Oh I am on an all-carb diet, it hasn't taken off yet with the general public but I keep waiting for it to spread

 

^^ Some jar sauces are as good as the homemade stuff. The Fresh Market sells some jar sauce that no matter how hard I try or how many hours I consume, I cannot do much better. Today we'll be having a lasagna that the kitchen at The Fresh Market puts together and I bake it along with some nice Italian garlic bread. The lasagna they put together is also extremely good and has the right amount of ricotta cheese and a really delicious sauce. It is so much cheaper for me to pop one of these in the oven than to make it myself that I cannot justify all the labor involved. When I was feeding more people and had more cooking time I made my own sauces, etc. That ship sailed a while back. I'm not crazy about chicken parm. Its kind of okay, but there's something about it that doesn't ring my chime. I am compelled to prepare foods that +1 can eat and swallow well, consequently things have to be easy to chew (or cut into tiny pieces). Chicken parm is only good if it each little slice is individually cut just before eating.

 

I love carbs too. I became borderline diabetic so I can't hack it anymore like I used too. I can remember going to restaurants with my parents and loading up on bread and butter and then having an entree like Fettucinni Alfredo, those were the days.

 

That has always worried me, I can relate to that as my sister is suffering really bad with Diabetes right now.

 

I find jar sauce to be like wine just because it is expensive doesn't mean it's good. If you have difficulty chewing then lasagna is a good pick. Chicken and other meats can be tough to chew and there is always the hazard of choking.

 

I'm lucky mine is not bad it is within my control. Pasta can really bother me so I have to be careful. I started buying those big packages of ramen noodles, I find one package does me good as a side dish, without the soup packet added. If I make any kind of pasta I tend to cook and eat too much of it.

 

I have an 80-year old mother who still goes to the farm every fall and loads up on organic roma tomatoes by the bushel. She washes, cuts, cooks, and purees the tomatoes to strain the seeds and skin. She jars the tomato puree and distributes them to her children, we get enough jars to last a year. It is a basic tomato puree with basil leaves, it is what we use as the base for a tomato sauce. We use it to make our pasta and lasagna sauces as needed through the year , it is even good to use in other dishes.

If my mother ever stops making it I will have to source out alternatives some day, but she is still going strong, god bless her. When the day comes that she no longer makes it, I will simply buy it from local Italian suppliers, you can buy it in glass jars called Passata, then use it for your sauce base every time you cook something that requires sauce. I'd probably buy it by the case when that day ever comes. I haven't used a store-bought sauce in 25 years.

 

Well, if you keep it up, probably won't take long.

 

OMG...I am eating a popover as I post this. It is so good!! My pan came this morning. I already had the mix so did not waste any time making some. Delish!!! The +1 has never had one but likes it. The pic is not mine, but they do look similar.

 

^ you know that is right up my alley. I am attracted to anything that is flaky, puffy, bubbly, and airy, food wise that is.