Oct 25, 2012

Celebrate World Pasta Day with Barilla

Do you NEED an excuse to have pasta? I truly don't, but I'll gladly take one anyway!  Today is World Pasta Day so get out there and enjoy some pasta today.   

I've always loved pasta but as a mom making pasta for my family means I can get a meal that my whole family enjoys on the table quickly.  This is HUGE for me since our schedule has gone crazy in the last year, leaving us out of the house until after 7pm almost every week night.  I love that I can have the things I need to make a meal in my cupboards for anytime I need a quick dinner solution.  And as you can see by some of these statistics, I'm not alone!

Increasingly hectic lives make at-home meal preparation more challenging than ever BUT it’s still important:
  • 88% of parents are reliant upon multi-tasking each day and more than half (58%) say their life is more hectic now, than a year ago.
  • While families are making time for dinner, Two-in-five meal-preparers agree it is difficult to find time to prepare dinner in their household.
  • They don’t want to miss enjoying a home cooked meal with their family as they worry the alternative will offer poor nutritional content (74%) and they will miss out on family time at the table (65%). 
Leading contributors to a hectic lifestyle, making meal-planning and preparation a challenge:
  • 1) Work 2) Household chores 3) Errands 4) Kids’ after school activities 5) Kids’ homework
Pasta provides the perfect meal solution for time-limited households:
  • Pasta is recognized by parents and non-parents as a tasty (88%) and easy (87%) meal option and one that can be prepared using on-hand ingredients from a pantry (82%).
  • Other benefits of pasta that help alleviate chaotic schedules include that it is versatile (52%), a quick go-to meal (51%) and allows for multitasking while it’s cooking (44%).

Because of my lack of time AND lack of love for the kitchen, I haven't ever attempted to make lasagne despite it being one of my families FAVORITE pastas.  So when Barilla sent their World Pasta Day cookbook (and some fabulous Barilla products) and asked me to make try one of the cookbook recipes...I decided to step outside my normal box and give Lasagna a try.  With Barilla's no boiling required noodles I thought I might just be able to handle the task!

I'm not gonna lie, it didn't take me long to realize why I am not a fan of cooking.  Three pots...oh the dishes...did I mention I HATE dishes? All I could think of was...this better be worth it!

And when I started layering, it seemed like I was very short on sauce.  I was worried I had spent the evening creating a disaster instead of a meal...

And when it came out of the over it still didn't look the greatest....

But it was delicious!!!  This recipe used Parmesan instead of ricotta cheese so it has a slightly different flavor but I LOVE Parmesan so I thought it was good.  And compared to the work I thought a lasagna required, it wasn't too bad.  Now the dishes...well I did them right away...I didn't like it...but it WAS worth it!!!

We paired our lasagna with some garlic bread and salad for a great meal!  And this made a 9x13 pan which left enough for a second meal for the three boys and I. (One jar of sauce and one box of pasta plus additional ingredients per recipe.)

If you'd like to try this or many other great recipes from the Barilla World Pasta Day cookbook

As if sharing a great meal with your family weren't enough of a reason to celebrate, be sure to visit Barilla on Facebook today (October 25, 2012) to share a huge and donate 3 meals to Feeding America to celebrate World Pasta Day

 I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Barilla. I received product samples to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.

3 comments:

  1. I think it looked delicious actually! I haven't had lasagna in a long time!

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  2. Yum. Lasagne is so time consuming i just make a casserole now. Use small noodles amd mix all the ingredients together.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yum. Lasagne is so time consuming i just make a casserole now. Use small noodles amd mix all the ingredients together.

    ReplyDelete

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