Fridge Bits Vegetable Fettucini

Happy Tuesday!

Did we all have a beautiful extra long sunny summer long weekend? I spent it up North at my cottage and am still here- sunning, funning and wild raspberry picking. If you were busy off having fun over the weekend and missed The Big Reveal of my new Little Project, check it here before you read on!

As I may have mentioned before, we don’t have running water up here so we always do our very best to make our food using as few pots and pans as possible. This lends a whole new level of creativity to the cooking process. We like to use up what we have leftover and then build upon to make the best ever dinner there ever was.

This pasta is one of my absolute favourite go-to dinners or lunches.

I always stress the importance in my classes of using up the ingredients that you have on hand- the best whatever to use being the one in your fridge, on your shelf, in your freezer etc. You picking up what I’m putting down.

So when we make a fidge bits pasta, the noodle and the fresh made sauce become the unifier and you can literally throw in whatever else you have around. That “whatever else” can be steamed veggies, grilled veggies, your fave meat, fish, bean or tempeh, and any other goodies. Now- you want to be careful that you don’t mix too many different flavours or things that already have sauces on it. Clean and simple is where it’s at my home-slizzle-mcnizzle.  Keeping it clean.

Now when it comes to pasta- I don’t care what “healthwashing‘ is covering the label. You know what I’m talking about right? The labels that say “whole grain” or “high protein” or “will make you young and beautiful and miraculously remove every inch of fat from your bum and wrinkle from your face”.

There is nothing on a label of pasta is really going to make a whole lot of different. What will matter if what is written in the ingredient list and what you do with it. The ingredient list should really just be a whole grain. I love whole buckwheat soba noodles.

See, you can serve a massive bowl of pasta with a jar of tomato sauce,  throw in some factory farmed “on special” ground beef, sprinkle it with processed parmesan and build yourself a nutrient depleting meal that is calories without nutrition.

Or you can take the same pasta, mix it with loads of vegetables and healthier organic protein, a made from scratch sauce, top it with some cold pressed flax oil and sea salt and you have a very different story being told on your plate (and in your body).

Pasta on its own, in any form, is a processed food to some degree. So if you are going to eat this treat we call pasta, it really should comprise only a small portion of the total dish- and be treated like a treat- not the main filler. You got me sister ? You picking it up yet?

You ready to toss this pasta dish together for en easy breezey summer mealsy? Here I share my version, but you best be knowing I want to know what lands in your version.

Fridge Bits Vegetable Loving Fettucini

Pasta
1 serving of pasta (1 cup cooked or a quarter in diameter dry)
1 cup cauliflower, steamed
1 cup broccoli, steamed
2 Tbs Olive Oil
1/4 cup onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 block tempeh, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 Tbs tamari
2 cups kale, chard or spinach, coarsely chopped

• Cook pasta as directed (or use leftovers)
• Cut broccoli and cauliflower in desired bite size pieces and place in a separate bowl.
• In a pan, heat olive oil and add in garlic and onions. Cook until fragrant (about 5 minutes)
• Add in tempeh and tamari and cook until tempeh is slightly browned.
• Add cooked vegetables in with steamed broccoli and cauliflower and mix in capers and greens of choice.
• Mix thoroughly allowing heat from tempeh to wilt the greens.
• Set aside

Cream Love Sauce

Put It Together Now!

• In a large mixing bowl, mix together vegetables, pasta and sauce.
• Enjoy!