Rigatoni bolognese is a hearty and comforting dish I learned to make in culinary school. It’s a classic Italian dish that never fails to satisfy your taste buds.

Patience is key for this long-simmered meat sauce, but your patience will be rewarded with a depth of flavor that is worth the wait.

Today, I’m sharing tips for how to choose the best ingredients and the perfect noodle shape, as well as how to make rigatoni alla bolognese ahead of time, and refrigerate it or freeze it for future meals.

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Get ready for the most tender and flavorful Crockpot Pork Roast

The humble boneless pork shoulder doesn’t get enough love, in my opinion. Maybe because it’s also referred to as pork BUTT?

But this affordable cut of meat shines after a low and slow cook time.

This Crockpot Pork Roast gives you tender meat, soft carrots and onions, and a rich umami-bomb gravy, and your slow cooker does most of the work.

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Try this Homemade Turkey Soup to warm you up this season

If you’re staring down a big Ziploc bag full of leftover turkey and you’ve already had a few sandwiches, it’s time to make Turkey Noodle Soup.

Even if you don’t feel like eating it right now, you can make it and freeze it for a meal next month or something (Future You will thank you)!

This soup works well with leftover turkey meat (either dark or white meat), and leftover chicken, too!

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This Creamy Chicken Tortellini Soup Recipe will become a weeknight favorite!

My daughter has turned into a certified soup kid. She loves any and all soup. Which means that I’m planning on lots of soup for dinners this winter. Because you know what? I’m a soup kid, too.

One of our all-time favorites is this Chicken Tortellini Soup. When I say it’s the most flavorful soup you’ll find on the internet, I mean it.

Ingredient choices like chicken thighs and a hint of nutmeg might be a little unconventional, but you’ll understand after just one spoonful!

“This was brought to a soup bar at school on a parent night to serve teachers. It is still, 3 years later, discussed as the best soup we’ve eaten. We actually hunted down the parent who made the soup and got the recipe to pass around. It is still common in the halls to hear, “I made the chicken tortellini soup last night!” Yup, that good.”

—Melissa

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This easy Ground Beef Stir Fry recipe is perfect for a weeknight!

With grocery prices going up and up, steak isn’t something that we buy very often. Ground beef is more affordable, but what can you do with it besides tacos, spaghetti and burgers?

Turns out, ground beef stir fry with rice is a delicious way to prepare this standby weeknight protein.

While stir fry is usually made with sliced steak or chicken, I actually kind of prefer it with ground meat! The little bits of meat get crispy and delicious, and it makes a really nice bite when served with rice.

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When people talk about the cravings that pregnant women have, I always laugh. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I had ZERO cravings, only aversions.

The worst ones were cucumbers and balsamic vinegar (I thought pregnant women were supposed to love vinegary cucumbers aka pickles?!?).

Five years later, these aversions are mostly gone, with a few lingering weird feelings. I still feel a little queasy when I see a PICTURE of cucumbers (the brain is wild) but I can cook with them and eat them just fine. I’ll chop them up and throw them on Greek chicken meatballs, or even make a White Claw cocktail with them.

But I luckily have NO lingering hard feelings about balsamic vinegar. Between making balsamic glaze for balsamic green beans and balsamic asparagus and marinating steaks in balsamic steak marinade, I seem to go through a bottle of this vinegar every month!

So of course, today, I’m bringing you these balsamic roasted carrots. I like them the most in spring and summer when carrots are at their best (extra credit if they’re fresh out of the garden).

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Easter is just around the corner, and with it, a decision. Are you going to serve Easter brunch, complete with vegetarian quiche and bacon in the oven, or are you going the dinner route with baked ham with pineapple sauce and balsamic asparagus?

My family goes the dinner route for Easter, and then a brunch celebration about a month later on Mother’s Day.

No matter what you choose, this unique charcuterie board idea could come in handy. You can serve it as part of your brunch buffet, or as an appetizer before dinner.

An Easter Charcuterie Board is the perfect way to showcase a variety of savory and sweet treats and create a beautiful and enticing spread for the holiday.

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The last carrot cake I made was for my daughter’s first birthday. Her favorite food at the time was glazed carrots, so my husband and I took the day off work and lovingly made her a homemade carrot cake, complete with cream cheese frosting and decorations we piped on ourself.

She took one small lick and didn’t care about that cake at all. It wasn’t one of those pictures of a one-year-old just covered in cake. It was a perfectly clean toddler turning her nose up at a cake we had worked so hard on! Who knows, maybe she would have liked lemon curd cake better?

She’s 4 now, and I told her this story while serving her one of these Carrot Cake Smoothies last week and she said “Yeah mom, I don’t like cake!”

But she DID like this carrot smoothie. Like my lemon smoothie and blueberry lemon smoothie, I pack a lot of good-for-you ingredients into a creamy, portable and utterly sippable breakfast or snack.

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When it comes to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a meal, those of us who don’t love corned beef (except sometimes in corned beef egg rolls) don’t have a ton of options.

My colcannon soup is always tasty. And sure, we could just drown our sorrows in a beer charcuterie board and Baileys brownies, but you need something more than just cheese and brownies, right?

While my wine and cheese board can certainly make an argument for an entire meal based on cheese and alcohol, I have another idea.

This mini shepherd’s pie recipe is made in a muffin pan, producing perfectly portable, bite-sized versions of a classic St. Patrick’s Day meal.

If you’re attending a gathering this year, these would be perfect. No serving spoon needed, just grab them and enjoy!

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Other than Italians, I have a feeling that Midwesterners eat just about the most pasta per capita. Especially in the fall and winter, when it’s cold, damp and seems to start getting dark at about 2pm.

While I definitely try to sprinkle in lighter, non-pasta dinners like almond crusted chicken, Greek chicken meatballs, and shrimp fajitas, I do admit that noodles like salmon pasta make up a significant portion of our cravings during this time of year.

And while a pack of ground beef will always be on standby for meat sauce rigatoni or fettuccine bolognese, sometimes I like to change things up.

Just as ground lamb tacos are a unique twist on taco night and lamb sliders and lamb lollipops are elegant for a holiday appetizer, this lamb bolognese recipe will have you coming back for seconds with its rich, hearty, gourmet flavor.

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