When the weather warms up, I start thinking about lighter foods. The soups and roasts that hit the spot on frigid New England winter days are forgotten in favor of lighter summer fare like fruit, everything grilled and salads. Dinner becomes an art of combining no-cook dishes (can’t heat up the kitchen!) combined with whatever is coming off the grill.

Honestly, I love our foods of summer — the creative salads, smoky grilled meats and tasty seafood. I think it might be my favorite eating season (you can have a favorite eating season, right?).

What I also love is the contrasts of foods in summertime — the sweet fruits served alongside savory dishes. The cool veggies with warm grilled whatever. You get it.

And this Warm Salad with Grilled New Potatoes is all about the contrasts. There’s the crisp veggies and lettuce with the creamy grilled potatoes. There’s the hot potatoes and cool dressing and salad. And of course, the sweet tomatoes and sharp blue cheese. It’s divine.

Making the potatoes is so simple. This is ideally made with new potatoes — little red potatoes that are about one-inch in diameter. But larger red potatoes can be used too (just cut them into a 1-inch dice). You simply combine the potatoes with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper in a foil packet. And then you grill them until they are all soft and tender.

Once that’s done, you assemble your salad on plates. Because of the potatoes, this is a pretty filling salad. But if your family has a big appetite, you could also serve it with grilled chicken.

Drizzle it with your favorite vinaigrette … and it’s ready to be enjoyed.

 Have you had potatoes on a salad like this?

PS – Did you know that Betty Crocker (who sponsored this post) now sells fresh potatoes in the produce section? Betty Crocker Fresh Potatoes come in red, yellow, white and russet varieties. The red potatoes would be perfect in this dish.

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Disclosure: I am being compensated by Betty Crocker for creating this recipe. All opinions are my own.

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“You haven’t planned a dinner in a while,” my husband said recently as I stirred a bolognese sauce on the stove. Though I’d planned on making bolognese for dinner that day, I recognized the truth in the statement. Even though I’ve never been big on meal planning, I have always been a plan-ahead girl when it comes to dinner — ready with an answer for the ubiquitous question: “What’s for dinner?” Until I wasn’t.

Suddenly, I never seemed to know what we’d be eating. And it kind of drove me a little batty since every evening I ended up in a mad dash to figure it out at the last minute. Not fun.

Oddly enough, Shawn commented it on that just as I re-found my ability to plan ahead for meals. (I say that with great relief — this was a part of me that I needed to reclaim.)

Moreover, I’ve been making some creative dinners that the kids are really into. Like Cilantro Lime Chicken and Rice with Avocado and Tomatoes. The kids loved this — and so did my cousins, who were the happy recipients of a dinner delivery recently.

Cilantro and lime is one of those flavor combination that just works. The combination of the citrus, the fresh cilantro and a little garlic makes an amazing marinade for the chicken here. Then the rice is tossed with lime zest (flavor without the acid!) and more cilantro. Once the chicken is broiled to juicy perfection, it’s all served with creamy avocado slices and sweet tomatoes.

Perfect. Easy. Ready.

 You just have to try this. Trust me.

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Things change. Opinions. Ideas. Directions. Plans. And you kind of just roll with it and see what happens. Still, I am always a little caught off guard by change — especially change that involves my kids taste buds. And boy, have they caught me off guard recently by enjoying some foods with a nip of spiciness.

Not that these Veggie Bean Enchiladas are spicy per se — but they have a little kick to them and the kids love them. Score one for the spicy-loving mama. And for the creamy, cool avocado that offsets the nip of spiciness really nicely.

These Veggie Bean Enchiladas take about 35 minutes to make — but let me warn you: it’s a bit of quick-fire, hands-on cooking, so be prepared for constant motion for the first 10-15 minutes. You start by whipping up a super easy sauce using salsa, vegetable stock and flour — it takes about 30 seconds and is made totally in the blender. Easy as can be.

Then you make part of the veggie filling for the enchiladas while also filling the tortillas with the other part of the filling — refried beans and baby spinach. (Note: I was hired by Old El Paso to create this recipe, so I used their beans in this one.) Once all that is done, you spread sauce in the pan, finish filling the enchiladas and roll them, pour over the rest of the sauce and the cheese. Finally you bake.

It all happens fast.

But, hey, it’s all worth it when you dish out these warm, creamy, cheesy enchiladas with a bite and serve them with cool sliced avocado. Seriously. Worth every single second of work.

Serve these with a big salad.

Disclosure: I am being compensated by Old El Paso for creating this recipe through my partnership with Platefull. All opinions are my own.

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Dear March, enough with the cold weather. I am so over it. Bring on the warmer temperatures, skin-kissing sun rays and afternoons in the backyard. Seriously, it’s time to let go of the near-freezing temperatures and tuck the bulky coats away once and for all. Please?

