Share The Table:Delicious Meals With Barilla

Barilla Pastas and Sauces continue to be a family sanity-saver at our home! We really enjoy their delicious, light sauce recipes and wholesome pastas for our weekly pasta dinner nights. That's one of the "tricks" I incorporate into my meal planning to ensure a number of full house dinner table gatherings for us. Our schedules become hectic once school begins this fall, so I was thrilled to discover the great, innovative recipes at www.BarillaUS.com

Chef Mario Batelli really sparked my cooking imagination as I gathered the kids to help prepare a wonderfully easy and nutritious meal from his recipes available on the Barilla website. We tried the Basic Tomato Sauce with their hearty wholegrain pasta - magnifico! The sauce even has the added benefit of fresh grated carrots to help everyone get some added veggies! Serve with some fresh garlic bread and tossed salad makes for a lovely evening without stressing out the cook! Be sure to try the Barilla Whole Grain pasta and Take The Barilla Challenge - visit to learn more: www.TryBarillaWholeGrain.com
If you don't love it, you'll get a free box of your favorite Barilla Pasta.

Here are some fun tips from Mario for Sharing the Table at your home:
* Dont' begin to clear the table until everyone has finished eating - linger awhile.
* Serve dessert separately from dinner - a little later and with new place setting - so you have a reason to sit down together again.
* When conversing at the table, don't interrogate your kids - let questions come naturally.
* Linger at the table after the last bite has been eater - tell a joke or a family story.



“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Barilla and received products necessary to facilitate my candid review..”

How Far Will You Go To Feed Your Family Healthier?

I LOVE MY VEGGIES....my family, not so much!
*Sigh* We continue our saga of eating healthier, but time commitments and shrinking wallets - not to mention differing tastes create a less-than-friendly environment for healthful and delicious meals at dinner time. Hubs nearly faints at the sight of green vegetables, and the kids aren't impressed with a few others. But now I've discovered a new weapon in the fight for mealtime nutrition:
RONZONI SMART TASTE PASTA!

We have enjoyed Ronzoni pastas, but this is something new and better! It looks and tastes like traditional white pasta, but has the amazing added benefits of calcium and fiber. We tried it recently and the fam really loved it! It's not chewy or gluey and perfect with any sauce or flavor combination you may serve with it. Other benefits for the whole family include lower calories and fat than traditional while pasts, no sodium, preservatives or cholesterol. Visit www.RonzoniSmartTaste.com for get more info.

Ronzoni has also launched a fun and entertaining spoof video about the Smart Taste Super Mom (you know, she's inside all of us!) and our attempts to help our family eat right:



Supermom video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr_pTWuBDds

www.ronzonismarttaste.com to find out more information about the product

Be sure to check out the $4 rebate offer with purchases for Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta and the Disney/Pixar movie "Up": http://ronzonismarttaste.newworldpasta.com/up/


I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Ronzoni Pasta and received a sample of Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta to facilitate my review and a $20 thank-you gift certificate.

Something New From Ragu~Feed Our Kids Well!

Dinner time can be challenging since I work full-time - creativity can sometimes elude me after many years of the nightly, "Mom....what's for dinner?" yelled across the house the minute I walk in the front door!

A favorite "go to" in my dinner kit toolbox includes Ragu Old World Style Pasta Sauces. Ragu values family time, and the importance of family meal time together. We're a perfect fit! I toss in a home made touch now and then and serve over our favorite pastas with a fresh, green salad and toasted breads for a quick and nutritious meal without a lot of fuss. Our entire family loves it.

Now Ragu has introduced two new flavors of Old World Style sauce - Sweet Tomato Basil and Margherita! MomCentral.com provided me with the opportunity for us to sample these recently. They are readily available at the local grocery stores - great value pricing, especially with a coupon!

Both sauces contain more than a full serving of veggies in every 1/2 cup of sauce and carry the "EAT SMART" logo on the label. The Sweet Tomato Basil tastes like my homemade sauce - smooth with lots of great flavor...sweet but savory, and mellow. The Margherita is a delicious blend of tomatoes, pizza seasonings, and mozzarella cheese - great for homemade pizza-style meals or snacks and this makes the perfect dipping sauce!

Ragu is a part of Unilever brands - don't forget to gather your receipts and submit for the rebate program I posted earlier this month!