Quick Fix Dinner - Pasta

I believe that everyone should have a few dinner ideas stashed away in their hip pockets for those nights when you don't want to, or can't, spend much time in the kitchen preparing the family meal. Maybe you had to work late...or you forgot to pull something from the freezer...or you simply don't feel up to it...for whatever reason, pulling together a well-thought out dinner just isn't going to happen tonight.

Sure, you can order pizza or take the whole family out for dinner, but that can get rather taxing on ye olde budget if it happens very frequently.  So, what's a girl to do?  I lean on what I call my "Quick Fix Dinner List."

About once a month, I make a list (sometimes the list is just in my head) of 5 or 6 dinner ideas that I can prepare and have on the table in no more than 15-20 minutes.  These are usually meals that take just a few ingredients also.  I then make sure that I have all of the ingredients for these meals on hand so that I can pull any one of them together on the fly.

Tonight, for example, I just really didn't feel well all day.  I didn't feel up to preparing a complex dinner and then cleaning up afterwards.  This was the perfect night for my Pasta Quick Fix Dinner.

The ingredients are simple and are probably things that you have already or can easily store

1/3 lb of bacon
2 jars prepared alfredo sauce
8 oz frozen peas
3 - 13 oz bags frozen tortellini or ravioli

One quick tip on the bacon...I keep a package in the freezer specifically for bacon bits.  If you are careful, you can cut along the entire package while it's still frozen and you'll have perfect bits of bacon to use.  Stick the remainder of the package back in the freezer and use it the next time you need them.  It takes almost no time to do this for salads...YUM!

This makes a lot!  As a foster mom, I never know how many people will be eating dinner, so I make a ton of food.  Also, my kids usually have friends to eat over.  There were only 4 of us eating tonight, and we ate only about half of it.  That's lunch for my husband tomorrow and a midnight munch for the boys...teenagers!  The kids are out of school this week for fall break, so I'm sure they'll still be up at midnight attacking my refrigerator.

Here's the video on how to make it.  As this isn't a very light dish, I always make sure that I serve it with lots of veggies.  Tonight, it was roasted asparagus, a huge tossed salad, and apple juice.  The kids were happy and full!

Here was our entire dinner:

Thanks, and welcome to my world!


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