Whether or not March complies with my request (and looking at the weather forecast, it’s definitely learning toward not), we’re at that part in the season when the bulky comfort foods of winter give way to lighter (but still warm and cozy) foods of spring. This is when the sun gets a little brighter (or it seems to), reminding us that we’ll soon be digging our toes into warm sand and frolicking in the salty surf.

I can’t wait for those days to come.

In our house, that means stepping away from the homemade macaroni and cheese, and focusing in on veggie-packed dishes like this one. This glorious bowl of flavors and textures.

Veggie and Bean Rice Bowls with Lime Cilantro Vinaigrette is a tangy, sweet, crisp, creamy delight. The Lime Cilantro Vinaigrette is a tart dressing infused with cilantro — with this,  you don’t need cheese or anything else to make it truly sing. And sing it does — like a bowl of fabulous, Southwest-inspired goodness.

Now, what are you waiting for? Go make this!

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Disclosure: I am being compensated by Old El Paso/General Mills for the creation of this recipe. All opinions are, as always, my own.

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Once upon a time, I was a brooding teenage vegetarian who wrote way too much dark poetry. I wrote short stories too, but it was poetry that I would escape to when I needed to process whatever high school drama had me all twisty-turvy. And whilst being a brooding teenage vegetarian, my parents were sweet enough to cook vegetarian meals a few times each week, which meant basically I ate well at dinnertime. Breakfast (what? a pot of coffee isn’t breakfast?) and lunch were a totally different story, but one out of three isn’t so bad, is it?

Then I went to college and became a hungry, busy young adult vegetarian with few cooking skills. The poetry and I soon parted ways as I focused on my studies and having fun and all that college in a major city brings. And I tried to stay fed, which was a challenge with those few cooking skills. I had a slow cooker that I would make soups in, but they always seemed to taste the same — no matter what I put into them. But really, the honest truth is that I ate a lot of take out, occasionally would declare chicken okay and didn’t eat a ton of vegetables — unless you count the freeze dried ones in the Thai ramen noodles I fell back on when my wallet was empty. Eventually, my lackluster eating habits caught up with me and my doctor gave me a choice: take iron pills or eat meat. I chose the latter. It seemed easier.

Now, if I’d known a little bit more about cooking back then, things might have been different. I had no idea how simple a good vegetarian stew could be to make. Nor did I realize how breaking out of my seasoning comfort zone could totally change dishes into something new, exciting and craveworthy.

These days, I still eat meat but often have meat-free days. And when I do, I love to whip up a really flavorful dish like this Curried Chickpea and Vegetable Stew. It’s a little spicy (okay, maybe more than a little spicy, but the rice offsets the spiciness), which means my kids aren’t big fans but that’s okay — more for me. Whipping up a pot of this on Sunday means lunch for the week for me (score!).

This vegetable stew has some of my favorite flavors — creamy potatoes, sweet carrots, meaty chickpeas and that twist of curry that transforms the tomato base into a warm, fragrant Indian-inspired dish that’s perfect served over rice.

I think my inner brooding teenage vegetarian would approve.

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When I was in high school, I started seriously reading cookbooks — trying to decipher how to cook. My obsession began with vegetarian ones (I was a vegetarian at the time). I collected them, paging through the recipes and imagining the day when I could figure out how to take those words and translate them to my plate. I could picture the dinner parties I’d host where I would wow my imaginary guests with my kitchen prowess. There was only one little problem: all the recipes seemed impossible. They were filled with ingredients we never had or riddled with processes and terms that I was completely unfamiliar with.

It was kind of sad. So instead, I would microwave a cheapie personal cheese pizza, adding olives, and feel accomplished.

At the time, I had pretty much zero cooking skills. Unless you count microwaving marshmallows till they puff and explode as “skills.” No? Right, so no cooking skills to speak of. And worse, I was afraid to really try. While I had grown up making potato pancakes and applesauce with my aunt, I really was clueless in the kitchen. Frankly, I worried that if I would poison everyone if I undercooked something or mixed it in the wrong order or combined the wrong mix of ingredients. Back then, I didn’t realize that cooking and baking were different beasts (it should be noted that I could, however, bake cookies like nobody’s business). I had no idea that cooking could be so forgiving.

Now I do.

And I hope you do too. Because being afraid to experiment in the kitchen is just silly — it’s the combination of flavors and re-imagining of foods that keeps cooking interesting. It’s how food is reborn and remade and modernized. And best of all, anyone can do it. Anyone can switch things up a little bit and create a new dish that is absolutely mouthwatering. You can do it. Just be fearless in the kitchen.

