If I had to pick one food to eat for the rest of my life, pasta would top the list. The never-ending combinations of noodles and sauces mean it never gets boring — and I have yet to find a bowl of pasta I don’t like. Gnocchi with pesto and mom’s lasagna are the ultimate comfort foods for me, but oftentimes real life calls for a dinner that’s even more effortless.

I always keep a jar or two of store-bought pasta sauce in our cabinet for nights when I really don’t feel like cooking. I always buy a marinara-style sauce because it’s a blank canvas for other ingredients. My favorite pre-made sauces are Rao’s (worth the extra cost) and Private Selection Basilico. While the sauces taste OK straight out of the jar, a little extra effort makes them taste more like they’re homemade. And, the final product still comes together quickly.

Here’s how to elevate your favorite store-bought pasta sauce:

Start With Garlic

In my opinion, this is how all delicious meals start! I begin by sautéing two to three cloves of minced garlic in two Tablespoons of olive oil until fragrant. You can also add some soffritto, which is the base of all good Italian dishes. It’s the flavorful combination of chopped onion, carrot and celery. Cook the garlic and onion first until softened, then add in the carrot and celery.

Add Protein

Adding meat to the sauce will not only give your final pasta dish more flavor, but it will amp up the nutritional stats on the meal and keep you feeling full longer. I love using lean ground beef, ground turkey or a combination of sweet and spicy Italian sausage. Once the meat is browned, drain fat and add sauce to the pan. Simmer for at least 15 minutes to let the flavors marinate; the longer it simmers, the better it will taste. I typically use about one pound of meat for 24 oz. of sauce.

Pour In Some Wine

If you really want to make your sauce taste fancy, pour a couple splashes of wine into the pan to deglaze it after sautéing meat or veggies and before you add the sauce to the pan. A little bit goes a long way and makes pasta taste especially rich.

Stir In Fresh Herbs

I like my pasta sauce packed with flavor, so I often throw in a handful of chopped fresh herbs while it simmers. You can use whatever herbs you have on hand, but I like to toss in lots of basil, oregano, thyme and parsley. If you don’t have fresh herbs, use a Tablespoon or two of dried Italian seasoning and one teaspoon of ground fennel to amp up the flavor.

Top With Quality Cheese

One of the biggest splurges in my grocery budget each week is fancy cheese. I buy a couple of varieties: at least one for snacking and one for grating. I like to top my pasta with aged parmigiano-reggiano, mimolette or fresh mozzarella — or all three! I stick the cheese-topped pasta under the broiler for a couple of minutes to make it extra gooey and delicious.

The post How To Make Store-bought Pasta Sauce Taste Homemade appeared first on The Broadcasting Baker.

Every evening when I go outside to water our plants and garden, I close my eyes and take in the amazing, natural smells they all emit. While I’m a big fan of flowers, the potted herbs lining our back deck produce my favorite smells. My parents have always been gardeners, so the smell of fresh herbs has always signaled summer to me. It reminds me of running around the backyard as a kid looking for caterpillars on the dill plants and summers filled with my mom’s homemade pesto.

Fresh herbs help elevate everyday meals with their strong fragrances and flavors. I plant a wide variety of herbs in pots on our back porch every summer to use in everything from drinks to desserts. Basil and mint are the two I find myself using most often.

I wanted to throw together an easy dinner last night with what we had on hand, so I plucked some herbs from their pots and made this healthy meal come to life. I always cut chicken breasts in half because they’re so large they can easily be split. It’s very important to make sure you don’t marinate this chicken for more than one hour because there’s vinegar in the marinade, which will give the chicken an odd texture if it sits too long before cooking.

You can easily swap out other herbs you have on hand for the ones I use in this recipe. I served our chicken alongside kale I sautéed in a small amount of butter, but it would also taste great with my everyday salad. To make this meal a bit fancier, you can cut a slit in the middle of the chicken breasts and stuff them with goat cheese. Because everything’s better with cheese, right?

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

• 2 large chicken breasts, weighing about 1 lb. total
• 1/4 cup high-quality olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1/2 Tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped
• 1/2 Tbsp. fresh oregano, chopped
• 1 tsp. crushed red pepper
• Salt

[/ingredients]

[directions title=”Directions”]

1. Take each chicken breast and cut it in half vertically in order to get four, thinner chicken breasts. Season chicken generously with salt, place in a gallon-sized freezer bag and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, vinegar, garlic, herbs and red pepper. Carefully pour marinade over the chicken in the plastic bag. Squeeze all of the air out of the plastic bag before sealing it and tossing the chicken to coat. Refrigerate chicken for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
3. About 15 minutes before your chicken is done marinating, preheat your grill over medium-high heat. Once it’s preheated, place chicken on grill and cook for three to four minutes on each side, until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove chicken from grill and serve immediately. Season with more salt to suit your taste.

[/directions]

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We’re halfway through the week — hooray for that! You’ve probably noticed my posts the past few weeks have been less consistent and feature fewer recipes. I’m going through one of those periods where life doesn’t seem to slow down for anything. Most nights consist of me coming home from work, cooking dinner, working out and then heading straight to bed. I’m feeling a bit rundown, so I’ve been neglecting the blog a bit. I’m hoping life will slow down a bit soon so I can spend more time in the kitchen testing recipes. It’s my happy place!

