Whether you’re making dinner for your family or for a holiday get together, simple but delicious recipes that feed a crowd are always a hit! I don’t think you can ever go wrong with a cheesy, meaty pasta dish either. The best part about these types of recipes is that they don’t take long to prepare, which leaves you more time to relax and enjoy your family. This Sweet Italian Sausage & Rigatoni Bake is a comforting meal that you can enjoy with your family without spending too much time in the kitchen!

I love using Italian Sausage in casseroles, soups and well…I guess pretty much everything. It adds so much flavor to your dishes and if you go with sweet sausage like I did for this recipe, it’s very kid friendly as well.

For this recipe, start by cooking your rigatoni until al dente, then drain it, set it aside in a separate bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil to prevent sticking while you’re working in that yummy tomato & sausage sauce.

In a stock pot, season your sausage with a little salt & pepper and brown it up! Make sure that no pink remains and that the edges of the sausage start to get that beautiful golden brown color. Yum!

Drain any excess fat, stir in a can of your favorite crushed tomatoes seasoned with basil, oregano and garlic and add a handful of freshly chopped parsley. Let the flavors mingle and the sauce simmer for 10-15 minutes, then turn off the heat and stir in your half and half.

I still have a ton of fresh parsley in my garden, so I am using it every chance I get. In this dish, the fresh parsley adds such a bright and refreshing flavor paired with the savory sausage. If you don’t have fresh parsley on hand, it’s okay to use dried, but if you think of it, grab a bunch of parsley at the grocery store each week and keep it in a glass of water in your refrigerator for dishes like this throughout the winter. It just adds a that wonderful freshness to your meals just when you need it during the colder months!

Add the rigatoni to the pot, and toss well to coat. Pour half of the saucy rigatoni into a baking dish, layer with half of the cheese,  and then add the rest of the pasta and sprinkle with the remaining cheeses evenly.

Now you’re all ready to pop this in the oven!

Bake for 30 minutes or until it is nice and golden brown around the edges and bubbly!

This makes a wonderful meal any day of the week and it’s perfect served with a simple salad and some fresh bread. Enjoy!

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Fall has got me in one Cozy mood!  I can’t get enough of warm sweaters, soft, plush blankets and comforting meals!  Hey, if the weather isn’t great for spending all day outdoors, you may as well make the most of the being inside.  I have been making casseroles like crazy lately.  Casseroles are so great for family meals because they are an all in one satisfying dinner.  My children also don’t seem to mind extra things ( like vegetables they may not normally eat without a little fuss) added to the dish.  If you freezer cook on a regular basis or are following my Stock Your Freezer Fridays Series, you know how well casseroles freeze too!  This yummy Supreme Pizza Pasta Casserole is one of those crowd pleasing meals that you are going to want to make again and again.

This Supreme Pizza Pasta #Casserole is a #freezerfriendly #dinner your family will love!
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This delicious casserole is loaded with all of your favorite supreme pizza toppings!  Italian sausage is cooked with peppers and onions, then simmered in a pasta sauce full of Italian herb crushed tomatoes, fire roasted tomatoes, pepperoni, mushrooms, and sliced black olives.

The tasty sauce is then tossed with perfectly cooked penne pasta, transferred to a casserole dish and topped with shredded Italian Blend cheeses and a little basil.  The casserole bakes in the oven for 20 minutes until the creamy cheese is melted and it’s nice and bubbly!

This recipe makes enough for (2) 9 x 13 Casseroles!  That’s right!  One for dinner the night you make it and one to store in your freezer for later.

If you’ve never frozen a casserole before, don’t worry, it’s easy.  You don’t have to bake the second casserole.  Just let it cool, cover it and freeze.  When you are ready to bake it, thaw it in your refrigerator overnight and bake as usual the next day for dinner!  I love knowing I have an extra, pre made meal ready to go in my freezer.  You never know when something unexpected will come up, or when you just don’t feel like making dinner.  It’s nice to kind of take a night off from the kitchen once in a while!

I hope you give this casserole a try real soon!  It’s become a regular on our monthly menu!

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Some nights dinners just have to be easy.  Whether you’ve had a busy day, or just don’t feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen, having a few simple recipes on hand can be really helpful.  When I am trying to come up with something quick to make for dinner, it needs to have 3 things.  Something with a little protein, a vegetable and usually some cheese.  Casseroles and Bakes are wonderful because it’s an all in one type meal that you can pair with a fresh salad or even some bread and it’s perfect.  With the help of Birds Eye, you can easily add nutritious, tasty veggies that kids will love every night to your meals, like in this yummy Broccoli & Tomato Ravioli Bake!

