Dinner

With the more rhythmic and scheduled fall season taking hold, Nate and I are starting to be more mindful about having meal time together with the kids. It’s bittersweet to bid goodbye to summer. I love slushies in the sand and floating in a shimmery pool, but there’s something so comforting about the deep wood of our oversized dinner table, the smell of rich seasonings in a pan and the feeling of a sweater on my shoulders as I cuddle up by the fireplace. It feels familiar. It feels like family.

I found out at about 2pm yesterday that my sister was going to be dropping by for dinner last night. Score! I’m always happy to see Colby. But that meant I had to plan a last minute dinner for four and a half people (Colby, Nate, Brian, Some Boy and I), instead of my previous plan of scrounging around with leftovers. She’s a starving college student, afterall, and Colby deserves a little bit better than that when she comes to see her big sister.

Last week was hot. Like over 100 degrees, raging fires all over the city, cant go out of the house or else you’ll melt hot. So cooking was far from my mind. As was turning on the stove. But since my kids still depend on my to feed them (yeah… the husband does too) I got smart and busted out the slow cooker.

Pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, cheesy garlic bread and all things Italian, my family loves! There is not a food I adore much more than a big dish of loaded mostaccioli casserole. Its soft pasta, creamy cheeses and the tang of zesty tomato sauce are – in my opinion – a heavenly Italian trio.

I have officially combined all the best meal flavors into a single dish. BBQ chicken pasta meets bacon meets your family’s super-satisfied mouths. Hearty, carbalicious backyard cookout-style flavor with a smattering of smoky meat. All in about 20 minutes.

I’m away right now at a conference in Ventura for four glorious nights! "What?" I hear you gasping collectively, "You’re leaving your husband alone with a two-year-old and four-month-old for four nights? Worst wife ever!" I know, I know. Whatever.

So Chelsea has gotten it in her head – from my mom, no less – that I should eat healthier when I’m having easy dinners. Turns out, the new hated item on my diet pyramid is "gluten." What does that mean to the layperson? Well, basically, bread. Crusts, pies and baked goods are to be minimized in this new carb-light world.

Life has been so busy lately, I’ve been relying on a lot of semi-homemade dinners that I call "no dishes dinners." A no dishes dinner is a dinner that creates NO dishes. None whatsoever. No mess for me to clean up and, whenever I can help it, no prep-ahead hassle. This very delicate art requires a lot of healthy packaged food, like pre-cut vegetables and prepared frozen meat.

Some things are simple. The best are the things that bring family together. And a lot of the time, those things are edible.