I like EASY.
Easy, easy, easy.

Easy
like a Sunday morning.
Easy like a romantic dinner
on a Tuesday night after a long, hard day at work...
With pretty glowing candles and good wine...
Setting the mood with a velvet red, black, and white color scheme...
Serving nice~n~easy nourishment...

See this whole wheat tortellini?
It cooks in seven minutes.
Seven minutes!
Just throw it in water and boil for seven minutes. It's done when the tortellinis float to the top.
It's fab.u.lous.
I find this fresh pasta in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Fareway doesn't carry it but Hy-Vee does.

It is fully cooked and fully out-of-this world fabulous!
This Aidells company, out of California, makes several flavors, I've tried and like them all. This Chicken & Apples flavor is my favorite.
I have the Roasted Garlic & Gruyere Cheese in my freezer right now. It's gluten free, minimally processed, no artificial ingredients and such.
I found this in the refrigerated section.
Did I mention these are fully cooked so all they need is heated up for a few minutes?

I whipped up some easy marinara from this recipe I wrote about last July.
That's the tortellini boiling in the back pan.

I even sauteed up some kale.
Look at those chicken sausage pieces in back. I simply sliced the links and warmed them over low on the stove while I sauteed the kale. So tasty, not even kidding you, yum!

1. Kale
2. Olive oil
3. Chopped garlic
oh, and salt and pepper of course.
Okay, that's like five ingredients but S&P is a given.
Wash the kale, dry it off real good with a paper towel and separate the leafy part from the stems.
Heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the garlic but do not let it get too dark because it will get bitter.

Leisurely saute the kale a few minutes; add a little salt and pepper as needed.
That's it!
Pretty easy!
Now for the fun, relaxing part.
Put on a nice candlelight dinner jazz CD, slip into the dining room chair, say blessings, and converse and laugh until the hours waste away late into the evening.
Uh huh.
Yup,
that's how we do it at our house.
Romantic candlelight dinners.
All.
The.
Time.

Wait a minute.
What's that noise by the wine bottle?
Tim, do you hear a noise?
WHAT is that?

It's the freaking cat!
Holyfield! Get down!
You're ruining our nightly candlelight romantic dinner that we have every night of the week,
all the time, because we are romantic.
Duh.
Tim!! Turn on the lights!! I think I just got cat hair in my mouth!!
Just turn on the lights!
That's fine. Whatever.
Yes, I said looks. And don'ts. It's proper; look it up.
Candlelights and camera angles really hide a lot of crap, eh? Hehehehehehehe. :):):):):):)
I'm giggling so hard right now as I type this!!!!!!!!!!!
Although I will say, the meal and tiny portion of the dining room table truly did look seriously spectacular and glowing in the candlelight.
Also I've come to believe food and beverages taste better in candlelight.
And Tim and I did have a nice meal and conversation.
For like twenty minutes.
Then Tim needed to go back out to the shop and I had to return a few emails.

And this is a terrible picture of the food with normal lighting but Ima tell you,
it was fantastic!!

I love these glasses with the tea lights in them. One is a champagne, the other is a super lovely cut aperitif glass and the little one is a salt I think. The tea lights are nestled in shiny swarovski cut crystals that I bought for our oldest daughter's wedding decor three years ago. I luuurrve them!
Hope you enjoyed this silly post today :):):):)
I'm still smiling quite broadly.
Matches my silhouette.
Now I'm just killing myself with my own jokes.
Must. stop. now. *giggle*
See ya next time!!!