Cooking for Your Own Basketball Team

I have a really great friend named Mandy. Yes, the same Mandy who set me up on a blind date with someone I already know. But I totally don't hold that against her.

Mandy and I went to college together for only one year but have become so much closer as we have grown older embraced our 30's. Our lives could not be more different: she is happily married with five adorable children. I, on the other hand, am happily/begrudgingly/complacently/wonderfully single with one adorable nephew. Yet somehow, we never run out of things to talk about.

A couple of weeks ago, her hubby Brandon asked me to come over and teach him how to cook.

Let's just stop right there and give this man a round of applause.

He had said that he wanted to learn how to throw together a few meals to feed his family of seven. I considered this a fabulous opportunity to hang out with my friends while also trying to figure out how to feed a family with their own built-in basketball team (some of them still do not know how to walk).

Here is a glimpse of the dinner table. For dinner, Brandon and I whipped up a couple taco pizzas and a huge fruit salad.

Brandon and his twin girls, Sarah and Maggie. I could eat them. They are so sweet and cuddly.

And here is Shawn.

There is something about him that makes me melt. Literally, I would give him one of my kidneys if he asked. You should know that Shawn likes to eat. A lot. So much so that he wanted to take a slice of his taco pizza to the bathtub. You have got to love a boy who knows how to multi-task.

Mandy and Shawn. He is still eating.

And here is my girl Katie. She is so passionate about everything. I am such a huge fan of this one.



After the big kids had been scrubbed and tucked-in (somehow I missed getting a picture of James), Brandon, Mandy and I made skillet lasagna. We mixed all the ingredients you would use for a regular lasagna in one big pan and then poured it into a baking dish to freeze. Super easy and fast, all the great taste of lasagna without the layering.

This is exactly what I had in mind when I created Gourmet Girl to Go. I saw it as a way to be with friends, both old and new, and de-mystify the process of cooking and baking. And it was a total bonus that I had five sous chefs to help out.

Of course it didn't hurt that they made me peanut butter pie for dessert. They totally know my love language.