Creamy Veggie Pasta

I've been slowly working my way out of my cooking rut...sleep deprivation (cumulatively over the past three years) combined with a busy schedule leaves me in no mood to spend much time on dinner. The good news is that moods like this force me to find more relatively easy, sorta fast-to-prepare recipes (no matter what, when cooking with fresh veggies, there's always peeling/chopping to deal with...maybe I can hire a sous chef? :) ). I found this recipe and modified it as usual, to create this delish dinner.

It was supposed to be a one-pot, boil everything all together deal, but I decided that taking one extra step to saute the veggies would make it less mushy and more tasty. I was right. Yum! We all loved it, the girls devoured it, there were barely any leftovers. Here's Lainey making her "mmmm!" face.

Creamy Veggie Pasta (vegetable measurements are approximates because I adjusted as I went; you may need to adjust slightly to your taste!)

2 small zucchini, sliced thin

1 small summer squash, sliced

2 cups mushrooms, sliced

2 large handfuls spinach

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 c milk

1/2 c parmesan cheese

2 tbsp butter

salt and pepper to taste

6-12 oz. macaroni (I like to use less pasta than recipes usually call for, or more veggies--my goal is to make the meal equal parts pasta and vegetables)

1. Cook the pasta.

2. While pasta is cooking, saute veggies in olive oil. I started with onions, then added garlic, mushrooms, zucchini, and squash. Once they were all tender, I tossed in the spinach to wilt.

3. In a large bowl, mix milk, parmesan cheese, butter, salt and pepper.

4. Drain the pasta and immediately pour into serving bowl. Toss to coat all with cream mixture.

This is another recipe that would work with just about any veggies you have on hand. Even frozen vegetables would work, just do as the original recipe suggested and toss it right in your pasta pot.

I hesitate to ask due to an historical lack of responses, but...I know that mostly anyone who reads this blog is a friend. So please, if you have a fast(ish), easy(ish) recipe that you love, please share it!

Creamy Pesto-ish Sauce and Spread

Okay, first of all, what a week. :( My hives that appeared after strawberry picking turned out to be an insane allergic reaction to some still unidentified something. Ick. Last week was a blur of pain, benadryl-induced exhaustion, and doctor's appointments. I barely ate, let alone cooked.

This weekend has brought a bit of relief, though, so I got my butt in gear with our huge supply of greens from this week's CSA share. This recipe used one whole bag of spinach, a bunch of basil (kept fresh from last week's share in some water), a couple handfuls of broccoli rabe leaves, and a few handfuls of parsley and scallions. Pretty good and green for one dish, I thought.

My initial intention for this sauce was on pasta, like a pesto. It was pretty good that way, but today we found an even better use, and ate nearly all of what was left slathered on homemade bread. So good. I'll do my best to add a photo tomorrow when I have some more time, in the mean time here's the recipe.

Pesto-ish Sauce and Spread:

1 lb. bag of fresh spinach, washed, stemmed

3 big handfuls of torn greens (I used brocolli rabe, any greens would work)

1/2-3/4 c. chopped scallions

several handfuls of basil leaves

one handful parsley leaves

2 cloves minced garlic

1 c. lowfat cottage cheese

splash of lemon juice

salt to taste

Steam spinach. While it's steaming, puree garlic and cottage cheese in food processor. Add well drained spinach, greens, scallions, parsley, basil, and puree. Stir in salt and lemon juice.

Once mine was done, it had a little too much fresh-garlic-bite for Lainey. She likes hers with a little extra cottage cheese mixed in. This is a great recipe to help kids eat more green!

What's for Dinner Wednesday...

Good news in our house--the 80° weather felt like summer and snapped me out of my winter vegetable rut! Tonight's dinner recipe was copied from my friend Rebecca--thanks Bec!! I've made it with brocolli before, but this week was with asparagus.

So, dinner tonight was ziti with asparagus, garlic, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella in pesto sauce.

Just sautee the asparagus in some olive oil until tender, add the chopped garlic and cook a few more minutes. Toss with cooked ziti and a few big spoonfuls of pesto sauce. Mix in 2 small chopped tomatoes and a ball of fresh mozzarella, diced. Make the garlic taste really come out by chopping the cheese in the same spot on your cutting board as you did the garlic. YUM!

My apologies for once again not having a photo. I forgot. :( I will share a moment from our dinner table with you instead. I've been having alot of trouble lately with Lainey spitting food out onto her plate. Ew. And she's on a veggie-refusal kick. If it's not one of her favorites, she wants no part of it. In an attempt to encourage her to eat her dinner tonight, I pointed out to her how hubby was going to eat his vegetables so that he could have some dessert. And what did he do? I kid you not, he took a bite of his dinner, and spit it out onto his plate. If I post no recipes within a week it's because I've gone on a cooking strike. Grrrr.

So, this week, my question is not what you had for dinner. Please share your best, family pleasing veggie meal...guess I have to consider toddler and adult male preferences in cooking now. :)

I'm in Love...

