Busy nights need easy dinners! #FreshFinds #shop

Friday marks the ends of Max's first month of kindergarten. I can't believe we're already a month in!

Just this morning, our schedule shifted, so Max is now a “late bird,” and doesn't start class until 9:50 every morning. It doesn't impact our daily evenings at home though, because he goes to afterschool care for a couple of hours until Jamie or I can pick him up.

One thing that's always true though, is that we never seem to have enough time in the evenings! Between homework, reading time, laundry, regular household care and anything else that might come up, it's far too easy for dinner to fall by the wayside when we're in a hurry, and we usually end up going out or ordering delivery, which is definitely not the best solution.

I'm always on the lookout for fast, easy, delicious dinners I can make easily. Jamie does most of the cooking in our house, but I like to try to help out sometimes, so easy is important.

Easy doesn't have to mean a boxed meal kit that's loaded with sodium and fake flavors. Thanks to Pacific Coast Selections refrigerated Alfredo sauce from Lucky Supermarket, I was able to put together this “Kinda Sorta Carbonara” in just about 15 minutes. Max gobbled it right down for dinner last night and asked for leftovers again tonight! I call that a win for sure.

A quick shopping trip at Lucky after school one day, with my favorite shopping assistant, and in no time we were on our way home to a delicious home cooked meal!

My shopping list for this dinner includes Pacific Coast Selections alfredo sauce, bowtie pasta, frozen peas and diced ham. I use ham instead of pancetta for two reasons; it's less expensive and more kid-friendly. I buy it pre-diced because then I can keep the rest of the package to use in scrambled eggs for breakfast without wasting anything.

Speaking of frozen peas… I love to eat them FROZEN! When I was a kid, it was the only way my mom could get me to eat the things, and I still can't resist pouring myself a few, whenever I cook with them. They're just cold little nuggets of delicious, and I've passed my love down to Max.

Anyway.

Back to dinner. (I totally had to go get a little handful of frozen peas just now. They're THAT delicious)

Here's the “make it fast” trick: The pasta directions say to cook for 15 minutes. (We like ours al dente, so I planned for 12 minutes instead) when there were about 3 minutes left on the pasta, I tossed my frozen peas right into the water with the noodles. Same for the ham, I added it to the sauce while I heated that. Four ingredients, 2 pots, fridge to table in 15 minutes.

I'll definitely buy this sauce again, and actually got the marinara as well, and think I'm going to make this Lasagna Casserole next week! Check out Lucky Supermarket's Fresh Finds board over on Pinterest for lots more awesome recipe ideas!