A Family Favorite: Pasta and White Sauce

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chicken, easy, family favorite, meal, pasta, recipe, sauce, weeknight meal, What's for dinner?

At our house, we do a lot of cooking from scratch. One of my favorite recipes is for a versatile White Sauce. We pair it with pasta, chicken and veggies for a quick and easy weeknight meal, but you can add cheese for a homemade mac and cheese, or use it as a cheese sauce for veggies!

White Sauce:

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 Cup milk
dash salt & pepper
1 tsp chicken bouillon
garlic powder to taste

Simple ingredients

First, melt the butter over low heat (be careful not to scorch your butter).

melt the butter

Add flour and cook while stirring for about one minute.

Add flour and cook while stirring

Next, add milk, salt, pepper, chicken bouillon, and garlic powder.

Add remaining ingredients

Cook over medium heat until thickened. Don’t forget to stir often, especially as the sauce thickens.

Cook while stirring until thickened

Easy peasy! You can use this sauce as is or get creative and make this sauce spectacular! You can a tbsp of pesto (the kids love it!), or pureed spinach (or cauliflour…a great way to sneak in some veggies for picky eaters!), asparagus, broccoli or whatever works for your family!

Get creative and add some veggies for a complete meal!

We like to add in some cubed chicken breast and toss with whole wheat fettucine.

Add chicken and toss with pasta…voila! A quick and easy weeknight meal!

Serve with garlic bread or a salad…or just on its own. Who says cooking from scratch has to be difficult!

Delish!

To make cheese sauce, omit the garlic powder and chicken bouillon. When sauce has thickened, remove from heat and add 1 cup shredded cheese. Stir until combined. Serve over steamed veggies (I love this over broccoli!) or add to cooked elbow macaroni for an easy homemade mac and cheese!

What would you add to this sauce?

~Angie

Linked up with:
http://itsalwaysruetten.blogspot.ca/2013/07/what-ive-been-up-to-recipes-link-party.html

Friday Family Pizza and a Movie Night

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family, family time, pizza, recipe, tradition

Every Friday for the past 10 years has been pizza and a movie night in our house. Every. Single. Friday. When my youngest was born and we were kept in the hospital a little longer because of jaundice, I begged to be allowed to go home on Friday for pizza and a movie night. And anyone who knows us knows about our weekly family tradition.

As you can imagine, in our house, pizza night is serious business. It’s not take out (but will be allowed on certain occasions with sighs of disappointment), frozen or store-bought. It is made lovingly from scratch, every single week! We’ve experimented with different things over the years, but here is our family’s favorite pizza dough and sauce recipe.

Perfect Pizza Crust – yield 2 shells

1 1/2 cups water
1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp sugar
3 Tbsp vegetable oil

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add flour mixture and oil to yeast; stir well. Turn out onto lightly floured board; knead until smooth and elastic (about 6-8 min). Let rise in a covered bowl until doubled in size. Press into pans…add toppings. Bake 15-18 min at 400*.

-I use my stand mixer to make the dough and proof the dough in my oven (preheated to 200* and then turned off). You can also use your bread machine’s dough cycle if you have one. I also pre-bake my crusts a little bit before adding toppings.

Pizza Sauce – enough for 2 pizzas

1 can tomato paste
1 tsp salt or less
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp oil
dash of pepper
few drops tabasco sauce
2/3 cups water

Mix all ingredients together and spread evenly over dough.

-We’ve been adventurous with this recipe in the past as well. We’ve added garlic powder, italian seasonings, or whatever we may have on hand. Experiment and see what you can come up with!

We’ve come up with some great pizza over the years…pepperoni, all dressed, bacon cheeseburger, hawaiian…the list could go on and on. Pair these delicious pizzas with your favorite movie, new release, or turn it into family game night! We also have a burping contest on Pizza night. This is what happens when you have boys! They get to burp and not say excuse me on pizza night only. And I must admit, I’ve won a contest or two!!

Any fun games or topping combinations that your family enjoys?

~Angie

Linked up with:

http://itsalwaysruetten.blogspot.ca/2013/07/what-ive-been-up-to-recipes-link-party.html