Ahhhh....my sweet little granddaugher, Sophie....

Saturday afternoon I had Rick, (my oldest son), Cristina, and my grandaughter Sophie over for a belated birthday dinner....and cake, of course! Rick's 28th B-day was on 2/25, and Mark's B-day....well, let's not say which B-day it was for him, but it was on 3/1.....(53....shhhh, lol).

I made my "signature" pasta meal of carmelized onions with red bell peppers (of course I snuck in some jalapenos too) with Italian sausage and spaghetti....it seems to be the favorite of both my sons Rick and Gabe, (also a great way to sneak in a ton of veggies in the guise of pasta!, lol see *note) I also made pizza....one with pesto, olives and parmesan, and the other with spinach, shitake and feta. No salad, but I showed both my future daughter-in-laws, Cristina and Lily how to make hummus and served the hummus with some raw vegies to start with.

(I made the garbanzos in the PC....of course!)

We ended the meal with a Carrot Cake that Lily made, and a German Chocolate cake that my son Rick picked up from a local bakery....oh yes, and some coconut ice cream from the Mexican market (real sugar and cream!). This afternoon I had to have Mark throw out the leftover cake......what can I say? "Throw it away, people!"

I made a couple of pizzas again tonight using leftover carmelized onions. peppers and sausage, another with the pesto I had taken out of the frezzer for the last pizza....sometimes hoarding pays off, lol!

*note middle picture is 4 super large onions, 2 red bell peppers and 4 jalapenos....about 5-6 cups of veggies, cooked in about 2-3 bl olive oil with a big pinch of red pepper flakes, in a big saute pan for about 30 minutes. I only added one 1 pound pkg of thick spaghetti noodles and it served 6 people, generously, with at least one serving left over! Veggies are a great way to add nutrition, volume, AND flavor without the extra calories.