add the pasta sauce.
4. In a separate pan, add the minced beef and fry till brown, drain off the excess fat to save you from visits to the cardiologist.
5. Add the browned beef to the pasta sauce thats cooking. Add salt.
6. Add the beef, pasta sauce mixture to the cooked macroni and top it off with the grated parmesan and some oregano (optional)
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Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

This recipe is a winner ! Kids will love it no doubt. I wish I could record all the praises what my kiddos showered on me while eating this. This is a recipe from the Pioneer Woman. I followed the recipe word to word.  I discuss about the recipe, its source and the ingredients to my kiddos while they eat, when I told them that this is Pioneer Woman's recipe, my 8 year old told something which makes me smile every time I think of it. She said, "Amma, this recipe is awesome , the Pioneer woman is the second best cook in the world. First is always you "... :-)  :-0 :-) .... How sweet my darling K <3

Will go to the recipe

Pasta 12 ounces ( fettuccine or linguine)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion finely diced
4 garlic cloves minced
1 bottle of Pasta sauce
salt and Pepper to taste
Dash of sugar to taste
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Chopped Fresh Basil


1. Cook the Pasta
2. Meanwhile heat olive oil and butter in a skillet. Add the onions and garlic till onion is translucent.
Pour in the Pasta sauce, salt, pepper sugar.
3. Then add the heavy cream and stir.
4. Add the grated Parmesan into the sauce.
5. Drain the Pasta and add the Pasta on top of the sauce.
6.Toss the Pasta and the sauce , if it is too thick add some of the Pasta water.
7.Before serving add the chopped fresh Basic.
8. Serve it Hot ! After that go exercise ! <3

BEHIND THE SCENES :-)

Pitta Pizza

Pitta Pizza.... its a Saturday Nights thingy !!! Specially when you are sitting with kiddos and enjoying  a family movie time

Just throwing some ingredients together in the oven... will get you this perfecto disho for a Saturday Nighto !!!


Pita Bread
Pizza Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Olives
Assorted Peppers

Basically any other topping you want : Mushrooms Hard Salami, Bacon, Meat balls, sausages ... whatever comes you way, put it on top of the Pitta and enjoy your Pitta Pizza Saturday Movie night !!!

PS. Bake in a Preheated oven at 425 Degrees F, will cheese melts . Add only pre-cooked meat !!!

Meatball Pasta

If you have some pre-made meatballs, then this is not going to take more than 10 minutes.

Boil Pasta with a little olive oil and salt

Once its cooked drain and keep aside. Save some of the liquid.

In a pan, heat some olive oil, add some chopped garlic and a medium sized onion and sauté

Add marinara Sauce, add the meat balls.

Switch off, when the sauce boils.

Check salt.

Mix the meatball sauce with the Pasta and the saved liquid , add some parmesan shavings !

Meal ready in 5-10 minutes!!! Serve Hot

smile emoticon

Cheat Pizza

So what do you when your kids crave for some pizza ? I tried this once at home and I am so glad I did , coz most of the time, when the kiddos are in a pizza mode, I don't have to order one or go and pick one. Here is an easy peasy Cheat pizza recipe...

Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
Any bread ( French bread or Italian bread ).
Slice it to 3/4" thickness
Spread them on your baking tray.
Put some butter for extra taste.
Top it bread slices with some marinara, mozzarella ( i added some sharp cheddar too, if you don't have forget it ), pepperoni or any topping of your choice.
Bake it in the oven till cheese melts.

Give it to kiddos and see the smile on their faces... ;-)

Steps :-)

Homemade Pizza

Simple Sesame Noodles

This is another simple recipe and this sure is a keeper. Its inspired from The Pioneer Woman's recipe, however, I have made small modifications to it. It hardly takes 10-12 minutes to pull this one together. 

Here's the recipe

12 ounces of thin noodles ( I used angel hair , you may use spaghetti or whichever is available in your pantry )

1/4 cup Soy Sauce

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons sugar

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons rice vinegar( i used normal white vinegar, i didn't have the rice vinegar, if you have it use it)

3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil ( Sesame oil (ellenna ) - I toasted a table spoon of white sesame seeds and slightly heated some sesame oil )

1/2 teaspoon hot chili oil ( if you don't have it, just crush dry red chili flakes with olive oil, thats what i did )

4 tablespoons canola oil

4 green onions ( not the white part ) chopped

Story

1) Cook the noodles according to package instruction

2) By the time it cooks you can get the rest of it ready. Mix Soy sauce, sugar, garlic, sesame oil, hot chili oil, vinegar,canola oil, 1/4 cup water. Stir it all together.

3) Pour the mixture over warm noodles and toss the chopped green onions into it. Enjoy !!!

It can't be simpler than that.



Tips: This is how I made the hot chili oil ,  by crushing the dry red chillies with some olive oil 

 This is how the mixture looks like. Once its ready, just pour it over the noodles