Creamy Chicken Soup with Dumplings

I grew up eating chicken and dumplings. The kind mom makes is such a mystery and also makes perfect sense. The ingredients are incredibly basic. A whole chicken + water + time + flour + salt + pepper. That’s it! Somehow it is the most comforting thing to have filling up the house on a…

Fresh Tomato Pizza Sauce

This sauce is perfect for late summer when tomatoes are cheap and flavorful. You squeeze out the water to create a sauce that is more concentrated tomato-ness. Grown Ups Corner: One reason I like using fresh tomatoes instead of canned is to create a positive tomato experience for students that may have not had one…

Veggie Pizza

Pizza is one of my favorite ways to eat veggies that are difficult for me to eat by themselves. I love adding mushrooms (one food I am still learning to like), black olives (that I love but often forget about), and red bell pepper. All three of these foods are power houses of nutrients, and…

Quick Pizza Dough

If you’ve been following along True Family Food for a while, you know we’ve done Pizza, Movie, and Ice Cream Fridays for years now. It serves many purposes. By Friday, I am usually tired of being in the kitchen, and we often order take out pizza or do a frozen pizza. It also assures my…

Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce

If you’re like me, about March you’re ready for some summer produce! Here is the perfect tomato sauce for the height of tomato season (late summer) when tomatoes are cheap, flavorful, and plentiful. Make sure a grown up does the grating of the tomato, unless you have a rotary grater or food mill like we…

Sheet Pan Fajitas

Having just come back from spring break in Texas visiting family, I still have Tex-Mex on the brain. I did my best to satiate the craving while there. My mom took us straight from the airport to our favorite Tex-Mex spot, where I ordered a cheese enchilada, crunchy chicken taco, queso, and refried beans. All…

Lemon Chicken and Rice

This was one of the first truly one pot meals that I fell in love with. It didn’t have any extra sneaky dishes. It packed a lot of flavor. I could make it in under 30 minutes if I really focused. Most importantly, my whole family loves it. The combination of brothy rice and lemony…

Brilliant Blue Pasta with Cream Sauce

Every time I test this pasta, I go to take a taste, and end up eating the entire bowl right there over the counter. It is shockingly good. There is something about super fresh, hand made pasta dough covered in incredibly rich cream sauce that is irresistible to me. If you have a pasta attachment…

Gorgonzola Soufflé

This blue cheese soufflé brought my eight year old around to blue cheese. I made a BIG deal about how fancy soufflés are and how wildly they rise in the oven. We made an activity of checking on it through the oven window every 5 minutes or so while it was baking. It was an…

Ground Beef Taco Meat

I feel like I have finally cracked a code that has plagued me for years. I grew up eating ground beef that was flavored simply with salt, pepper, and chopped onion, which was delicious and it’s own special thing. However, I always loved when I would stay at friends’ houses and their ground ups would…

Chimichurri Green Sauce

I still remember the first time I had this sauce. My husband and I had just moved to Houston from New Orleans. We didn’t know many people yet, and my husband’s friend’s mom invited us all over for dinner. She made an entire beef tenderloin! I had never seen one before and didn’t know what…