Pasta, Pancakes & Pasta Casserole

Hee hee, a bit of a carb-y post! Tasty, though! Also, I finally responded to all your nice comments from the last post! :)

A couple of nights ago, I proposed making an old favorite of mine: "Pasta con aglio i olio" - or pasta with garlic & olive oil. I usually add a big handful of fresh parseley too. Musty suggested adding some roasted butternut squash (his current favorite food). What a good idea it was!! YUM. Here's a basic recipe:

Roast up the equiv of about 1.5 c of butternut squash
(tiny bit of oil, 450 degrees, 20 min, flip over/stir, 20-25 min more) Chop up in bits

Cook about 3/4 lb of pasta.

While the water is boiling, and the pasta is cooking... mince up 4-5 garlic cloves (depending on your garlic preferences) and saute it on medium heat in 1 or 2 T of good quality olive oil. Saute until golden. Add about 1/2 tsp salt. When the pasta is done, mix it up with the olive oil-garlic-salt mix. Then, add in the chopped up butternut squash bits. Add a handful of chopped up fresh parseley. Eat and enjoy!!


For Valentine's Day we had pancakes for lunch. Yummy treat! I used a nice recipe veganized from "Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe."

Tonight I made a fun dish, which I actually made up! Unlike all you clever bloggers out there, I don't make up my own dishes too often. I was a bit inspired by Jess over at Get Sconed. I chopped up a few little zucchini, an onion, a few garlic cloves, a red bell pepper, and a huge bag of fresh spinach from the farmer's market. I cooked up some macaroni noodles, and meanwhile, I sauteed up the onion & garlic, then added the zukes & peppers, then the spinach. I mixed up the noodles and veggie mix... then I added about 1/2 c of some "tofu ricotta" I had stored in the freezer (from Real Food Daily cookbook), some pine nuts, & about 1/2 a Jar of jarred tomato sauce. I spread it all into a casserole dish, sprinkled it with breadcrumbs & baked it at 375 for about 25 min or so.

I guess it sort of looks like a big bowl of slop, but Oh wow, it was great!!! I ate two big bowls of it. Not bad for a made up "use-up-what's-in-the-fridge-dinner"!

Hope you're all doing well. :)