Penne Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

We went italian last night. I'm not a huge onion fan and this dish tasted pretty oniony in my opinion but my husband loved it. He ate all of mine, his, and he ate the leftovers for breakfast! He is a huge pasta lover and he thought the dish was great. This dish has been approved for repeat by my picky eater.

Penne Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce 
Source
(I halved the recipe. If you're cooking for 6-8 click on "source" for the whole recipe.)

Ingredients:
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs butter
1/2 whole medium onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste
dash of sugar
1 cup heavy cream (I didn't have any cream so I melted 1/6 butter (half of one third cup. just eyeball it.) and 1/4 plus 1/8 cup milk. Mixed it together and substituted it.)
Parmesan Cheese
Basil
1/2 lb Penne Pasta

Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.

Heat butted and oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for a minute or so. Pour in tomato sauce and add salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. Stir and cook over love heat for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and stir in cream. Add cheese to taste, then check seasonings. Stir in pasta and basil and serve immediately. (Thin with paste water before adding basil if needed.)

Chicken and Dumplings

Growing up we'd beg my Mom to make chicken and dumplings. It was a family favorite. My Mom would get out a big ole pot and magic happened. No joke. This is one of my favorite recipes ever. It's a comfort food and perfect for a rainy day like today.

You'll find that it needs a little bit of salt and pepper at the end. Staying true to my mothers recipe I don't add it in during the process but flavor it to my liking in my own bowl. My mom never added it into the mix because we were kids and kids like things plain.

Ingredients:
5 chicken breasts
2 cups water
2 cans cream of chicken soup (click here for a much healthier substitute recipe)
1 can milk (use empty cream of chicken soup can)
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
4 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:
Boil 5 chicken breasts in an extra large pot in 2 cups of water. While chicken is boiling mix together in a meduim-large sized bowl 2 cups of flour, 4 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1 cup of milk, and 4 tbsp vegetable oil. Mixture will form a sticky ball. Set aside.

After cooked through remove chicken from water and place on cutting board. Add 2 cans cream of chicken soup to the water that the chicken was cooked in. Cut chicken into chunks and add back to pot with 1 can of milk.

Cook on high heat until bubbling, stirring frequently. Then drop dumpling mixture by the spoonful into boiling broth. Cover pot, turn heat to medium and cook approximately 20 minutes or until dumplings are cooked through, stirring frequently.