This Easy Broccoli & Tomato Ravioli Bake #Casserole makes a great weeknight #dinner ! #vegetarian
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Today, 9 out of 10 people in the United States do not get the proper amount of vegetables, according to The State Of The Plate report.  Making sure my family gets the recommended amount of vegetables a day is very important to me.  Of course, sometimes that can be challenging with 4 children that can sometimes be picky.  Broccoli is probably one of our favorite vegetables, so I use it a lot our meals. Broccoli goes well by itself as a side dish and it also works great  in several casseroles and pasta dishes.  When my children were really little, I always played a little game with them when they were eating their broccoli.  We pretended that the broccoli were little trees.  Some were bigger and some were smaller.  We would count the trees (for counting practice ) and then see who could eat the biggest broccoli “tree”!  My 3 year old still likes to show me the big “trees” she is going to eat a dinner time!

This easy Broccoli & Tomato Bake takes only a few minutes to prepare and can be on your table in 30 minutes!  Cheese Ravioli is cooked quickly, drained, and then tossed with your favorite tomato sauce, fire roasted tomatoes, and tender Birds Eye Steamed Broccoli Florets. It’s then topped with Italian Blend shredded cheese and baked for 20-25 minutes until the cheese is melted and it’s nice and bubbly!  My children love the cheesy pasta and don’t really mind the addition of veggies!

This year, Birds Eye has partnered with Melissa d’Arabian, celebrity chef, mom of four, and host of FoodNetwork.com’s web series The Picky Eaters Project, to make a difference and help moms with the dinnertime dilemma.   Together, Birds Eye and Melissa are combining their expertise in getting children to eat more veggies, one bite at a time.  I am loving this Orange Chicken Dish full of vegetables she makes in this short video.  I think I’ll have to add it to our dinner menu soon!  I also love her idea of adding vegetables to familiar foods that kids love to slowly introduce more veggies a little at a time!

Birds Eye continues to make eating more vegetables a reality by showing families how to fill half the plate with veggies in fun and simple ways moms and kids will both like. By providing moms with more than 40 unique vegetable blends year round at affordable prices, you can always find several varieties that your family will love!

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I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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On Sundays I like to make some type of pasta meal for my family.  We have more time to sit at the dinner table together and catch up over a nice dinner at the end of the weekend.   I like to make a fresh salad and serve crusty bread along with the pasta, and of course end the meal with a homemade dessert!  It’s a meal that everyone looks forward to each week.  My children especially loves a good pasta dish and if it’s loaded with sauce and cheese, then we are good to go:)  Stuffed Shells are one of our favorite meals, but it can be a little time consuming.  This Inside Out Stuffed Shell Casserole gives you all of the creamy, cheesy taste of stuffed shells, without all of the hassle.  Creamy ricotta cheese is blended with spinach, 3 cheeses, and sauce, then mixed with medium sized pasta shells for a delicious, comforting meal.  My children love this casserole so much that I never hear any complaints about the spinach!  It’s easy to sneak in a vegetable with all of those cheeses:)  This casserole is a great meal anytime during the week, but it’s also perfect for a family get together or pot luck.  If you are looking for a new casserole to share with your loved ones, give this tasty dish a try!

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Lasagna is one of those classic meals that everyone loves to eat anywhere, anytime, any place.  As wonderful as lasagna is, it can also be time consuming.  This Beef & Four Cheese Lasagna Casserole is one of our family’s favorite meals because it has all of the delicious lasagna taste, but it doesn’t take very long to prepare.  This recipe makes 2 casseroles, so you get to put one in the freezer for another day:)  Creamy Ricotta, Parmesan, Romano and Mozzarella Cheeses are baked with Fusilli pasta in a tomato meat sauce for a satisfying, comforting meal.

This tasty casserole is sure to be a hit at your dinner table or even at family gatherings.  With the holidays just around the corner, it’s nice to have a few meals made ahead of time.  If you have out of town guests for a few days, save some time in the kitchen by making this dish and enjoy your company!

This recipe is adapted from Money Saving Mom

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This is definitely a comfort food in our house.  My grandmother and my mother use to make this and well,  it is just sooo good!  It is very easy to make and perfect if you are looking for a different type of casserole recipe.   This works great with leftover chicken and turkey too.

Comfort food! Creamy Chicken Divan! #dinner #casserole #chicken
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If you are looking for a great weeknight meal this casserole is great!  You can use a shredded rotisserie chicken or chopped chicken breast that you may have stored in your freezer for convenience.  Sometimes I like to make this casserole on the weekend and have it ready to go in the refrigerator.  You can assemble the steamed broccoli, chicken, cream sauce and sharp cheddar cheese, cover it, and refrigerate it and when you are ready to bake this you can add the crushed corn flakes.  If you aren’t using chicken that has already been frozen before, you can even make a few of these and store them in your freezer for later in the month.

This comforting meal is sure to become a family favorite, so give it a try soon!

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