The little time we have...

I'm all about simple these days.  And leftovers! This meal is both.  Took about 20 minutes prep time and you could eat it then or make it in the morning, like I did, to reheat later that evening for dinner.  I think mine looks a little funny, maybe cause I used the different colored noodles, but it has all my kid's favorites like the spiral pasta and peas and carrots. And it is good! Meat, veggies, pasta all in one dish.  Add some Italian or garlic bread and you have dinner! Oh, and did I mention it is a great meal on a budget?! Pasta and Ham Primavera Recipe 8 oz rotini 1 lb frozen vegetables (I used peas and carrots) 1 1/3 cup diced ham 2 cloves garlic 1 jar Alfredo sauce Cook pasta according to package, add frozen veggies during last 2 minutes.  Drain.  Cook ham and garlic 2-3 minutes.  Add sauce, 1/4 cup water and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Bring to a boil, stir in pasta mixture, stirring until heated through. You could play around with this recipe and

Yup, this is about how I felt this afternoon after our gigantic meal for our tiny family of 3 (which Elliot ate NONE of).  *Sigh* Got to love 2-year-olds! Thankful for family, friends, good food, good wine and our health! To name a few :-)

We all know what tomorrow is and we all know what is to come.  Sure, time with our family, but if you are cooking the meal you are probably thinking of all the time in the kitchen you are going to spend, the dishes, the "how in the WORLD am I going to prepare all this with one measly oven?". If you are like me, you like to prepare a little a head of time and make what you can the night before so you can just pop in in the oven to cook.  And you can tackle those dishes a little early so they don't overrun your kitchen as they would if you were preparing everything all at once.   I also like to have a little snack for people to munch on while they are waiting for the main dishes. Kind of like a warm up for the tummy.  This year it's just me and hubby and our little girl, but I thought since there is a long weekend coming up and my husband is going to be here SO MUCH (come on, you know I love him) I figured, why not make something that we can have on hand for breakfas