Easy, Yummy, Healthy and Versatile Pasta

Making Pasta My Way

I love pasta! There are so many ways to make it, so many veggies, sauces, pastas and spices that you can easily spice it up. Best part is its easy and relatively healthy!

Pick your noodles

-Are you feeling penne, or rotini, or do you want to be adventurous and try something new? It doesn’t really matter pick what you like. I prefer whole-wheat pasta and my son prefers pieces he can easily pick up, so we chose penne for this dish

Pick your veggies

-I love veggies. They add color and deep taste to any pasta dish; I tend to add at least 3 or 4 different kinds. I normally choose from zucchini, squash, tomatoes, green beans, bell peppers (any color), asparagus, spinach, or broccoli. But honestly, be adventurous and pick what you like.

Pick your meat

-I tend to use chicken, but again whatever you want. And if you choose you can skip the meat all together and easily make nice vegetarian pasta.

Pick your sauces

-I tend to choose from 3 categories

-Cream

-Tomato

-Pesto

You can make your own sauces or just buy a jar at the store. It tends to be about the same price for me, and I love the ease factor of just buying a jar and adding spices to it.

Pick your spices

-I love making my food my own. I tend to always add spices to provide unique flavors. My favorite for pastas is normally basil, red pepper flakes and Cajun seasoning

Here’s what I did tonight

Ingredients

-Penne noodles (cooked to package directions)

-Zucchini

-Red bell pepper

-Green beans

-Cherry tomatoes

-Spinach

-Chicken

-Pesto sauce

-Fresh Mozzarella cheese

-Olive Oil

-Balsamic Vinegar

-Spices (I used garlic salt, basil, and a chicken seasoning for this one)

Directions

-Begin cooking past according to directions on package

-Sautee chicken pieces in large pan with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and spices

-When chicken mostly cooked add chopped veggies (except spinach) and cook for 5 minutes until zucchini and bell pepper soften

-Add spinach

-Drain pasta and add to pan with chicken and veggies

-Add cubed mozzarella and stir over heat until cheese slightly melts

-Add desired amount of pesto. (my husband and I vary on our preferences for pesto, we tend to just add the sauce after the pasta is cooked)

Viola!