dinners

Nothing warms the soul more than a comforting bowl of pasta, especially when it is covered in a creamy brie sauce and topped with mushrooms, onions, and spinach. Already, this dish is a fast and easy dinner, and I shaved off even more time by using the quick-cooking angel hair pasta, but any pasta variety will do; just pick your favorite. Quickly dice the mushrooms and onions to get them sautéeing in a bit of olive oil. Once they begin to purge their juices, add a bit of white wine and cook down.
Bring your pasta water to boil, and once the pasta is finished, be sure to set aside some of the starchy water to use in the brie sauce. Melt the brie with a little pasta water in the mushrooms and onion mixture. Toss in the pasta and evenly coat with easy creamy sauce. Voilà — dinner!Of course, covering anything in brie will result in an indulgent and delicious dish. If you want to indulge a little less, I have also used half brie and half low-fat cream cheese to re-create a lighter cream sauce. This fast and easy pasta should be in everybody's cooking repertoire, so keep reading for this quick recipe.

In New Orleans, red beans and rice are a weekly tradition, typically served on Mondays. I love to eat them every year on Fat Tuesday. But one thing remains a constant: a hearty meal slow-cooked on laundry day.

Historically, Monday was wash day in early 1900s Louisiana. The laundry took all day, so women would cook the beans and meat while the laundry dried. Today, most restaurants in New Orleans still feature red beans and rice as the Monday special.

My laundry day is Sunday, but it's just as suitable for red beans and rice cooking. It takes a little advanced planning, soaking the beans starting Saturday night, but once you've gotten that out of the way, it's ridiculously easy: put all ingredients in a pot and cook for three hours.

I like to make a lot and eat the leftovers throughout the week, since the flavors only improve with time. I do, however, like to make the rice fresh each day; this method leaves it just a little bit wet, which is the perfect complement to the thick, spicy gravy of beans. Get the recipe now.

The period between after school and bedtime is bursting with extra-curricular activities, homework, baths, and dinner. Moms usually have a standby meal they can whip up in no time. We asked our community to share their "go-to meals."

• Pasta with meatballs or sauce was on most menus, with Facebook fan Krystal Cox telling us: "It's easy, they love it and I can do a lot of hiding of veggies in the meatballs and sauce!"
• Amber512 keeps things simple with sandwiches. "Go-to meals for when my nieces and nephews come over will always be sandwiches. Nothing simpler. We only do something more fancy if we have plenty of time. Otherwise, PB&Js it is!"
• Anonymous reader Phoenix Rising gave us her recipe for Tator Tot Casserole.
• Facebook fan Bernadette Dee turns to the packaged goods at Trader Joe's. "Trader Joe's Potstickers. Is that cheating?"
• RoaringSilence shared her recipe for honey mustard chicken with rice and green beans. "Throw honey, mustard, salt, pepper and lemon juice together, pour over chicken in a baking dish and bake that. I usually take canned green beans with that which I pan fry with some onions, bacon bits and slivered almonds."
• Snookyx said, "I don't have kids but whenever I baby sit after work I make spicy garlic lime chicken and roasted potatoes."
• An anonymous reader shared her recipe for chicken "risotto." "I use regular rice as it cooks so much more quickly and is less labor intensive than arborio. I toss in pre-cooked chicken and some mixed veg and a can of chopped tomatoes."
• Girl Jen said, "Pan-fried meat (salmon or chicken) with steamed veggies."

Fresh off watching Jamie Oliver dish up his Food Revolution to the states I had the chance to see blogger-turned-author Molly Wizenberg, who wrote A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, speak about her obsession of creating memories through meals. Molly, whose documented exploration of food started with her blog Orangette, maintains a deep connection to the culinary memories of her childhood — from her late father's potato salad, to her mom's pound cake, to picnics in her home state of Oklahoma.

Though she says she's always loved food, it is the experience of sharing that food that lingers with her, and the "love of the experience" that she hopes to impart on her readers. Though she's not a mother yet, Molly has her family food recipe written.

• On her plans for her "someday" kids:
  We will eat together. There's no denying the fact that kids' palates go through odd changes over the years, and I expect my kids will have a phase where they just eat something like Cheese Whiz — I know I did — but it's most important to me that we make an effort to create food together and sit and eat together as a family.

Finagling family meals into the daily schedule is a common mama quest (and there are a million reasons why you should make it a reality), but the effort to craft memories from those meals requires careful creativity and some foresight. How do you make memories when your family breaks bread?

What mother hasn't stocked Yobaby Yogurt as a refrigerator staple? While the dairy treat has been the snack of choice for many children, Stonyfield Farms is now giving moms a hand by prepping full, organic YoBaby Meals ($1.30) to feed growling lil bellies. The three-in-one entrees combine yogurt with fruit and veggie purees in one package. The six ounce cups available in pear and green bean, peach and squash and apple and sweet potato varieties will provide more than 35 percent of a toddler's daily protein and calcium needs. We are loving this modern and healthful take on the old TV dinner and entree in a cup concepts.