Lemony Penne with White Beans & Spinach

Happy Monday!! Sadly our gorgeous sunny weekend has sped by and we're back into yet another work week. Are you still enjoying warm weather in your neck of the woods? It was warm and humid here and our office building was so hot! I struggled to keep my eyes open all afternoon because it was so warm. It felt great at the end of the day to step out into the cool breeze and get some fresh air. It's supposed to cool off into single digits tonight but I really hope the Spring weather is here to stay!! (I'm knocking on wood right as I type this :-))

This morning I woke up and thought to myself "I have no idea what I'm going to blog about!" I've been trying to decide what recipe I wanted to feature next and nothing has been exciting me....that was until I started catching up with all my favourite blogging buddies to see what everyone had been up to over the weekend. There were so many fabulous recipes posted over the past few days ~ I think I have inspiration to last me at least a week or two. I've bookmarked several new recipes that I must try in the very near future!

Lemony Penne with White Beans & Spinach
Adapted from The Healthy Apron

This is a fresh lemony pasta that tastes great and packs a healthy dose of beans and greens! Make sure you put the full half cup of reserved liquid into the sauce at the end. I thought 1/2 c would make it watered down, so I used 1/4 c and I can see that my leftovers are going to be drier than I would have liked.

2 1/2 c dry brown rice penne (your fave penne will do)
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c sundried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 orange pepper, sliced
2 handfuls baby spinach
4 green onions, sliced
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
juice of one lemon
1 tbsp tahini
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
pinch black pepper

Cook your pasta according to the directions ~ remember to salt your water ;-)  Reserve 1/2 c of cooking water for the sauce.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and pepper and saute for 2 - 3 minutes. Add sundried tomatoes and spinach. It was at this point that I found 4 green onions tucked way back in my crisper, so I sliced them up and tossed them in as well. They were a wonderful addition!

Once the spinach has wilted, add the beans and pasta.

In a small separate bowl, combine lemon juice, reserved cooking water, tahini, salt, cayenne pepper and black pepper to taste. Toss with pasta mixture. Cook for 3 - 4 minutes until the sauce has reduced slightly.

Serve and enjoy ~ garnish your dish with a lemon wedge - it tastes fantastic with a fresh squeeze of lemon right before digging in!

PS - Happy Birthday to my sweet hubby. Yesterday we went out for dinner with friends. I got my Bellini. He got a Ceasar...or two. We even got to enjoy our dinner on a patio. Life is good.

Even the dogs got in on the birthday celebrations. Don't they look impressed ;-)

Have a wonderful evening!

Andrea

Easy Creamy Avocado Pasta

First of all, I want to say a quick apology to my Google followers. It came to my attention yesterday that my feed was not updating in Google Reader and today you were bombarded with a bunch of my posts. I hope you enjoy each & every one of them :-), but I do apologize for the overload.

Last night I was up several times with Dora who was having some gastro-intestinal issues (ew!). By 5 a.m. I decided that I might as well get myself up and go to the gym for a 6:15 a.m. Spin Class. The class was great and I felt energized and fabulous until about 1 p.m. and that's when I crashed. The afternoon draaaggged by and I was so happy when we reached the end of the day and I was able to head home because I could barely hold my eyelids open.

Derek had to work tonight, so I had all the dog duties to myself. Luckily today was a beautiful, sunny day so I was able to put the dogs out in the backyard to romp around and play for a couple of hours to wear them out. Sadly, the mud has not yet dried up in our yard, so before they could come in from their fun, it was in the bathtub they went. I swear that they have spent more time in the tub than we have in the past 2 weeks!

By the time all of this was done and I was able to think about my own dinner, I was pooped and just wanted something quick and easy. Enter "Easy Creamy Avocado Pasta."  I've been wanting to do a post about this recipe for a while because this is the easiest, creamiest pasta ever! I've tried a couple of different variations, but they never come out as good as the original recipe, so I am going to share a recipe that I saw on Angela's blog earlier this year.

Easy Creamy Avocado Pasta
Recipe from Oh She Glows

This is a fantastic pasta recipe! It is so creamy and rich and there isn't a drop of butter or cream to be found. The lemon combined with the avocado make this a delicious Spring dish.

1 medium sized avocado, peeled and pitted
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 c fresh basil
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 servings of your choice of pasta (I used brown rice spaghetti)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
pinch of nutritional yeast for garnish OR lemon zest for garnish (optional)

Cook your pasta according to the directions. I'm sure you've noticed that I use brown rice pasta alot. The more I use it, the less I like whole wheat pasta - I just find it too chewy.  If you've never tried brown rice pasta, I would really recommend that you do. I got this package at the Bulk Barn and it is about the same price as a box of whole wheat pasta. I love that it is gluten free and did you notice it's organic too?

While your pasta is cooking, make your sauce. Place the lemon juice, garlic and olive oil into a food processor and blend until smooth.

The Ingredients - the produce was starting to look pretty sad,

so I was happy to be able to use up so many things in this recipe

Next, add the avocado, basil and salt. Process until smooth and creamy. You may want to adjust the salt to your tastes - I sprinkled more on my serving, but remember I love salt.

Once the pasta is cooked, drained and rinsed place it into a large mixing bowl. Add your sauce and mix until well combined.

Doesn't that sauce look gorgeous?

Serve & enjoy. I garnished mine with nutritional yeast (another Bulk Barn buy) and a pinch of black pepper. Angela garnished hers with black pepper and lemon zest. I'm not a fan of any kind of "zest", so I improvised :-)

Who knew a sauce without cream could come out so creamy?! This pasta dish is divine!

Note: This is a dish that must be served immediately. The avocado does not keep and this will not be good if reheated.

You might notice that I had to use my itty bitty mini processor to blend this sauce. I am happy to say that I am planning to go blender and/or food processor shopping this weekend, so hopefully we will be the proud new parents of some fabulous new appliance within the next few days ;-)

Have you ever tried different pastas that are not made with wheat?
What is your favourite brand of blender - I would love some input when making my purchase!

I hope your Thursday was wonderful and your Friday flies by....now it's time for bed for this gal.

Goodnight y'all,

Andrea