With a blog. Let me explain. For days now I've been craving some roasted veggies...we stocked up on tons of root vegetables this weekend at the co-op, and this afternoon they were calling my name. I decided to hunt the internet for a new recipe using roasted veggies, and I found the best blog. Seriously. I emailed the blogger just to tell her how wonderful her blog is. So, we can thank Jan over at Mixing Bowl Kids for tonight's yumm-o dinner. Her blog is packed with awesome recipes, and she has tons of ideas for involving kids. She's my hero. :) Take a look and you'll see what I mean. (I had to stop looking because I got overwhelmed with how many of her recipes I wanted to try!!) Okay, on to the food. Directly from her blog...
Honey Roasted Root Vegetables with Pasta and Goat Cheese
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
6 large carrots, peeled and sliced 6 shallots, peeled and halved
1 beet, peeled and diced 2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Place all of the veggies on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Combine the honey, oil and mustard and pour over vegetables. Toss to combine well.
Sprinkle with salt and thyme.
Roast for 30 minutes or until brown and fork tender.

** For a complete meal toss with your favourite cooked pasta and sprinkle with goat cheese.

I almost never follow a recipe as-is (unless I'm baking), so I did make a couple little changes. I had no shallots, so I just roasted three large cloves of garlic instead. I increased the beets to 3 because (as Lainey says), I love love love beets. I also doubled the sauce so that I had some extra to toss into the pasta (leftover whole wheat angel hair), along with a tiny bit of olive oil. Oh, and I threw in a few big handfuls of spinach to wilt at the end. Last change was a splash of lemon juice, just because (honey and lemon are good together?).

The photo I posted doesn't do the meal justice. I'm a terrible photographer with a crummy camera. But it gives you an idea, at least.

For dessert, we had these peanut butter cookies, from Jan's other blog, Family Bites--they were insanely easy and really good! Try 'em!

Spaghetti...It's What's For Dinner...All Week...

I am feeling less than creative, and not much into cooking this week. Ugh. That's how I feel. It's for a reason, though--this is the fifth week in a row of hubby traveling for some portion of the week. I am all about easy dinners when I'm Solo Mama, so Lainey and I are definitely are getting our fill of pasta lately. I made an entire box of spaghetti on Sunday with the plan of just eating it every night this week. In college, my room mate made an incredible spaghetti pie (basically an yummy mess of spaghetti and lots of cheese), and I figured I could make a Sort-of Spaghetti Pie, with some cheese and throw in some veggies. Here's what I came up with: (no photo of this one because we ate it all before I remembered...trust me, it looked good!)

SORT-OF SPAGHETTI PIE

3 medium carrots, sliced thin

1 leek, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 button mushrooms, chopped

3 kale leaves, finely chopped

1 jar pasta sauce

8 oz cooked spaghetti

about 1 1/2 c cottage cheese (I didn't measure....)

about 1 c shredded mozzarella cheese (again, didn't measure)

2 tbsp olive oil

In a small skillet, saute all veggies in olive oil until tender. **Add the garlic near the end or else it will burn. Set aside.

Mix a little sauce into the cooked spaghetti (just enough to coat it so it won't dry out).

In a small baking dish (I used the one a size down from my 9x13), coat the bottom with a layer of sauce. Put a layer of half the spaghetti on top, then top with half of your veggie mixture. Top with half the cottage cheese, and half the mozarella cheese. Repeat layers once more, and top with a bit of sauce and a light shake of parmesan cheese.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 for about 20 minutes, until bubbly.

Like most of my recipes, you can obviously just use whatever veggies you have...you could even just throw in a bag of frozen mixed vegetables.

Please stay tuned for a (hopeful!) return of creative cooking and more enthusiastic blogging!

Pumped Up Pasta Sauce

Pasta is one of my favorite meals. It's such a comfort food. So, with hubby traveling like mad these past few weeks, it's been a regular in our house. I always try to have at least some veggies in our dinners...think about it--if you just have a tiny bit of kale (for example) finely chopped in each dinner all week, you and your family have eaten an entire bunch by the end of the week! Sooo much more appealing (to me, at least) than a big pile of steamed kale.

Don't tell Lainey, but I don't even like kale.

Anyway, back to the meal. This is sooo quick and easy, and perfect for those last minute, what-the-heck-am-I-going-to-make-for-dinner moments. I always add veggies to pasta sauce--it can be made into a chunky sauce, or pureed for a smooth sauce if you think chunks will be a family turn-off. Take whatever vegetables you have handy...I used about 3 small carrots (haha, remember those?), 3-4 kale leaves, and a handful of mushrooms. Other veggie ideas: zucchini, summer squash, spinach, extra garlic, broccoli...anything goes! Throw it all in the food processor to chop it finely. Throw it in your sauce pan with just a little olive oil and heat it for a few mintues, add your jar of marinara sauce, and simmer long enough so the veggies are cooked, about 20 minutes. That's it. Sure to be devoured...what kid doesn't like pasta?

One last thing to consider when you make meals like this...instead of going with the new trend of "sneaking" veggies to your kids, why not watch quietly as they devour their meal, and then point out how much they liked it, and tell them what it was? "Did you like that spaghetti? You did? Oh, good, I knew you would love that sauce with yummy carrots and kale in it!" This way you can help them learn that sometimes vegetables (even kale...) can be good!