French onion soup is one of the only soups Kyle will enjoy so it’s a natural go to on a fall or winter day. There are many ways to make this soup and I tried to lighten it up by using half the amount of butter normally used. Substituting with a tablespoon of olive oil…
Category: Lunch
Weeknight Bolognese with Whole Wheat Shells
Meat sauce is a great Sunday dinner: you can make it in the afternoon and let it simmer all day until you are ready to eat. The flavors only get better the longer it cooks. But meat sauce can also be a quick and easy week night meal that you can throw together after a…
Cioppino
Cioppino is pretty much a fish stew. Contrary to popular belief, cioppino did not originate in Italy but is an Italian-American dish. It’s traditionally made from the catch of the day, so you should use fish you can get fresh (and hopefully local when possible). Typically the seafood is combined with tomatoes in a wine…
Caramelized Onion Tomato Sauce
My friend Sarah participated in a CSA this year that gives her locally grown produce every week. She gave me a bag of tomatoes she couldn’t get through that were absolutely delicious. It’s rare to get a really good tomato anymore so when I do, I will usually just sprinkle salt on it and eat…
Fettuccine con Pesto
In continuing my theme of using ingredients from the garden, my friend Alex and I recently made pesto sauce. It’s a great time of year to make pesto and it is extremely easy to make. You can switch up ingredients depending what you have on hand making it a very versatile recipe. My favorite kind…
Poached Egg Parmesan
The Effrens have gotten very creative with eggs over the years. We will put a fried egg on almost anything so we can call it breakfast. But we do have some go to egg dishes that are always extraordinary and this is one of them. Here is our fathers day breakfast Mom and I made…
Italian Pasta Salad for your next BBQ
It’s easy to get bored of the same old pasta salad with celery and mayo. Don’t get me wrong, it’s delicious and I make it all the time but when you start spending your summer weekends at one or two BBQs, you want something new. This is a very simple recipe that relies on fresh…
Grilled Vegetable Quinoa
I love grilled vegetables, especially in the summer. You can eat them as a side, add them to a pasta dish, put them in a fajita, mix them with rice, or in this case make a very healthy and inexpensive light summer meal with quinoa. Quinoa is new to me but I have fallen in…
Adult Grilled Cheese
They call it grilled cheese for a reason…. It should be made on a grill. My sister came over to eat dinner with us on a beautiful Friday night and we decided to grill on the back deck. After debating several options we thought it would be fun to make adult versions of the childhood…
Cinco de Mayo
Easy Homemade Salsa Grilled Mexican Street Corn Fish Tacos Pork Carnitas Tacos Baked Chorizo Chiles Rellenos Tacos de Barbacoa Chicken Enchiladas Verde Hungover tomorrow? Try Huevos Rancheros Grilled Jalapeno Poppers Enchiladas Verde Roja Healthy-er Mexican Pillows (Appetizer) A fun version of Guacamole Flank Steak Fajitas with Chimichurri Sauce You can also browse these recipes and…
Carolina Style Pulled Pork in the Crock Pot
I am not from the south, I don’t have a smoker on the back deck of my 3rd story condo, and I can’t say I’ve ever bought a pork butt before. So, I’m not going to try to pretend like this is the best pulled pork anyone from the south (or New England for that…
Pasta with Broccoli
Easy. Low cost. Delicious (IF you love broccoli). Pasta with broccoli has a long history with our family. Growing up, my mom made it often as a side to a meat focused dinner. We typically use the farfalle or “bowtie” pasta as we called it as kids. This meal can be made so many different…
Asian Chicken Lettuce Cups
Chicken lettuce wraps exploded as a popular appetizer/entree mostly because of P.F. Changs. They are delicious and healthy, or at least you would think. Check out the nutritional facts on PF’s version and you’ll be shocked at the sodium content. I made these a few years ago for my cousin’s wedding shower and recreated them…
Challah Baked French Toast
Exploring options on what to make for Easter brunch was a lot of fun but I was trying to find some things that would be good for a large group of people. Baked french toast sounded like a perfect idea and after googling for a few days I decided to go with one of my…
Eggs in a Basket
How perfect and balanced is this recipe? You get your potato, eggs, meat and cheese all in one nicely packed basket. All the flavors work so well together and they are pretty easy to make! I concocted these baskets for Easter brunch (yes the Jewtalian hosted a brunch on Easter) so I wasn’t as on…
Tri Colore Matzo Balls
A staple dish for Jews round the world is matzo ball soup. When I was in Venice I managed to find a Jewish quarter with a little deli that made some of the best matzo ball soup I’ve ever had! It’s comforting and oddly delicious. My family makes it every year for different holidays but…
Braised Chicken and Potatoes
Sometimes the best meals aren’t planned. On Sunday I usually plan our dinner ahead of time because it’s really the one day each week when I can make a meal that takes more than an hour to prep and cook. After a long rainy Sunday of being out and about we stopped at the grocery…
Lasagna Soup
If you love lasagna, then you will love this recipe. My friend at work, Marie, showed me a new recipe from Bobby Deen (Paula Deen’s son who is trying to put a healthier twist on Paula’s meals). “Lasagna soup” sounds very strange and I was really hesitant at first. But this lightened up lasagna really…
Veal Milanese Topped with Tomato and Arugula Salad
I admit, this isn’t the healthiest dinner you could make but it could be worse. Once in a while you need to splurge because it’s well, delicious. My mom made this recipe for us growing up and I always loved it, so I thought I would make it this week. We’ve been eating healthy every…
Grilled Steak and Zucchini Salad
Tonight, I threw together a quick, easy and healthy meal in between work and a meeting. Its feeling like summer outside so what better night to fire up the grill? When you grill you keep the calories down but you don’t sacrifice on flavor. It’s a nice night to grill outside and as bathing suit…
Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage
A classic recipe and one of my absolute favorites. I order this at Strada 18 in Norwalk almost every time we go and I finish the entire ginormous bowl. It does cost $18 however so this Saturday night I thought we could save some money and still enjoy a delicious meal at home. I was…
Balsamic Chicken with Tomato and Spinach Penne
Sometimes I get home late, am very tired and have little in my fridge. On my drive home last night I thought about what was in the fridge knowing the pickings were scarce. I got to scheming and had a plan. I called Kyle to put a pot of water on the stove and after…
What to do with that leftover meatloaf?
Since I made my Monday meatloaf on Sunday night, on Monday I had to figure out what to do with this: (leftover meatloaf, bleh!) So I made it into this: Pasta with Meat Sauce! (yum!) Chop up the meatloaf with a wooden spoon in a pan on the stove, add some left over tomato sauce,…
Tacos de Barbacoa
For some reason I have always been intimidated by large roasts and the braising process. I guess it’s fear of the unknown. But after making barbacoa I’m not sure why I was so scared; it was one of the easiest dinners I have made. If you have been to Chipotle you are at least somewhat…
Homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs
I have always wanted to make homemade pasta. Having lived in Italy and knowing what fresh pasta tastes like, I know it’s worth whatever effort it takes to make it. Growing up I heard stories of how my great-grandmother, Filomena Bonini, made homemade pasta weekly, rolled it by hand with a long broom stick, and…
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