Welcome to Mangialicious. 
We are two women who love to cook and eat!   Here we want to share with you some of our favorite recipes.   Sunday is the day our kids and grandkids come over for dinner and we like to try out our new recipes on them.  Here we will post our new recipes and our old family favorites and hope that you will enjoy trying them out.  Most of our inspiration comes from our background of Italian cooking with our moms and grandmothers.  But we enjoy all FOOD!  Then there are devoted hours of watching our most favorite chefs such as Lidia Bastianich, Mario Batali, Michael Chiarello and Giada De Laurentiis. 

Some of our Most Popular Recipes with our Family

Thin Spaghetti in Red Wine
Adapted from Michael Chiarello
In the original version of this pasta from Chef Chiarello, he uses broccoli rabe as his green and Zinfandel wine.  We adapted a few changes (which you will find we tend to do a lot) to make it more for our family's liking.  We've embellished a bit with a bolder wine for extra flavor, and we substitute either spinach, broccoli or any greens you may have on hand.  It’s a wonderfully simple pasta that doesn’t take long to make, and yet the flavors are simply irresistible.

Pancho Villa
Some people may call this a Chicken Chimichanga but at this quaint little Mexican Restaurant we used to regular at in Niagara Falls they called them Pancho Villas.  The restaurant was very authentic and they always had a Mariachi band playing.  It has long closed down but this simple yet delicious item remains on our home menu.  It is the combination of flavors in that perfect bite that wakes up your taste buds.  If you are making it for your children you can substitute a green pepper for the hot pepper, it does change the flavor but the kids will love it.  I do use Velveeta in this recipe and only in this recipe.  It is the way it melts and the creamy texture of it.  You do not have to use the Velveeta though; you can simply add an extra piece of the cheddar jack but I would suggest you try the Velveeta.

Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes
With the weather hovering around the teens for so long, we have been longing for something to remind us of summer.  We have a great garden in the summer full of veggies and tomatoes are very abundant.  All summer long we try to come up with new tomato recipes.  This recipe is one of my favorites.  It reminds me of cooking in the kitchen with the door open smelling the fresh warm air.  Quinoa is one of those things that if you don’t try it, you will never know how much you like it.  It is nutty, filling, healthy and very satisfying.  If you try it and really dislike the quinoa, you can always substitute rice but I am pretty sure, you are going to think it is Mangialicious!!