Creamy Spinach Pasta

To me pasta is very versatile. It can be prepared as a complete meal in itself or as a side dish or even as a salad. Another good thing about pasta is being a one pot meal it's hit at my place. I love pasta so much that I can even eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon snack or even late night snack. I don't need lot of cheese in my pasta, but yes lots of veggies are kind of must. Pasta is regular at my place but every time with little twist depending upon what veggies I have. This one with spinach is one of my favorite. Now talking of spinach, sometime in the beginning of this month DH decided that he want spinach for at least one meal everyday. In my household we cook most of the veggies & greens but when you want to eat spinach everyday you need to think out of the box, regular palak paneer, saag they are good no doubt but I'm sure no one can eat it day after day and most importantly for eating one good thing you can not give up other good things. So, for next 7 days I will try to post one recipe with spinach each day, just to give some idea that how easy it can be to include spinach in your everyday diet, you don't have to be Popeye and eat your spinach direct from the can you can make it more tasty & visual treat for your eyes before you eat that healthy stuff.

Some of the health benefit of including spinach in your regular diet are:

1. 
   
   Excellent source of vitamin A, C & folate.
2. Flavonoid compounds in spinach function as antioxidants and as anti-cancer agents.
3. It's an excellent source of  bone-building nutrients including calcium and magnesium.
4. Promotes Gastrointestinal Health
5. The anti-inflammatory nutrients in spinach can also help with conditions in which inflammation plays a role. For example, asthma, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis are all conditions that involve inflammation.
6. Cooked spinach is an excellent source of Iron.

Now for the recipe :
What U need :

• half pound of small pasta like macaroni, shell or farfalle
• 1 8oz. box of white button mushrooms
• 1 cup of cooked chicken cut into bite size pieces
• salt
• black pepper
• red chilli flakes
• 1 Tblsp. chopped garlic
• 1 bunch of fresh spinach cleaned or 1 frozen box(10 oz. ) of spinach defrosted
• around 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 Tblsp. of evoo

What to do :

1. Boil pasta as per the packet direction, Boil it for a minute or two less than the specified time as we gonna finish cooking it in the sauce.Reserve the pasta water.
2. In the mean time while pasta is boiling, clean & roughly chop the mushrooms.
3. Heat oil in a big pan, saute garlic & mushrooms in it. If you chop the mushrooms thin it should not take more than 5 minutes. Once done sprinkle some salt & black pepper.
4. Add milk to it & let it boil, simmer cook for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Cool little bit, take it out & puree it. That's the creamy sauce for the pasta.
6. In the same pan pour little pasta water & add chopped up spinach to it, let it cook for few minutes(roughly 4-5 minutes). Don't add any salt to this as we are using pasta water which is salty.
7. Once spinach looks like cooked add boiled pasta(drained), cooked chicken & mushroom sauce to it. Sprinkle some red chilli flakes. If it's little dry add some of the pasta water. Let everything cook together for a minute or two.
8. If you like sprinkle some Parmesan or any other cheese of your choice on top of it.

Note : I puree the mushrooms into sauce as this is one thing which my DD doesn't eat no matter what recipe they are in, so disguising is the only option I'm left with. You can leave it chunky as per your taste. Also for the vegetarian version, chicken can be left out & may be another packet of mushrooms can be added sliced & sauteed for the dose of extra protein.

Veggie Paneer Macaroni

There's no recipe for this pasta. In fact many times I quick fix this kind of lunch with whatever is available or whatever need to be used, today I had very little time to fix lunch for myself & the little one, so decided to cook some pasta. Here's how it goes :

Keep water for boiling and at the same time add around 1/2 cup of frozen mixed vegetables. When water comes to boil add some salt & pasta, preferably small type(I used macaroni). When pasta is cooked drain water add some home made fresh paneer( Indian cheese), black pepper, red chilli flakes & herbs(parsley, oregano) of your choice. Mix everything together, let it cook for a minute. Turn of the gas & enjoy your Veggie Paneer Macaroni.

