Veggie Pasta

Happy Friday! Looking through my past few blogs, I noticed that I've been posting lots and lots of sweet recipes, so, I decided it's time for something healthy! I got this recipe for 'Raw Vegetable Pasta' from the Whole Foods website. I love eating squash raw dipped in ranch so I thought this was a genius idea, so fresh and delicious! Even better I got to utilize fresh herbs from my little back porch garden! The original recipe uses oil-packed sun dried tomatoes which I didn't have, so I cut a bunch of cherry tomatoes in half, drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled on a bit of sea salt and basil and roasted them on a tray in the oven. I then sprinkled the roasted tomatoes over the finished salad and drizzled it with the oil that remained in the pan. This is now one of my favorite vegetable dishes! SUPER easy and flavorful. Perfect for those summer nights when cooking is not on your list of things to do. It would be delicious served with some crusty italian bread to soak up every last drop of that yummy olive oil dressing! So take the night off from cooking and enjoy this beautiful light salad!

Vegetable Pasta

Adapted from Wholefoods.com

Ingredients

2 zucchini squash, shaved thinly lengthwise with a vegetable peeler

2 yellow summer squash, shaved thinly lengthwise with a vegetable peeler

Sea salt and pepper to taste

1 tblsp extra virgin olive oil + more for drizzling

1 1/2 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

2 tblsp fresh chives, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped basil

1 teaspoon finely chopped oregano

1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese

Method

Combine squash, basil, chives, oregano, garlic and about half of the tomato halves in a large bowl.

Take remaining tomato halves and place in a small bowl. Sprinkle with 1/2 tblsp basil, sprinkle with black pepper and salt. Drizzle 1 tblsp of oil over tomatoes and toss. Spread out onto a rimmed baking tray and brown on top rack of oven on boiler setting for 1-2 minutes (watch closely). When softened and sizzling, remove from oven, add to squash mixture, add parmesan flakes and toss. Drizzle with remaining olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Nutrition: Average Per serving (about 6oz/169g-wt.): 70 calories

Have a wonderful weekend!

Frugal Finds: Freezing Basil

I was at Grocery Outlet the other day when I saw this fresh basil on sale for .50 cents! I usually steer clear of produce at Grocery Outlet and just get pantry staples as the produce is usually.... lets just say, a bit past it's prime. But, upon closer inspection, this basil looked pretty fresh, despite the fact that it had officially "expired" the day before. So, I snapped it up with the high hopes of getting home and making a pasta of fresh tomatos, mozzarella, and basil. Alas, it was not meant to be. I didnt get home until 830 and I ended up falling asleep reading my new Cooking Light... So the next morning when I awoke, I remembered my expired basil! Oh no, what to do? I was going out for dinner and didn't want to use it for anything else. So I decided it would be best to store it, but how? I found an easy tutorial on ehow.com about freezing fresh basil and I decided to give it a shot. Here's what I did:

Wash basil by submersing in a bowl of cold water and swirling.

Dry it off very well using two paper towels. Pull the leaves off the stems. Discard Stems.

Finely chop basil (use a food processor if you have one, I don't so I just chopped it up with my chef's knife.) Toss basil with a bit of olive oil to give it a light coating and keep it from going brown. Put into a small tupperware and freeze.

Easy as that! Now whenever you are ready to use it, pull it out, thaw, and enjoy!

Happy Sunday, hope you had a STUPENDOUS weekend!