Nummy Mix

We eat pasta. A LOT. It's one thing that all three of us love and can really never have enough of. Pasta and sandwiches - so easy to make and seriously SO many ways to make them. Really, how can you get sick them? Since we've been eating them so frequently though, I've made the decision to start incorporating more whole grain / wheat pastas into our meals. Not as bad I thought it would be, I have to say. We made the switch to a wheat bread a few years ago and it took a while to find a brand that we liked... and we've gotten lucky with the wheat pasta we've tried. We've found some penne, fettucini, and spaghetti noodles that we like for our dinner meals... but now I'm moving on to my and Penny's lunch noodles.

For lunch, Penny usually gets a mixture of noodles (usually elbow or penne), veggies (usually fresh carrots or green beans), and maybe some cheese (usually of the string variety) or tofu. It's hard coming up with different variations to keep her interested and without resorting to a canned or boxed meal. I've been trying different broths and herbs as seasoning... this week I discovered a recipe that used salad dressing instead so we tried it today:







I found some organic whole grain alphabet noodles at our local Outpost (though you can usually find a box of small "O" shaped noodles at most grocery stores). The recipe called for 1/2 a cup of peas and 1/4 cup of diced carrots... but I just happened to have a bag of frozen mix veggies, so I threw in a whole cup of that instead. Just cook the noodles according to what the box says and a minute or two before it's done, toss in the veggies. Drain when done and toss with about 1/4 cup of salad dressing (I used Newman's Own Italian Dressing and it was DELICIOUS). Also sliced up two sticks of string cheese and mixed them in.

I have to say that I am really happy when I can figure out a meal that we both like and is healthy too!