Savory Garlic Pasta with Vegetables

I had a bunch of organic cherry tomatoes and needed a recipe. I also have a ton of kale in my fridge as well as spinach (the greens are rockin at the farmers market)! Anyway, I love pasta-I don't have it often-but I love it so I made this pasta dish. Add extra virgin olive oil and fresh garlic and the party has started.


This dish is a great way to get a ton of veggies in one sitting and to eat something savory and filling. You can sub out any veggies you wish, use any pasta you wish and go nuts with the spices. Feel free to use this recipe as a base and build it up from there. It doesn't take too long to make and it fills your house with a lovely smell. Buy organic when you can for the veggies; there are a ton of veggies in season at your local farmers market such as spinach, kale, squash and carrots.

Wednesday night I went for a run for the first time since the marathon and it was great. I was tired but I think I'm still recovering. My legs felt very heavy and I walked up the hills. I was not super out of shape, though, my breathing was pretty steady and I was able to keep up my pace. I also did 4 and a half minutes of squats and 30 pushups earlier yesterday so I'm pretty proud of myself. I hadn't run since November 6th and I just felt like I was going to lose all the fitness I had built up; so happy that hasn't happened.

My next plan of attack for weight loss and working on my body image is to lift weights and do more strength training alot more. I'm signed up for a 6 mile run in January and a 4 mile run in February so I'm starting 2017 slow. I want to build up my speed as well as lose more body fat so I'm getting back to using dumbbells and doing leg lifts and push-ups. When you build muscle, you increase your basal metabolic rate so you actually burn more calories at rest. I'm ALWAYS trying to find ways to make strength training more interesting because it's kind of boring. My new favorite thing is to do squats or bicep curls to one of my favorite songs-usually a dance, clubby kinda song. I make sure the song is four and a half to five minutes long so that it's a great workout but also so I can function the rest of the day lol

Anyway, this is a great recipe if you want to carb load or make for a big Sunday family dinner.

1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of fresh garlic, chopped
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
3 cups of spinach or kale
1-2 servings of pasta
2 tbsp of oregano
2 tsp of seas salt
2 tbsp of nutritional yeast

In a large saucepan, pour the olive oil and turn the heat on low. Chop the garlic into tiny pieces and add to the olive oil. Cook the garlic on low until it is transparent. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add to the garlic and olive oil. Add the greens. In another pot, make the pasta. As you cook the greens and tomato, you will need to add more liquid to the pan. Instead of adding more olive oil, pour some of the water out of the pasta pot and stir the vegetables, garlic and olive oil. The mixture will become a creamy pink sauce as the tomatoes become softer. The greens will turn bright green and become limp. When the pasta is done, drain it (add some more pasta water to the veggie pan if need be) and then add the pasta to the pan with the veggies and garlic. Mix well until the pasta is coated with sauce and add the spices and nutritional yeast. Transfer to a dish, sprinkle on some more nutritional yeast and serve. You will have more than one serving.

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