I'm sending this quick & easy, one pot dish to Radhika & Sudeshna's Food for 7 stages of life : Kids event. This post is quite small so I guess I can share some clicks I had in the Thanksgiving weekend.
Something man made :
but no one can beat Nature......

Pasta Primavera

Past Friday night was the Pasta night in our family. This pasta dish is one of the favourites in my family, even my 11 months old loves this one. Though her favourite is pasta in this but a little veggie here & there is welcome. It's not only easy to make but also tasty and satisfying One Pot Dish. There's no fixed list of ingredients for this dish as one can easily put vegetables of there choice, as I believe it's more of a method then a recipe. I make this almost once a week, and every time it has different things in it. Many a times it's the dish which I make usually when I'm cleaning the fridge(a day before fresh groceries)So whatever veggie is sitting alone in the fridge gets to go into this melody of veggies.It's also a good one for make-ahead, just warm it up when ready to eat.

As far the dictionary meaning of Pasta primavera, It's is an Italian-American dish that consists of pasta and fresh vegetables. A meat such as chicken, sausage or shrimp is sometimes added, but the focus of primavera is the vegetables themselves. The dish may contain almost any kind of vegetable, but cooks tend to stick to firm, crisp vegetables, such as broccoli, carrots, peas, onions and green bell peppers, with tomatoes. Pasta primavera is usually highlighted by light flavors, aromatic herbs and bright colors ('primavera' meaning the season of spring). Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasta_primavera

Ingredient :

1. 4 cups or more of diced raw vegetables of your choice.(e.g carrots, zucchini,peas,onions,celery,cauliflower etc.)
2. 5-6 cloves of garlic - minced.
3. 2 cups of chopped ripe tomatoes or marinara sauce (whatever is handy)
4. 1/2 lb. sausages (any kind u like)
5. 1/2 lb. of any small pasta(elbow,fussili,bow tie)
6. salt as per taste
7. 1 tsp. red chilli flakes
8. 1 tsp. black pepper
9. 3-4 green hot chillies chopped (optional)
10. 1 & 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning(or one can use only basil, parsley, thyme or oregano as per taste)
11. 2 tbsp. olive oil
12. Handful of grated Parmesan cheese(optional as per taste)

Method :

1. Boil the pasta according to the package direction & while pasta is boiling get the veggies ready.
2. Heat the oil in a large size skillet/pan & then add garlic to it. Once it get cooked around 30-40 seconds add diced veggies to it & gently stir everything so that all the veggies get coated with the oil. Saute the veggies for around 5-7 minutes or until they are tender but crisp. Add salt,pepper,chilli flakes & green chillies.Stir everything together.
3. In the meanwhile if using sausages cook them acc. to the package direction & slice them.Once the sausages are done add them to the veggies.
4. Now add tomatoes & italian seasoning.Stir everything together.Let everything cook together for around 2-3 minutes. Now add boiled pasta(drained) to the veggie sauce mix it gently.
5. Serve with grated parmesan cheese on top.I don't do this everytime b'coz that's the beauty of cooking at home u can totally omit something, u don't want.But my DD loves her's topped with grated mozzarella cheese so do my husband, i just love it without any cheese.

Note : For Vegan version one can simply omit chicken/sausage part & cheese.Also i usually make it with marinara sauce as my DD tends to find the tomatoes in her portion & separate them as --not to eat category food, but she loves to eat raw tomatoes in salads isn't that funny.

Variations : For this part the credit goes to my brother, as this is one dish he also makes very frequently but with the twist. Twist here is that instead of making it with Italian seasonings he makes it Chinese style with a dash of soya sauce & ketchup, no tomatoes & instead of sausages he puts scrambled eggs, One of his all time fave.

As I wrote in the beginning of the post that this is a favourite food as of now for my little one also. When i say fav. means I even don't have to turn on any music or t.v to make her eat this (my fingers crossed).And yes, if cooking for kids please omit or reduce chillies. So here it goes, my little ones favourite, to Srivalli of Spice your life for her First Blog Anniversary with Kids Delight,an event to focus on Kids and also my best wishes for the same. I feel excited, as this is my first time ever, being a part of any blogging event.