Get Your Veggies Pasta

A recipe that is so easy, it’s in fact not a recipe.

After a loooong weekend recently I caught myself feeling the need to be restrictive. And when I say “long weekend”, I mean a weekend of tons of good food, lots of wine and very little sleep and definitely not enough water! So…the next couple days I didn’t quite feel myself, but that’s totally normal. Now, past me would have ran to the gym (miserably) and eaten tiny meals for the next couple of days. It took me a long time to realize I was doing this…and an even longer time to learn how to correct it. I’m nowhere near “perfect” – but I at least am better at being gentle on myself. SO anyway, I was craving pasta for lunch and so I made it! Here is the easy, veggie-loaded recipe.

One thing then it comes to pasta, or even pizza…I love loading it up with veggies when I feel like it. This pasta in particular is so good that I actually crave it because of the veggies.

Ingredients
1 pack of your favorite pasta (I use Banza)
1 pack frozen veggie medley (I use Trader Joes, organic broccoli, peas, green beans, spinach and kale)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
4 cloves garlic (if you like less garlic, do 2)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp oregano (dried)
salt and pepper to taste
parm or nutritional yeast to top

Boil the pasta to the directions of the box. Save 1/3 cup of the pasta water and set aside.

In a medium saute pan, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and add the veggies. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until fully cooked. Add the spices and garlic, cook for a remaining 3 minutes. We want the garlic to be barely cooked so it’s flavor is more raw.

Add the noodles to the veggie mixture, along with the pasta water. Stir, and top with either nutritional yeast or parm (if you’re a cheese addict like me).