11 Minute Pasta Salad

My husband has been nagging me to make pasta salad this week, especially since he harvested broccoli from the garden.  It's a simple recipe I just made up myself with veggies we like.  Thought I'd share :)

1.  Boil a pot of water.  Pour in a box of pasta.  I like to use Garden Delight pasta go get even more veggies in there and for the beautiful colors!

2. Cut the veggies and put them into a 13x9 container.  You could use a deep bowl too, but I don't have one with a cover, so I just use some multipurpose tupperware.  Here are the veggies I used:

• About one and a half heads of broccoli
• 1 pint of grape tomatoes. Cut in half of quartered, depending on size--do what you prefer.
• Coin 3 average carrots.  If you get the giant carrots, one would probably be enough.
• 1 green pepper.  Preferably organic because peppers are in the dirty dozen.  Red peppers would go well too.  

Before Cheese

3. Drain the pasta and add it to the veggies.  I think the little bit of heat and steam brings out more of the flavor in the veggies.

4.  Add about one small container of Italian Dressing.  I usually use Wishbone because it goes on sale.  I'm sure it would also be delicious with homemade dressing, but that would send me over 11 minutes :)

5. Make small cubes out of about 4 oz cheddar cheese. You want to add this last because it will melt if the pasta is hot.

Voila!  Eat or Refrigerate :)

Healthy Husband Approved Recipe: Chocolate Pumpkin Banana Chip Muffins

At our house, we're always looking for ways to

A.  Save money

B. Eat Healthy

C. Eat Chocolate for breakfast

D. Save time

E.  All of the Above

 

If you are a decent test taker, you went straight for option E.  All of the Above, and you are correct!  In this house we are always rushing out the door--which can lead to some pretty poor choices in food, most often at breakfast.  So when this school year began, I set a goal to stop buying breakfast at Dunkin Donuts  eat healthier breakfasts.  With a one year old, everything needs to be simple, fast, portable, and delicious. 

 

I was inspired by  this pin from Pinterest. Every morning in September I enjoyed these muffins and my cup of coffee in the car on the way to work (because you know there is no way I'd be able to squeeze in breakfast before I left--and really what else is there to do during a 30 minute commute?).   Adding about a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 of a teaspoon of nutmeg made these muffins  absolutely delicious.  My baby would actually ask for them!  I also tried them with chocolate cake mix which was pretty good, but not quite rich enough to satisfy my chocoholic tendencies. 

 

Although this was a good start, my tastebuds were demanding some variety.  This Sunday night I had a stroke of genius when I spied the mini chocolate chips in my pantry.  The only complaint I really had about the recipe above is that when you make 24 muffins from them, they don't really fill up the tins.  Right as the overripe banana was on it way to the trash, I realized I could give it one more chance so I threw it in the mixer with the other three ingredients to bulk up my muffins. 

 

 

Ingredients:

• One Box Devil's food cake mix (I used Pillsbury because it was on sale for $1.00)
• 15-16 ounces of Libby's Pure Pumpkin.  It's very important to buy Libby's.  I know the store brands are cheaper, but take a look at the nutrion info and you will see why immediately!  Libby's has far more fiber and less water than any other brand.  Also, a money saving tip is to buy the 30 ounce can, split it in half and freeze the rest to use in the future. 
• One banana
• One Cup (about 1/2 a package) of Mini Chocolate Chips

Put the pumpkin, banana, and cake mix in your mixer and mix on medium for 3 minutes or until well blended.  Then add the chocolate chips and mix for another minute.  Spoon the mix into greased or lined cupcake tins.  Bake at 350'F for 20-22 minutes.  Voila! 

 

Here is some nutritional information--not bad for a chocolate treat in the morning! 

Column1	Calories	Calories From Fat	Grams of Fat	Grams of Fiber	Grams of Sugar	Grams of Carbohydrates	Grams of Protein
Cake Mix	55.00	10.00	2.50	1.00	7.00	14.00	1.00
Banana	4.38	0.13	0.02	0.13	0.60	1.12	0.05
Pumpkin	5.83	1.00	0.08	0.75	0.58	1.33	0.29
Chocolate Chips	46.90	23.45	2.68	0.00	5.36	6.03	0.00
Total	112.11	34.58	5.28	1.88	13.54	22.49	1.35

 

And here is a terrible picture of the last surviving muffin.  I thought a few more would survive the day so I could make a nice little picture for my blog.  This is my proof of their deliciousness!