Meatless Monday - Quick Savory Marinara Sauce and Quinoa Pasta

Welcome to the 40th installment of Meatless Monday with Mindy!

I don't know if it's been the long winter or... what it is, but I have been lacking tremendously in the creativity department lately.  In case you didn't notice, I haven't posted anything original in quite some time. 

I followed a detox diet very recently where there was a menu to follow, so all the cooking I did was solely from recipes. (I felt great, and lost weight though. See more about that here, here and here.) Since I'm not following the detox diet anymore, (although I still fix some of those delicious recipes) I am back to trying to figure out what to fix each night. It was nice having a menu plan where someone (in this case a book) was telling me what to fix each night. 

Last night I wanted something quick and easy, and thought pasta with marinara sounded easy. However, just plain marinara isn't that nutritious, so I began pulling out vegetables from my crisper drawer and started chopping.  I didn't think to write them down, but know that just about any vegetable you have would work as an addition to marinara.  Once I chopped them, I then sautéed them in a little bit of olive oil, starting with the firmer veggies and adding the softer veggies at the very end.

The vegetables I used were: Onion, leek, garlic, carrot, celery, tomato, zucchini, fire-roasted frozen mushrooms, and kale.  I added freshly frozen basil and dried oregano once all the veggies were softened.

Once the veggies were soft, I added the jarred marinara sauce. I used Prego, but use whatever your favorite brand is.  Add some pepper and a little salt, mix well and let simmer.

While the marinara sauce was simmering (which allowed that lovely vegetable medley to meld nicely into the jarred sauce), I boiled some quinoa pasta. With that going, I heated up some peas and carrots in the microwave and made garlic bread out of some "needed to be used up" ciabatta rolls. The vegetables and the quinoa pasta added the nutrients this meal would have been missing otherwise. 

 Did you know that kale and peas are just a few of the highest protein sources in green vegetables? Coupled with the quinoa pasta, this meal turned out to be a savory and nutritious meal. 

For dessert ...slices of fresh cantaloupe. Yummmm.

Yay for fast food!

Photos by Dave Howell