Pasta with Sauteed Veggies

Here is another easy way to use up leftover pasta. It works great, as well, if you make pasta fresh and just want to jazz it up.



Pasta with Sauteed Veggies

Ingredients:

About a pound of leftover or freshly cooked pasta - we used linguine
3 cups of your favorite veggies - we used:
2 carrots, cut on the diagonal
2 zucchini, cut on the diagonal
2 bok choy, cut into thirds and sliced thinly
5 garlic cloves, sliced
2 Tbs. canola oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbs. garlic powder blend or plain garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot or skillet on medium heat. When hot, add veggies and cook until tender, about five minutes. If using long pasta, cut into thirds or quarters. Add your pasta to the veggies, along with the seasonings. Lower heat to medium low and cook for another five minutes or so, until all is heated through. Simple and good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Leftover Pasta Delight

This was a meal created by the fact that I was tired of having lots of little containers with bits of leftovers in the fridge. There was not enough on their own to make a complete meal for one person, much less for a whole family. So, I just did my "garbage" trick and dumped them all together in a bowl and had myself an incredibly delicious lunch for one: me. But, this was so good and so satisfying that I'm going to attempt to offer portion sizes that will make a meal for a family, namely one that has five members in it. Enjoy.



Leftover Pasta Delight

Ingredients:

At least 3 cups of leftover pasta - I used bowtie
At least one cup of leftover steamed veggies - I used cauliflower, broccoli and carrots
At least one cup of leftover sauteed kale with red onions and garlic
At least one cup of your favorite salsa
1 pkg. of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Mozzarella style, cubed small
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and pour into a casserole dish. You can either reheat this in a microwave for ten to twelve minutes, stirring every few minutes, or reheat in a 350 degree oven for thirty minutes. So good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Hint of India Garbanzos

This was one of those dishes where I was really craving curried garbanzos but didn't have any curry on hand. So, I kind of pushed that aside and decided to get more creative with the spices I already had in my cupboard, especially my poor neglected, underused garam masala. What turned out was a dish a bit on the spicy side but very tasty, definitely deserving of a reappearance.

Hint of India Garbanzos in serving dish

Now nestled on a plate surrounded by goodness

Hint of India Garbanzos

Ingredients:

2 - 15oz. cans of garbanzo beans, undrained
1 yellow bell pepper, diced small
5 garlic cloves, chopped small
1/2 red onion, diced small
2 tsp. garam masala
1 Tbs. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients in a medium pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil and let boil for five minutes. Lower heat to medium low and continue cooking for 20 more minutes. Complete your meal by serving it over brown rice with steamed veggies on the side. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Sauteed Pasta with Garlic

This is such a shamefully easy recipe, but it's good and quick on a busy night, so I thought I'd share it. Pair it with some yummy veggies, like roasted asparagus, and you've got yourself a complete meal.



Sauteed Pasta with Garlic

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. vegan margarine
1 head of garlic, cloves, peeled and sliced in rounds
1 lb. cooked and cooled, or leftover, pasta (small or medium sized works best)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat the margarine over medium heat. When almost melted completely, add the garlic. Cook for about thirty seconds, or until the garlic releases its fragrance. (Garlic burns easily, so don't cook too long by itself.) Add the pasta and seasonings and stir well. Cook for five to ten more minutes, until the pasta is heated through. I like a bit of crispiness to some of the pasta edges, so I wait until that happens before I remove from heat. Easy and tasty. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Veggie Soup with Rice

Hello, everyone! It's good to be back, and I really hope this posts well, and I can comment on my site and on yours. Thanks to Vegan Flower, we added on Firefox, and that's what I'm using to create this current post. Since this is my first post using Firefox, I have a new question: how do we upload pictures so that they stay in the order we want? I've tried two times so far. The first time, Firefox loaded them alphabetically, not the way I had intended. So, then I went back and changed all my pics names, so that they were alphabetical and in the order I wanted them to upload. But now Firefox hasn't loaded them alphabetically! This will be important when I have a post that has recipe steps involved with photos; I'll need them to be in order. Anyone? Vegan Flower?

I thought I'd give you a very short summary of what's been going on with us in the last couple of months. G's toe's skin has finally healed, but his toe joint and foot are still in pain. SR's wrist is still in pain, even after a cortisone shot. I'm trying to talk her into acupuncture. I pulled a calf muscle, the same one three times now in two years. And, I'm just healing from a back sprain. Ugh. I did earn my certificate to become a birth doula; that was a two and a half year process. We celebrated SR's, JK's, and both my parents' birthdays, as well as their anniversary, so we've been twirling in frosting over here. Both girls graduated from the last and highest level of swimming class, and JK is proud to be a guppy! We've had appliance repairs, auto repairs, and everyone but JK got new glasses, yay. Our garden went kaput. I took pics in June, and very soon after that, the dogs ate the grapevine and most of my nectarine tree, and the almond tree died. Both pups got spayed and had cone hats at the same time, very funny. What about you? What have I missed? I've been offline, not just on blogging, but pretty much everything - just trying to enjoy the summer with my kids.

Below the photos is a simple soup recipe that is a winner every time. You can use it as a guideline to build your own delicious soups. :-)

Veggie Soup with Rice

A simple wrestling cake for JK's 5th birthday

Strawberry Tall Cakes for SR's actual 14th birthday

Cookies 'n Cream Cupcakes for SR's party - GR's grabbing one!

One of our artichoke plants, while it was thriving

Veggie Soup with Rice

Ingredients:

8 to 10 cups of fresh and/or frozen veggies, choppped
We used: broccoli, cauliflower, orange carrots, yellow carrots, red bell peppers, green beans, corn, and celery
1 - 32 oz. box of No Chicken Broth
1 - 15 oz. can of chopped tomatoes
1 - 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
(In a pinch, I'll use spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce V8 or tomato juice)
1 - 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans (or any beans you have on hand)
Water to cover everything by one to two inches
1 Tbs. garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1 to 2 cups of leftover rice (your rice should already be cooked, or else it will soak up all the broth)

Directions:

Heat all the ingredients, except for the rice, in a large pot over medium heat for thirty to forty-five minutes. When it is bubbling, and everything is tender, add the rice. Turn down the heat to medium low, and add a bit more water if needed. Simmer for about ten more minutes, until the rice is thoroughly warmed up. Easy squeezy. Delicious and feeds five hungry vegans!