Eggplant Green Bean Pasta with Tomato Lentil Sauce

It's the end of my food week so I clearly needed to get rid of some veggies. This is a meal that dirtied a ton of dishes and was not really quick. But it was fun and delicious.

Eggplant Green Bean Pasta with Tomato Lentil Sauce

• .25c lentils
• 2 plum tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 large red onion, chopped/diced

• 1-2TB olive oil
• 1 eggplant, cubed
• 3-5c green beans, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces

• 3/4c dry rye pasta, cooked

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a pot, cover with water, and boil until lentils become very tender, adding water as necessary. Add salt and pepper to taste. Blend 1/2 of it together.

Heat oil in skillet or pot. Add eggplant and cook 5-10 minutes until starts to become tender. Add green beans and cook to desired consistency. Add salt to taste.

Mix pasta and eggplant/green beans together. Top with sauce. Sooooo good.

Summery Rye Pasta

Since my grocery bill has been low from traveling so much, I decided to splurge a little at the grocery store. I ended up in an aisle I rarely visit and found something amazing- rye pasta. 100% rye. I don't usually eat pasta because it always seems like I get too many calories for not enough filling, but it's nice to have on hand for a quick meal. Today I had some veggies leftover from last week's shopping, so I thought I'd throw most of it together for an easy pasta dish.

Summery Rye Pasta

• .75 c uncooked rye pasta
• 1 small/medium onion, sliced (if you are not a massive onion fan, you may want to use half an onion or a quarter
• 1 small head of broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 large tomato
• 3 cloves garlic, 1 peeled and 2 in skin
• .75 TB olive oil plus extra

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut 1 clove garlic into small pieces, add a touch of salt, and make into a paste by smashing with the flat side of a knife. Add to olive oil and set aside. The longer it sits, the better it will be.

Add pasta to boiling water and cook until tender. Spray onion and broccoli with olive oil and toss to coat; spread on baking sheet. Cut tomato in half, spray with olive oil, and place skin down on baking sheet. Add rest of garlic. Bake until browned, about 20 minutes, stirring once midway thorough (leave tomatoes whole an flip garlic).

Add everything but tomatoes to a large bowl. Put tomatoes on top and gently tear open with knife to mush it up. Add garlic olive oil and toss to coat. Enjoy!

This was perfect for an oppressively hot afternoon- I didn't have to stand in a sweltering kitchen to long. The only thing I would add is some freshly ground pepper. Yum.

Roasted Veggie Delight

I had a (not unusual) craving for onions this afternoon but I didn't feel like standing over the stove to cook them. So I found a great alternative- I roasted them. While those were going, I cooked some lentils and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and basil. And I made cooked whole wheat rotini. Strangely I had some leftover Brussels sproutsd (which is a sin), so I tossed those in a bowl with everything else.

Crap, I just realized I meant to put capers in it but forgot. Oh well, it was tasty.

Still Around...Barely

I haven't posted in 3 weeks because I've either been too busy training to cook anything creative or out of town. As a result, I've now gotten sick. So today I decided to make soup- and lots of it. My freezer is now full for those long days when training takes up too much time...*Sigh*

I sauteed 2 medium onions and 4 cloves of garlic until transparent. I diced some tomatoes and threw them in the pot along with some water. I let them boil for 15 minutes or so and added 4 cups of yellow squash, one giant can of kidney beans (it held 9 servings), and an entire package of organic wheat spaghetti. I was feeling uncreative because my brain was shut off so I only seasoned it with salt and pepper, but in the end it was a good decision. It cooked until everything was done, and then I scooped it into 8 containers (about 375 calories a piece).

It hit the spot and was just what the doctor ordered. I'm glad I made heaps and heaps of it because it's something I won't mind eating over and over again. Good job, self. Maybe next time I'll use a nice veggie broth for more flavor.

(It is soupier than the picture leads you to believe.)

Bean Pile

I used to make something similar to this dish fairly often a few years ago. I rediscovered it tonight and am glad I did. A coworker named the dish way back then.

I got .75c whole wheat spiral pasta going in one pot and heated up 1TB sesame oil in my frying pan. I sauteed a medium onion in the oil and added some green beans (4cups?) when the onions were transparent. I seasoned with some sea salt and red pepper flakes.

I eat green beans every week and it seems like they are the same every single time. So the sesame oil was a nice departure from the norm. Overall, the only thing I'd do differently is cut the green beans into smaller pieces so I can shove them in my mouth faster.