Pasta. Just saying it outloud my mouth starts to water. Noodles perfectly al dente covered in a thick and delicious sauce. Smothered with different Italian cheeses. Ok so I do love me some pasta. I admit I have often dreamt of traveling to Europe and eating my way through Italy. And I am overweight because.....I lay around and dream of eating my way across Italy! Carbs, cheese, olive oil. What's not to love. Well for starters the size of my ass!
We have embraced the Eat To Live lifestyle which means for six weeks absolutely no dairy and very little meat and hardly any oils. That doesn't mean we have to give up pasta. We just have to do it differently.
Jackson picked up our Bountiful Basket today while I was at work. When he told me we got asparagus I suddenly envisioned a whole wheat Penne with roasted vegetables and a creamy pesto sauce.
I had my able bodied sous chef chop up the veggies while I was on my way home. I think you are probably asking how I am to create a pasta dish that is healthy when it involves the words creamy pesto? It was actually quite easy. The end result made me feel like I was in Tuscany enjoying my decadent meal with my glass of red wine. I may seem confident a lot of the time but I tend to have a low self-esteem. Tonight, while eating the pasta I felt like I had accomplished something amazing. Hopefully some of you try this recipe and experience that feeling for yourself. Ok. Let's get to it.
Ingredients
Whole wheat penne
About 5 or 6 asparagus spears
1 1/2 yellow squash chopped
1 white onion cut into medium size strips
4-5 cloves of garlic (not peeled. If you roast them in the peels you get a much better outcome than roasting them peeled)
6-7 baby bell peppers sliced
Balsamic vinegar
Garlic pepper
Creamy pesto ingredients
1/3 cup of cashews
8 basil leaves
A small bunch of parsley
Almond milk
Granulated garlic
Crushed red pepper
3 pieces of roasted red peppers (for this I used ones from a jar)
A couple of the roasted onion slices
The roasted garlic cloves
We have embraced the Eat To Live lifestyle which means for six weeks absolutely no dairy and very little meat and hardly any oils. That doesn't mean we have to give up pasta. We just have to do it differently.
Jackson picked up our Bountiful Basket today while I was at work. When he told me we got asparagus I suddenly envisioned a whole wheat Penne with roasted vegetables and a creamy pesto sauce.
I had my able bodied sous chef chop up the veggies while I was on my way home. I think you are probably asking how I am to create a pasta dish that is healthy when it involves the words creamy pesto? It was actually quite easy. The end result made me feel like I was in Tuscany enjoying my decadent meal with my glass of red wine. I may seem confident a lot of the time but I tend to have a low self-esteem. Tonight, while eating the pasta I felt like I had accomplished something amazing. Hopefully some of you try this recipe and experience that feeling for yourself. Ok. Let's get to it.
Ingredients
Whole wheat penne
About 5 or 6 asparagus spears
1 1/2 yellow squash chopped
1 white onion cut into medium size strips
4-5 cloves of garlic (not peeled. If you roast them in the peels you get a much better outcome than roasting them peeled)
6-7 baby bell peppers sliced
Balsamic vinegar
Garlic pepper
Creamy pesto ingredients
1/3 cup of cashews
8 basil leaves
A small bunch of parsley
Almond milk
Granulated garlic
Crushed red pepper
3 pieces of roasted red peppers (for this I used ones from a jar)
A couple of the roasted onion slices
The roasted garlic cloves
 |
| Veggies before |
 |
| Veggies after |
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lightly Pam two baking sheets. Put your veggies on the baking sheets and drizzle with balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with garlic pepper. Put in the oven and roast while you are making the pesto. When your veggies look close to being done (about 30 minutes or so) boil your water and cook your pasta. You can salt your pasta water to avoid salting the pasta after cooking. (Jackson prefers it that way).
Put the cashews in the food processor and process until they are completely chopped into a fine almost powdery substance. Then add the herbs. Process some more and then add a little almond milk. You want it to be thick and creamy so add sparingly. Process some more then add the granulated garlic, crushed red pepper and the roasted red peppers (I think the jarred peppers work better for the sauce and process some more. Take out the garlic and peel it and add it to the pesto mixture. Add some of the roasted onion slices and process till completely creamy.
 |
| Chop the asparagus into bite size pieces |
Drain your pasta, put back in the pot and add all the roasted veggies. You will need to cut up the asparagus spears into small pieces. Then add the sauce and mix. Be careful to not tear the penne. That's it. I am not lying when I say that I felt guilty after eating it because it was so creamy and I could swear there was cheese and oil in it. But there wasn't. It was full of whole grain pasta, vegetables and nuts and herbs. Delicious but full of nutrition!
 |
| Bon Appetit! |
No comments:
Post a Comment