Cooking and wine. Possibly two of my favorite things ever. Everyone needs to know how to cook. You don’t have to always try to cook a gourmet dinner for two, but you should know how to cook something easy, cheap, and really good. When my boyfriend and I started dating I would cook dinner for him, and I swear that’s what made him fall in love with me. It wasn’t that I cooked the best food he’d ever had … though it was probably pretty close … but cooking at home is just so much better than eating out all the time. Especially if you’re starting to gain weight, going out to eat constantly is the first thing you need to cut out. The portions are waaaay too big and whatever you can cook for yourself at home is going to be much healthier. So, take my advice and learn to cook something! Cooking is not hard, but it does take practice. I’ll give you some of my staple recipes so you can start cooking for yourself. Ok, so I’ll only give you what I put in it but no measurements … I never measure anything.

“Boyfriend Dinner” – you first have to understand that when I was growing up my mother wasn’t exactly the best cook ever. Quite the opposite actually, when I had toast at my friends houses I always wanted to know why you didn’t have to scrape the black stuff off because mom always burnt our toast. She came up with boyfriend dinner and at first we were all a little suspicious, but it turned out to be great. That’s how it got to be called boyfriend dinner – whenever I brought a boyfriend over for dinner for the first time this is what she would cook. So weather you’re having over your boyfriend, another couple, or just want something easy for yourself this is great!

1 or 2 big cans of Italian Style dice tomatoes

I can tomato paste – if you want thicker sauce, use the whole can, not so thick, half the can or even leave it out

Garlic! – I love garlic and I put it in everything, all to taste

Invest in a garlic press! It’s the one of greatest kitchen gadgets I’ve got. You peel the garlic, put it in the press and it comes out minced – that way you don’t have to cut up the garlic yourself and also don’t have to worry about having chunks of garlic in your food.

1 diced white onion

1 diced green pepper

Put everything into a big pot on medium heat on the stove and cover

Put salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper in sauce to taste

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 1 lb peeled shrimp – if you’re having people over for the first time for dinner go with the shrimp

When meat is cooked, add it to the sauce

Serve it over bowtie pasta

Top with feta cheese or goat cheese and toasted pine nuts (optional)

To toast the pine nuts put them in a pat on low heat for a few minutes and toss them around – do not put oil in the pan or the pine nuts will burn