Jonas picked out this recipes one evening when we were both tired after work and wanted something quick and easy. You just throw together some pasta, tomatoes, oil and fresh mozzarella -- couldn't be easier!

Jonas coring, seeding and dicing tomatoes	Olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and shallots -- pretty!
Tomatoes marinating in the oil mixture	6 oz. of fresh mozzarella, coming right up!
Julia posing with the marinating tomatoes and a bag of penne	Jonas bearing a plate of chilled mozzarella
Pasta Caprese

Recipe source: America's Test Kitchen

Jonas has been watching what he's eating the past few weeks, so today we decided to try a recipe from ATK's light cookbook.

(If you're not familiar with ATK's "schtick," they take popular recipes and experiment with them over and over in order to determine the very best way to prepare it in terms of time, ease of cooking and -- most importantly -- taste. In general, they do not sacrifice taste in favor of healthiness, so although they deigned to publish a light cookbook, the recipes inside should still taste pretty darned good.)

Spaghetti and meatballs is about as simple as it gets. The most arduous part is probably mixing the meat, spinach and herb mixture by hand, especially if you don't let the meat cool to room temperature first (agh! cold hands! cold hands!). After that, it's a snap: fry 'em up, cook the sauce, and there you go.

Julia modeling her new apron	Jonas rolling meatballs
Jonas looking decidedly mischievous	Yummy homemade meatballs, just out of the frying pan
Homemade tomato sauce	Light(er) spaghetti and meatballs with grated parmesan

Recipe source: America's Test Kitchen's The Best Light Recipe cookbook

I had some button mushrooms that needed to get used up, as they were looking a little wilty. Paging through the book (see source below), this was the first recipe I happened upon that included them.

These were some truly enormous and tasty chicken burgers. Although fully loaded with mushrooms, Swiss, lettuce and tomato on top, it's still just a burger, so you'd probably want to add some chips or fries on the side.


Jumbo chicken, spinach and herb burgers:
om nom nom nom

Recipe source: Rachael Ray's 365 No Repeats: A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners

This recipe caught Julia's eye when it showed up on her feed for Betty Crocker's recipe of the day. It wasn't entirely homemade, as half of the recipe comes from the contents of a box of hamburger helper, but it contained a number of fresh ingredients as well. It was a quick and tasty dish fitting for cooking up after a long day at work.

Ingredients for beef pasta and mushroom soup	Julia chopping fresh parsley
Browning ground beef in the stock pot	The soup containing everything it needs except pasta and mushrooms
Voilà! Beef pasta and mushroom soup, topped with freshly-grated Parmesan cheese.

Recipe source: Betty Crocker

It was time to try another of ATK's lasagna recipes. (We had tried the skillet lasagna some time ago.) This one went in the oven, and required a few more steps, but was ultimately a delicious success. We served it with a store-bought crusty herb bread.

Lasagna ingredients ready to go!	Julia plopping down ricotta dollops during lasagna assembly
Applying the finishing touches of mozzarella	Served with herb bread

Recipe source: America's Test Kitchen

Julia needed an easy appetizer to bring to a work party, and this fit the bill!

Not too many ingredients needed for this recipe	Spreading the herb and butter mixture on the biscuits
Twisted and all ready to go into the oven	Beautifully golden brown!

Recipe source: Simple 1-2-3 Appetizers

We were looking for something simple but hearty, and skillet lasagna seemed to fit the bill.

Most of the lasagna ingredients, measured and assembled.	Onions and red peppers sautéing.
Browning the meat	Adding the noodles and diced tomatoes
Adding large dollops of ricotta cheese

Recipe source: America's Test Kitchen