Italian

This is a classic Italian dish. The one you order at Olive Garden will have WAY more pasta than this dish will have. That’s okay. The shrimp are the real star of this dish. Plus, you’ll be better off without all that starch. 

This whole dinner comes together in about 15 minutes. There are just days when you can’t make everything from scratch. You need something you can get on the dinner table quickly.

Orzo is a wonderful, tiny pasta. This is the most requested side dish recipe I get from dinner guests–but watch your portion size. Enjoy!

Once your weight has solidly stabilized you can handle something like this; just not every day.

This meal is good for breakfast, lunch or dinner. With a side salad it makes a nice brunch offering too!

This makes cozy comfort food. You can put it together pretty fast and pop it in the oven so you can do other things while dinner finishes up. I like dishes like this because it gives me time to load the dishwasher with the cooking tools and the kitchen is cleaned except for the actual eating dishes before I even sit down for the meal. Perfect dish for a pot luck too.

Best served over ravioli; especially a pumpkin ravioli or a butternut squash ravioli.

Let cool to warm or room temperature before serving; the soup will thicken as it cools. Serve with additional grated Parmesan at the table.

This is a dreamy, smooth pasta dish that uses little pasta but is still big on taste. This dish can be easily doubled and baked in a 9" x 13" pan for a larger crowd.

This dish is Italian comfort food. I curl up on sofa with a bowl of this and watch a movie. You can go totally low-carb with this one and make it without the pasta. Tastes just as good. This also makes a great casserole addition to a pot luck party.

For this recipe let's get out the grill. This pasta sauce tastes so fresh. It's really worth the effort to grill the veggies.

There's a thing called a "fresh" sauce in Italian cooking. It just means the ingredients are fresh and you never heat them up.

A simple meat sauce to serve with spaghetti. Yep, those of you who know how I feel about too many carbohydrates might be scoffing about now. Spaghetti? Yes, I say. If you serve it in the right portion.

This time of year I make many casseroles. First reason is it makes for great cold weather comfort food. Second reason is so many people need a dish to take to a party or potluck.

I don’t normally eat sandwiches but when I have an hankerin’ for one, this is a must.