This weekend I was stuck at home (Shawn’s car is awaiting an important repair), and suddenly wanted to make pasta for dinner. And by “make pasta” I mean mix up eggs, flour and a few other things to make fresh dough and then roll, cut and cook it. Yeah, that kind of make. It wasn’t my first time. In fact, I have had the pasta attachments for my KitchenAid for more than eight years. They were a wedding present from one of my high school friends. But I can’t say I use the attachments that often — I should, but I don’t.

I mean making pasta? It just sounds like so much work. And for what? Something I can buy all ready to go?

Yep. It’s easy to think like that. Even if it’s really not quite true. In fact, when I buckled down and just did it this weekend, I remembered how easy it really is to make homemade egg pasta. Honestly, after making this pasta this week, it’s going to be hard to return to the box.

Hear me out for a second.

The idea of this is daunting, but the process is really simple.

Homemade pasta starts with a simple dough — this homemade egg pasta dough is my favorite and it has only five ingredients. Nothing fancy or unfamiliar. Just stuff that you may have or that you can readily get at the grocery store. Or the corner store. Or wherever is closest.

You mix together the ingredients and then knead it until it’s smooth (I let my stand mixer handle the kneading). Then you wrap it up and let it sit and rest a bit. Next, you roll it. You can use the pasta attachments for this, but I just do it by hand because it’s easy. And simple. And fast. Working with one-quarter of the dough at a time, I use my trusty wooden rolling pin to get the dough super thin and then I run it through the pasta cutter. Easy as can be. But don’t worry if you don’t have a pasta cutter – you can also cut it by hand (use a pizza cutter for super easy cutting!).

All this work (really, it’s not a lot of work) has a big and worthy payoff. The pasta itself.

Nothing compares to fresh pasta like this. It’s truly a revelation. This Homemade Egg Pasta is rich, silky and so full of flavor that it really barely needs to be dressed. A drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of parmesan, salt and pepper is heavenly. A toss with sauteed garlic and olive oil is inspired. Dotted with sweet roasted veggies is something to write home about. But the fresh, homemade pasta is a star itself — not just a supporting character to a flavorful sauce. You’ll see. Nothing in a box compares.

I really hope you try this. The recipe is adapted heavily from Vegetarian Pasta Cookbook by Sarah Maxwell — one of the cookbooks I read on my bedroom floor as a teenager. And it’s even better than I ever imagined — and so much easier than I expected.

Come on, now. You can do this.

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This Thai Red Curry Roasted Vegetables over Quinoa is one of my favorite dishes. Like ever. Actually, anything with Thai Red Curry Sauce falls into that designation.

But making this? Well, it’s not for Shawn and I sort of had to hold my breath seeing if the kids would like it too.

See, onions are a huge point of contention in my house. While I love them, Shawn despises them (unless they are chopped so finely that the texture disappears, then he enjoys the flavor — but shhh! don’t tell him that). Paige is lukewarm about them raw but loves them cooked. And Will? He’s lost his taste for raw ones recently calling them “spicy,” which I can kind of see.

Still when he saw me whipping up this dish yesterday, the first thing he said was “Oh, but it has those onions I hate,” I cringed a little. The kids are generally open minded about food but sometimes … geesh.

So, I might have rolled my eyes a bit. If there’s one thing I know about my son, it’s that he likes pretty much everything — including sweet cooked onions. “No pickiness in this house,” I reminded him. “The flavor of onions completely changes when they are cooked — and you do like it. And besides, think how much you’d be missing if you were picky about food.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I would be missing a lot,” he said very seriously.

As the vegetables turned a rich golden hue, the aroma filled the house and the kids checked on the meal’s progress a few times. But even though they’d been watching the whole thing unfold, their reaction when I placed their plates on the table was priceless. Will took a long look, and then said, “Wow, this looks so good.” And Paige dug right in, raising a thumb to share her approval. They both loved it.

That excited me beyond belief since I’d tossed those sweet roasted vegetables with one of my very favorite sauces — Thai Red Curry Sauce. It’s a delicate mixture of coconut milk, red curry paste and other flavors that’s sweet and ever-so-spicy. You can make your own (it’s pretty easy), but Trader Joe’s also sells a really tasty premade one (they have no idea who I am, and didn’t pay me to say that. I seriously buy this stuff often). It was a fragrant, creamy dish served over a simple bed of quinoa (rainbow in this case, but more on that another day).

They  loved it. I love it. Such goodness.

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When the snow moved in on Friday, it was fast and furious. One second, I was lamenting that school was pre-emptively canceled and the next the lawn had a full-on dusting of snow. Throughout the day it snowed and snowed, becoming more treacherous by the moment. As dinner neared, it was clear that we weren’t going anywhere for awhile. And despite planning for dinner, all I could think about was takeout.

