40 days without take-out

Or how I'm (trying) to spend Lent. Being Catholic, it is always a challenge to try to come up with something to give up for Lent every year. It is almost always a food thing. In the past few years I've given up donuts, pizza, ice cream, burgers and candy. All were pretty tough. This year I decided to give up take-out. Why? Well, we have take-out at least 2 times a week, sometimes up to 5 times a week. I really do like to cook, it's the clean up I hate. And sometimes the time it takes to cook. Most times when Brian gets home from work in the evening, it is easiest to go pick up something or have something delivered. Manly Mexican or pizza. In an effort to cook more often and get out of the house more often (I am somewhat of a homebody), I decided on take-out. I knew it would be no easy task. It's about 2 weeks into Lent and I am doing alright. I still haven't cooked a whole lot, though. We have gotten frozen pizza for dinner a few times and drive thru junk food. In my rules, that does not count as take-out. I have my own rules about being Catholic and bending them around Lent is no exception. But that's another post. Back to Lent. I started out with good intentions though. I made dinner on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Here is some proof that I actually cook sometimes.

I made Baked Ravioli from the Everyday Food Great Food Fast cookbook. Recipe can be found here: 
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/baked-ravioli














It was pretty tasty. I was surprised that the sauce was so flavorful without many ingredients. I've made sauces before but I usually add a lot more things. Now I know I don't need to add so much! A few changes I would make for next time: Add one more package of ravioli or find bigger ravioli. There was just too much sauce for the amount of pasta. Also, I would check on it about 5 minutes before the end of the suggested baking time. I checked only about 2 minutes before and it was already very browned. One or two more minutes and it would have burned. And I think it would still be good with jarred pasta sauce, in case you are short on time.