Pasta Sauce and Smashing Pumpkin (pie)

Happy Monday!  I hope getting back into the grind wasn't too painful.  I just pretended it was Tuesday or something and just got my booty in here.

As part of the Foodbuzz tastemaker program, I received some Classico® Light Creamy Alfredo Pasta Sauce.  I received the product for free, but the recipe and review are all my own. 
I decided to go the untraditional route and do a baked quinoa pasta.  Did you know such a thing exists?  I didn't, but I knew that the added protein would be beneficial and I went with it.

I added the following ingredients:
- 1.5 cups cooked quinoa pasta
- 1/2 cup each of peas, carrots, and onions
-1/2 container of Classico® Light Creamy Alfredo Pasta Sauce
-1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
-3 natural spicy Italian chicken sausage links
-salt and pepper for tasts

Baked at 350 for 35 minutes and it was ready to go.  I ate it with some marinated roasted bell peppers in apparently extremely dim light:

I also wanted to show you my Thanksgiving experiment/crime scene.

I only like the filling and the hubby is cutting weight for a tournament- we massacred the poor adorable pie:

Can't say I regret it in the least bit- it was delicious!

Foodbuzz Tastemaker: Sargento

Disclaimer:  As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a gift card to buy some Sargento cheese.  The opinions below are my own.

I like cheese- I like cheese a lot.  We buy cheese and since our kitchen is under construction and currently looks like this, the gift card we received was a lifesaver and made up our dinner.

Despite being a (sometimes) food blogger, I am not a huge cheese fan.  I like goat cheese and the stinky kinds, but any sight of mold and I'm out.  I'm talking about you- blue cheese. Bleh!  When I went to select some sargento cheese for my tasting, I chose pepperjack and cheddar.  They sounded like easy choices and cheese that I normally buy.  For the competitor, I chose a store brand swiss cheese because it's really hard to mess up swiss cheese.

I also bought some grapes, pears, cucumbers, stuffed olives, cherry peppers, and added the mixed nuts I had in my pantry.

Here is the Sargento platter:

Here is the competitor:

The verdict: I really liked the pepperjack.  It had a nice zing to it and had a good texture.  I noticed that the sargento cheese was not shiny like the other and just seemed a little more natural.  The cheddar was just a regular cheddar- nothing to write home about.

I did have two other assistants- the hubby and the puppy.  They were torn on which they liked better but the husband noted that he couldn't tell a huge difference in quality and liked the swiss cheese more.

And puppy? The cheddar won him over.