Despite how hectic life is right now, I’m trying really hard to cook at least five nights a week. We usually take leftovers for lunch and knowing we have healthy meals to grab on busier days means there’s one less thing to be stressed about. These five dinners are recipes I find myself making again and again because they’re simple, but delicious. The last thing I want to do at the end of a long day is spend an hour in the kitchen. Hopefully these recipes will make your life easier, too!

Slow-Cooker Pork Carnitas

This is one of my all-time favorite meals. You can prep the pork the night before or in the morning and then throw it into the slow cooker while you’re at work. You’ll come home to an amazing smelling house and will only have to shred the pork before you dig in!

 Spicy Peanut Butter Drumsticks

This is one of my favorite meals to throw together when I’m craving takeout. These drumsticks are slightly spicy with just a hint of peanut flavor. I like to serve them with naan and salad or on top of jasmine rice.

Weeknight Chicken Sausage Pasta

Is there anything more comforting than a warm bowl of pasta? This lighter pasta dish is one you can feel good about digging into and takes less than 30 minutes to whip up.

Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Dinner

This healthy meal comes together in just 30 minutes. Sausage, potatoes and carrots get thrown together and cooked on one pan, making for a delicious dinner that couldn’t be easier.

Mini Turkey Meatloaves

I’m saving the best recipe for last. These mini meatloaves are full proof and so darn good! Friends and family request them repeatedly. If I know I’m going to have an especially busy day, I’ll put the meatloaves together the night before so all I have to do is pop them in the oven when I get home from work.

What’s your go-to recipe on busy nights?

The post Five Easy Weeknight Dinners appeared first on The Broadcasting Baker.

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? We made a quick trip to Illinois to visit my family. We always love going home because we usually don’t make any plans ahead of time and instead spend the weekend relaxing. It was so much fun to catch up with my parents and uncle, but our trip was too short!

Every time we come back from being out of town for the weekend, I do feel a bit frazzled. I like to head into the week with our meals planned out so we don’t feel tempted to grab unhealthy options when work gets hectic. Although it was about the last thing I wanted to do on a Sunday night, I threw together this easy sheet pan meal to pack up for lunches for the first part of the week. Preparation is the key to success, right?

I love this meal because it’s not only easy, but extremely satisfying. The protein from the sausage and fiber from the potatoes will keep you full well past that 3 p.m. slump. And, I think the easy cleanup isn’t a bad selling point, either.

James and I both loved digging into this dish for lunch today, so I plan to add this recipe to my weekly meal prep rotation. It would be so easy to tweak based on what veggies are in season. I’m already planning on recreating this next week with brussels sprouts!

Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Dinner

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

• 4 chicken sausages (I love Aidells)
• 3 parsnips, peeled
• 3 carrots, peeled
• 8 red potatoes
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. thyme
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

[/ingredients]

[directions title=”Directions”]

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cut parsnips and carrots into 1/4-inch thick slices. Dice potatoes into 1/4-inch pieces. Pour vegetables and potatoes onto baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Toss with thyme, garlic, salt and pepper.
3. Push vegetables and potatoes aside to make room for chicken sausages in the middle of the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until potatoes and vegetables are browned and tender, flipping everything once halfway through cooking.

[/directions]

The post Chicken Sausage Sheet Pan Dinner appeared first on The Broadcasting Baker.

We’ve officially entered my favorite season: porch season. Last night we cleaned off the table on our front porch and had our first outdoor meal of the year. Everything about it was wonderful — the brightly-colored scenery, the scent of freshly-cut grass, the taste of a homemade meal. The company wasn’t too bad, either.

I love outdoor meals because they make it easy to disconnect and soak up the moment. James and I get a chance to catch up about our days without being interrupted by text messages or e-mails. And there’s something about fresh, spring air that just makes my soul so happy.

Because the weather was so beautiful, I didn’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen throwing together dinner. I had some thinly-sliced pork chops thawing in the fridge and decided to use them to create a lightened-up version of pork piccata. James is a huge fan of schnitzel, so I knew he’d enjoy its Italian cousin. Dare I say he liked pork piccata even better than his beloved German version?

I served this pork alongside some pasta tossed in lemon olive oil, freshly-ground pepper and parmesan cheese. James and I kept looking at each other after every few bites and saying how delicious the meal turned out. This is definitely one I’ll be keeping my recipe arsenal for a long time to come.

If you don’t have pork on hand, you can easily replicate this recipe using chicken or veal. I hope it’s as big of a hit in your house as it was in mine!

Easy Pork Piccata

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

• 1 lb. thinly-sliced boneless pork chops (you can also use a meat tenderizer to turn thicker pork chops into cutlets for this recipe)
• Juice of one lemon
• 1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 Tbsp. capers

[/ingredients]

[directions title=”Directions”]

1. Set aside 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice. Using a brush, lightly coat both sides of each pork chop in the remaining lemon juice.
2. Combine breadcrumbs, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Dredge each pork chop in breadcrumb mixture until completely covered.
3. Heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add pork chops and cook until browned — about three to four minutes on each side.
4. Once pork chops are done, remove them from the skillet and cover them with aluminum foil to keep warm.
5. With the skillet still over medium heat, slowly add wine to the to the pan, using a spoon to scrape any browned bits off the bottom. Add chicken broth, the remaining 1 Tbsp. lemon juice and capers. Simmer for about five minutes, until sauce is reduced by about half.
6. Remove aluminum foil from pork and drizzle it with the warm sauce. Serve immediately.

[/directions]

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