Pantry Must Haves For Quick Painless Dinners

Katherine Heigl With Pantry Must Haves
I am currently on a time management kick, new year, new me and all, and I have found that having a handful of go to painless dinner options in my repertoire has saved me a tremendous amount of time lately. I keep an incredibly well stocked pantry, mostly because I keep forgetting to inventory what I have and continue to buy duplicates of things because I’m…well…kind of scattered. So I have cans upon cans of every kind of bean, tomatoes, olive, caper and fish (that can be canned that is.) I have boxes upon boxes of pasta, flour, sugar, breadcrumbs, oats, grain, baking soda…well, you get the idea. One night recently the chicken I needed for the night’s dinner had not defrosted in time to start prepping and I had only an hour till my children rioted and burned the house down in a hungry rage. Continue Reading

Late Harvest Tomato Spaghetti

Ingredients on a chopping board
As September rolled into the mountains and with it chillier evenings and brisk mornings, harvesting the rest of our summer veggies became a real priority. We didn’t want to lose anything in a frost so we rushed in and started plucking everything even remotely ready. I ended up with more tomatoes than I knew what to do with and had I been thinking I would have gotten out the canning instructions and preserved them that way. Instead we ate tomatoes for like four days straight! One evening I decided to try my hand at improvising a light tomato meat sauce for spaghetti. I think it turned out pretty great and the family seemed to really enjoy it as well. I thought I’d share what I did and what I’d change with you just in case you’ve got some tomatoes that need eating!Continue Reading

Cheeseburger Casserole Reboot

I’m a huge fan of Gina Homolka and her blog Skinnytaste. My mother bought me her cookbook a while ago and it’s been an absolute lifesaver. She has so many wonderful family dinner recipes that taste amazing but cut back on the calories and fat. As a working actress I’ve always had to be mindful of my weight and staying trim but now that I’m pregnant, it’s become even more important to me to eat healthy nutritious foods that will nourish me and the baby. The beauty of Skinnytaste is that I get it all. Healthy family friendly meals that are delicious, nutritious and low in added fat and calories. One of the Kelley family favorites is her cheeseburger casserole. I’ve made it so many times that recently I decided to make a few changes to Gina’s recipe to shake things up. Continue Reading