What's For Dinner? The Eternal Question and a Recipe for Bohemian Spaghetti

Welcome to my newest blog.  After careful consideration I chose to title this "What's for Dinner?".  I have been vlogging for a couple years now and wanted to expand my possibilities so this blog is just a natural progression.  I hope that you will come with me on this journey.

Admit it, you hear this question every day, and I mean EVERY day.  What's for dinner?  A very innocent question, but for us Moms a question that is asked everyday, sometimes at the same time every day, sometimes multiple times each day.  Nonetheless, it is asked over, and over and over again.  My 13 year old daughter asks this question each day between 5 and 6 p.m.  without fail.  She is predictable, like the sunrise and sunset.  She will text me the question.  I always text back IDK.  Not because I don't really know, but because I like to mess with her.

So the questions goes.  My husband will often ask the question, but he likes to disguise it in this form, he will say, "What were you thinking of for dinner?  This makes it sound like he was doing me a favor by reminding me that it was almost dinner time and he was getting hungry.  And so it goes.

Dinner is an important time of the day.  A time when we can gather as a family and discuss what happened.  A time to be together and know that you are loved.  A time to participate in a conversation that no one else in the world will have today.  And most of all a time to enjoy a meal together.  One that mom or dad made, one that you made all together.  A time to be a family.  Studies have shown that a family that eats dinner together is more likely to have less trouble with drug and alcohol abuse and the children have higher test scores.  I just think that this is a perk.  Studies can say anything, but dinner makes a family!

It is my goal to share with you, some recipes and tips that might help you achieve dinner nirvana.  It will also help you to answer the age old question for your own family.  I will post recipes along with demonstration videos to help you on your journey to the dinner table.   Share with me your ideas and your comments.  Together we can help each other answer the question "What's for Dinner?".

So without further adieu, on with dinner.......................

To start, lets do something that is new to me.  Honestly I just saw this recipe today on Facebook, a friend of a friend posted it.  She said that her grandmother used to make it.  I added a couple things of my own and voila!  Dinner for those nights when the cupboard may be bare, the wallet may be empty and the mental recipe generator is on the fritz.  Bohemian Spaghetti.  Serve this with a large green salad and some bread and you will feel like you just ate at a kings table!

Here is what you will need to make this recipe:

1 pound of bacon cut into dices

1 pound of crimini mushrooms

1 large onion diced

2 cloves of garlic minced

2 cans of diced tomatoes in their juice

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 tablespoon cracked black pepper

1 pound of cooked pasta (I used Angel Hair)

1 ladle of pasta water if necessary when sauteing the veggies and bacon.

Parmesan cheese to taste

Prepare pasta while cooking sauce and set aside.  In a large heavy skillet, cook bacon until crispy but not too brown don't over cook or it will be gross.  Add in onion and cook until translucent (don't remove any of the bacon fat).  Add in the garlic and cook until you can smell it's lovely aroma (around 30 seconds)  Add in the mushrooms and cook until tender and they have rendered some of their liquid.  Add in your Italian seasoning and cracked black pepper and stir to combine  If at this point, you find that your pan is a bit dry, dip into your pasta water and add a ladle full of that water.  It will evaporate mostly, but it will prevent your veggies and bacon from browning too much.  Now go ahead and add those tomatoes, cook until bubbly and stir in your pasta, making sure to distribute the sauce evenly.

To serve, pile onto a dinner plate and  top with  Parmesan cheese and more pepper to taste.  Serve with a green salad and some crusty bread and you will ever forget that this is a meal made from virtually nothing!

I hope you try this and I hope you enjoy it!  Until next time, See Ya.