Showing posts with label Meatless Monday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meatless Monday. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Super Duper NON-Meat-Filled

After that smokey, super-duper meat-filled post this weekend, this one will be a wee bit of a contrast! Here is my second go around of Meatless Monday, documented this time because I am smart(ass).

I have been looking forward to making this for a looooong time, ever since I saw it on Janetha's blog back in December! Of course I modified the recipe a little, like any good experimentarian. I almost used my leftover kelp noodles, but decided to keep the carbs up in this one :)

Sun dried Tomato and White Bean Pasta with Pesto
A while ago, Ronzoni sent me some of their pasta to try, and I have been hooked ever since. I know that some people find the taste of whole wheat pasta a little bitter, but I love the nuttiness and grainier texture.
This dinner came together super quickly. As the pasta was boiling, I sauteed up about 1/4 of an onion. I am cutting back. Um, just kidding. Then I added a few sliced mushrooms and some fresh spinach.
Janetha's original version had chicken in it, but since it was Meatless Monday, I went with some rinsed and drained white beans for protein instead.
Of course, I couldn't go without the sun dried tomatoes--they were totally the reason I was after this recipe in the first place!
I chopped about 5 or 6 of them, and then mixed them with the cooked pasta, sauteed veggies and the other star ingredients:
Delicious basil pesto and laughing cow. Yummy. It's basilicious. That's what it says on the package! Ha ha!
Rocks my socks. Anyhow, since Dustin is out of towners this week, I decided to take advantage of my alone time and do some healthified, also meat-free baking that I knew would be non-husband approved. BUT, definitely Emily-approved! And more importantly, April-invented!
I baked up a mini loaf of
April's Low Carb Sweet Bread, with just a couple of modifications, using 3 egg whites in place of egg substitute, and halving all ingredients. I also subbed in 1/4 c. quick oats for some of the ground flax seed.

Sadly, my attempt turned out a little bitter--I should have added more stevia. April's original recipe calls for 2 tsp of pure stevia extract and I just threw in two packets of NuNaturals because it was all I had. However I remedied it in a hurry by creating what else? A cottage cheese concoction!

1/2 c. lowfat cottage cheese, suncrystals, powdered peanut butter and banana slices. Dang, should have made more than half a batch!

Oh jeez, I just realized I didn't really have one original idea in this whole post--just a copy cat! Oh well. That is one thing I love about blogging is gleaning new tips and tricks from all my friends and their fantastic minds! Luckily, I have the whole rest of the week to think up some crazy kitchen experiments with D gone. Truly, I miss him terribly, but it is really fun for me to come up with things to suit my taste alone. We'll see if any of them are decent enough to make it onto the blog :) What are your favorite ways to spend your alone time?

For me, reading, calling old friends to catch up, making up exercises and watching crappy TV top the list. I even got to catch Biggest Loser tonight, which D hates! I have such a girlie crush on Jillian! She is fabulous. And Bob has nice teeth. And I think the drama is hilarious. You can tell they totally play to the camera, big time! Ok, enough now. Hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing evening. Happy Humpday tomorrow! xoxo