Stephanie's Pasta

 The ingredients pictured above are what you need to make a super quick & delicious pasta type dinner.  The thing I love about this is that you can really change this recipe up to suit your personal taste.  It is such a quick & adaptable meal.  It is basically an aglio olio pasta sauce of garlic and oil.  You can seriously add anything to this.  I usually do broccoli, cauliflower and shrimp but I did not defrost the shrimp in time.

I used a double batch of fresh pasta because we had company (my daughter's friend Kayla) over for dinner and I figured I could use them up and have left overs for lunch (more about this later).

One or two packages of fresh pasta
One package of frozen vegetables of your choice (I used a blend of broccoli & cauliflower)
1/2 c Olive Oil
6 garlic cloves diced (for times sake I used jar garlic in this instance)
salt & pepper to taste
a light sprinkling of my fav Nature's Seasons
1 - 2 Tbsp butter

Cook vegetables according to package directions (I have also used fresh veggies in the past).
Boil your water for the pasta.
As you are doing this, I heated the olive oil and then added the garlic until it sizzled.  Then I removed it from the heat as not to burn the garlic while waiting for the water to boil.  This also allows the oil to be infused with the garlic.

I mean look at this!  My two absolute favorite things:  olive oil and garlic.  It is like a marriage made in heaven!!  Not to mention the fact that at this point my house smelled good enough to eat.

Then add your veggies to the oil and garlic.

Pasta's done!

I then added two tablespoons of butter.  I think it adds a nice flavor and consistency to the sauce.  And who doesn't like some butter?  If they didn't, I don't think I could be their friend.  Same thing applies to bacon.  It's a deal breaker.

I was so glad I made extra pasta.  Tip:  make extra.   Even a double batch of whatever you are cooking.  You can freeze the extra meal.  It is such a timesaver especially if you are working.  I just put the pasta in a container with a little splash of olive oil so it didn't stick too much.  This enables you to make a completely different type of pasta dish without having to wait for water to boil again.

Introduce the veggies to the pasta so they can get acquainted.

Serve with a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan cheese or whatever type of cheese you have on hand.

My original plan was to make a completely different type of sauce the next day for dinner.  However, we ended up having a late dinner the next night.  So I just repeated the same sauce with just using cauliflower this time.

Ta da.  This took me about a total of ten minutes to whip up.
I apologize for the quality of pictures and that I did not take the time to wipe the rim of the plate, etc. etc. etc.  But it was late and I was tired.  So this is what we got!

I love a basic aglio olio sauce.  Garlic is one of my best friends.  It never lets me down!  :)  I also love when I have the time to use all fresh ingredients but also love the versatility of this.  It allows me to just add whatever we like and have on hand.  Some people may be timid about experimenting in the kitchen but just do it.  Don't be afraid.  You never know when you are going to whip up a masterpiece!!

So go experiment & enjoy your pasta!  Also be on the lookout for my bat adventure post coming soon!

Until next time
~Stephanie