Whole Wheat Veggie Pasta

We don't eat a ton of pasta at our house, but when we do I like to make things that are packed full of veggies and flavor.  This was absolutely delicious and didn't take long at all to make.  It just requires a lot of different ingredients.

Ingredients and cooking:

1/2 bag whole wheat pasta (any variety is fine.  I used fusilli because I like the way it catches the veggies and cheese) - Cook in a little salted water

1 yellow onion diced
1 heaping tablespoon of minced garlic
1/2 jar of sun dried tomatoes (I use Trader Joe's Julienne Sliced Sun Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil) I use the oil from the sun dried tomatoes to sauté the onions and garlic.  I sauté all those three ingredients together until the onions are clear.

Once the above are cooked then I start throwing in all the additional items:

Yellow and Red Fire Roasted Peppers (also from Trader Joe's) - I slice up the peppers before adding
Red and Yellow peppadew peppers sliced (got these from my local grocery store olive station)
Big White Beans (got these from the olive station as well)
Artichoke Hearts (I used one can of whole artichoke hearts and then quartered them)

Once these are all mixed up together in a pan, then I add as much baby spinach or super green mix as possible.  You can pretty much fit an entire 10 oz container if you wanted, just add a little at a time.  Cook down the greens.

Once the pasta is cooked and drained, then add to your pan with all the veggies.  Toss everything together and add feta cheese.

I am telling you this is delicious.  It was great for lunch today too.  You can eat it cold or warmed up.  Yummy.

Bacon, Butternut Squash and Kale Pasta Bake

I found this absolutely delicious recipe in my Cooking Light magazine.  However, this is not exactly a "light" recipe.  It is also time intensive.  It was well worth it.  I have posted the link to the actual recipe, but I did make some changes when I made it, so I am going to post what I used.  I tried to make it slightly healthier in some ways, but then I added a little more bacon, which definitely didn't help with the fat and calorie content.  But, who cares when something tastes this good.  

Here is the Cooking Light recipe link:

Bacon and Butternut Pasta

Below is my adaptation of the recipe:

Biggest Butternut Squash EVER!

Finished product

Ingredients:

5 cups (1/2 inch) cubed peeled butternut squash - Must use organic.  It tastes so much better.
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cooking Spray
16 oz of wheat ziti pasta
4 cups chopped kale
4 slices bacon
2 cups vertically sliced onion
1 teaspoon salt, divided (I used even less then that)
5 garlic cloves, minced (I used probably 6 cloves or more.  I love garlic)
2 1/2 cups fat-free, lower sodium organic chicken broth
2 heaping tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 cup creme fraiche
1/3 cup shredded Gruyere cheese (I used a combination of shredded Swiss and Gruyere that I got at Trader Joe's)

Getting it ready:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Combine squash and oil in a large bowl; toss well.  Arrange squash in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.  Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper.  Bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until squash is tender.  (Took about 22 minutes for me.)

3.  Cook pasta in a LARGE pot for 8 minutes or until almost al dente.  Add Kale during the last 2 minutes of cooking.  (Watch the pot because once it starts boiling again it can really easily overflow).  Drain the pasta mixture.

4.  Cook bacon in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat until crisp.  Remove bacon from pain; chop up.  Pour out some of the drippings, so that only a thin layer is on the bottom of your pan.  Add the onions to the drippings.  Cook for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring occasionally.

5. Bring about 1 and 3/4 cups of the broth to a boil in a small saucepan.  Combine the remaining broth with the flour in a small bowl and whisk.  Add the flour mixture, a little salt and pepper to the broth.  Cook for about 2 minutes until slightly thickened.  Remove from the heat; stir in the creme fraiche.

6.  Combine the squash, pasta mixture, bacon, onions and sauce in a large bowl; toss gently.  Place pasta mixture in a 13x9 inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Sprinkle on the Gruyere cheese and bake at 400 for about 25 minutes or until bubbly and slightly browned.

Enjoy.  This was absolutely delicious.