Of course, it was purely takeout — nothing more specific than that — that I wanted. It could have been a pizza from a favorite local joint, veggie dumplings from the Chinese place in town, Pad Thai from the new Thai place, sushi … as long as it was take out. Of course, with the snow and worsening conditions, takeout wasn’t a possibility.

On Saturday? Even though the snow had stopped, takeout was still out of the question. After all, it’s kind of hard to get takeout when all roads in the state (yes, all!) are closed and your way-too-long-and-wide driveway is still snowed in. It took all day to shovel out. And by then, all I wanted to do was sleep.

Thankfully we are all shoveled out now. And our road is plowed too. My thoughts are with those who are still snowed in — which is a lot of folks especially near the Connecticut shoreline.

And as for the takeout desire? I haven’t given in yet — but I did make a little homemade takeout in the form of a Herb and Cheese Crust Hawaiian Pizza.

This Hawaiian pizza? It’s a step outside the ordinary.

The crust is crisp and rich. Olive oil, minced parsley, asiago and salt are baked into it, creating a firm, flavorful base. Then it’s topped with marinara, diced ham and sweet pineapple — and a layer of mozzarella too. It’s that favorite flavor we love, but better.

And best of all? You can have this amazing homemade pizza in just 30 minutes. Quick is good, right?

Be sure to use a really good marinara (or a pizza sauce). You want something that’s flavorful and that you like. It really can make or break a pizza.

Ready to dig in?

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Disclosure: I was compensated by Pillsbury/General Mills for creating this recipe using Pillsbury Pizza Crust. All opinions are my own.

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Paige’s gleeful giggles have a pure melodic quality to them. When they fill the kitchen, it echos across the house — a sweet sound that never fails to make me smile. Hers are quickly joined by Will’s uncontrollable laughter. His laughter is loud and unwieldy and so, so happy. It’s joy, unleashed.

We are so lucky. So incredibly lucky. But it’s more than that. We are blessed — and it’s something I remember every single day. I try never to let myself head down the rabbit hole of what-if, but it’s practically unavoidable. So instead, I have taken to reminding myself to be thankful every time the thought crosses my mind of what could have been.

Even when it gets really noisy in here.

This afternoon, as the kids played a loud and raucous made up game, their giggles and laughter spread through the four walls of our home. They share an incredible bond, and come up with so many imaginative pursuits.

They’d already dug into this homemade pizza, enjoying the mix of garlic, cheese, tomatoes and sauce.

Making Cheese and Tomato Pizza with Garlic Bread Crust

I love me some good stringy, melted cheese. Don’t you?

This pizza starts with an easy and flavorful garlic bread crust. Roasted garlic, melted butter and salt are brushed all over the dough and then baked in. Then, the crust is spread with tomato sauce, mozzarella and fresh tomatoes and baked to perfection. The resulting cheese pizza is a turned-up classic that’s perfect for movie night or a fab game day snack (like the Super Bowl on Sunday!). And since it can be whipped up in just 20 minutes, it’s a fabulous last minute homemade pizza too.

For the roasted garlic in this, I buy already roasted garlic at Whole Foods or a local purveyor, Stew Leonard’s. It makes infusing dishes like this with the caramelized goodness of roasted garlic a cinch.

What Super Bowl recipes will you be serving up this weekend? Any special game day plans?

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I wish I could gaze into a crystal ball and see the future, perhaps six months from now. I wish I could see that the progress we’ve made means something and our efforts — the talking, the patience, the healing books and the one-footstep-in-front-of-another philosophy — is working and will land our family and community somewhere better.

Of course, I can’t. Instead, I must take comfort in the fact that today is better than last week, which was better than the week before that. Things are improving, slowly. We’re healing, slowly.

Meanwhile, I really want to just get back to good food here on Sarah’s Cucina Bella. I mean, that’s what this site is all about, right?

Broccoli Cheddar Soup is one of my all-time favorite dishes. I fell in love with it years ago at a country fair, where it was served in a big bread bowl. But I seldom had it again until last year when I spent one day a week in an office not far from Panera Bread. Let’s just say that I ate it a lot working there. A lot, a lot.

Now that I am back to working exclusively at home, I’ve been left to my own devices to make my own Broccoli Cheddar Soup — and let me tell you, this is as warm and comforting as the one I remember. It’s like a hug from a loved one or a beautiful memory — it just wraps you in happy joy.

Good thing my family likes it too because now I make it a little more often than I probably should. For the past few months, I have been making this soup on a pretty regular basis. Sometimes I leave it a little more chunky. Sometimes I puree it totally. But either way, it’s always good.

I love this with a hunk of crusty bread, torn straight from the loaf. No butter … just the soup and the bread complimenting each other. Sometimes, that’s all you need — just a simple combination to make everything just right.

Note: recipe adapted from Juanita’s Cocina.

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