Making Dinnertime Easier

Since having a baby we have strived to bring more fresh fruits and veggies into our home. Yes purees and jarred baby foods all have their place, but Emma prefers fresh fruits and veggies as opposed to processed baby food. She also loves to feed herself so this requires chopping up of various items into sizes small enough for little fingers to grab.

I've always been used to dealing with dull knives. It didn't bother me to badly until I started putting them in the dishwasher and that made them even duller. After vowing to never do that again with our new knife set, I was irritated to find that my knives were still pretty dull after not much use. Come to find out the straight bar that comes with most knife sets is not a sharpener as the hubby and I thought. Cutting grapes, tomatoes, peaches, bell peppers....anything with a peal was proving difficult and irritating to cut into little pieces for our baby girl. We both decided that we needed a knife sharpener.

Enter the System Sharpener. We sharpened our large knife first to test out slicing meats....another issue in our home. It has two wheels, a diamond grinding wheel for professional sharpening and a ceramic wheel for fine honing. A little pressure to glide the knife through each side and voila, a perfectly even sharp knife! It even has a suction cup on the bottom so it will stay secured to your counter top! Seriously I was excited. I needed to try out my new knives with a recipe that required a lot of chopping. I chose my Tri Colored Rotini Pasta recipe because of all the veggies I needed.

Everything sliced like a dream and in a fraction of the time. Also I didn't squash my tomatoes! Hallelujah! I can't wait to start creating masterpieces with fruits and veggies so my family can eat pretty chopped foods!

This shop was compensated for this post by receiving a free knife sharpener, all opinions are my own.
#KnifeSharpenerSystem

Homemade Pasta Fagioli

I grew up in an Italian family. We had so many recipes that have become heavy staples in my own home including our pasta sauce and Italian dressing. You might remember my Meatball Sub Sandwich recipe from earlier in the year and those are our family recipe meatballs, minus the Parmesan cheese which I miss! So I keep asking my great aunts and grandfather for specific recipes and was finally able to track one down. The pasta fagioli recipe (pronounced "fazul") The hubby loves the Olive Garden version, but I remember it being slightly different and wanted to try our own recipe before attempting the O.G. knock offs on Pinterest. He was on board and helped me out with making it.....well he cut the veggies and then got a call to run to work really fast.

What You'll Need:
1lb Ground Beef
1/2 an Onion (chopped small)
3 Stalks of Celery (chopped small)
Carrots (chopped small) - 2 handfuls baby carrots
6 cloves garlic Minced
(1) 16 oz Can Tomato Sauce
(2)  16 oz Can White Beans (If you can find Cannellini or Great Northern Beans that is preferred)
(1) tbsp Oregano
(1) tbsp Garlic Powder
Pinch of Pepper
1lb of Small Elbow Macaroni
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions:
1. Brown your ground beef until cooked and drain fat. Chop all your veggies small.

2. In a large stock pot begin to boil your water for your pasta

3. In a separate stock pot, pour about four tbs olive oil in the bottom of your pan. Add your minced garlic and saute until brown. Add in your veggies and saute until cooked.

4. Add your 16oz can of tomato sauce and cook on high to bring to a boil.

5. Reduce heat to medium and add your (2) cans of beans. Then add your garlic powder, oregano and pepper, and ground beef.

6. Increase heat to high and bring to a fast boil for 1 minute. Switch heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes. If your sauce isn't juicy enough you can add water from your pasta pot.

7. While simmering finish cooking your elbow pasta until al dente.

8. This is where there was an oops.....I remember everything being mixed together (like goulash) so I added my cooked pasta into the sauce and mixed it together. I guess you are supposed to just add the amount of pasta you would like for your sauce, for it to be more like a stew/soup. Either way works and tastes just as good. Just pick how you would like it dished up. Remember that the pasta is going to absorb a lot of the juice from the sauce.

Another tip straight from the hubby.....if you cry a lot while chopping onions, then just utilize your swimming googles to help with the sting! Haha. I was giggling when he put these on, but was glad that we were cooking together!

The couple that cooks together, stays together.

Even though it wasn't the same as his favorite O.G. soup, he still went back for seconds and we have plenty left over for lunches.

Always remember that with any spice you should adjust to your own taste. I added more pepper and might adjust the other spices the next time I make it, of course I could add to it as well!.