Easy Weeknight Dinners - Sauteed Mushroom Linguine

Sometimes I can be the last to admit how hard it is to juggle everything. Work, school, and a toddler make it difficult to keep up with the regular stuff like laundry and cleaning. Thankfully I have a great husband who pretty much takes care of the household stuff when I'm swamped with assignments and readings. However since I'm the one who gets off work first I take care of getting the little one's dinner. By the time we're done playing and Brent's home for bath and bed, it's hard to make a good healthy meal and easy to order take out or just make a sandwich. So I'm always on the lookout for easy weeknight dinners. The September Issue of Canadian Living contains 20 meals that they claim 'will be on the table in just 15 minutes, including prep time!'. One thing I will say is that I have found with Canadian Living recipes, they don't include the time it takes to get the ingredients to the state they list. For example, if a recipe includes 2 cups mushrooms, thinly sliced - the time on the recipe does not include slicing mushrooms. All that being said, this recipe was still pretty quick to get on the table. I modified using a few substitutes and it still worked out great.

Sauteed Mushroom Linguine (modified from Canadian Living)
- 340g linguine or spaghetti
- 4 tsp butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1 package (14 g) dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1/4 tsp dried)
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/3 cup whipping cream
- 2 tsp grated lemon zest
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (or 1/2 tbsp dried)

In heatproof bowl, soak dried mushrooms for 20 minutes. Drain and chop.

In large pot of boiling salted water cook pasta according to directions. Reserving 1/3 cup of the cooking liquid, drain.

Meanwhile, in large nonstick skillet, melt butter over medium - high heat. Saute garlic for a minute. Add mushrooms and thyme and saute until just softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in pasta, reserved cooking liquid, cream, lemon zest and juice and pepper. Cook, stirring until sauce is slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in parsley and serve.