Pasta has to be my favorite food. I could eat it all day, everyday. It is a comfort food for me and with school taking over my life it is all I want right now. I discovered brown rice pasta about a month ago while shopping at Whole Foods and I love it! The rice is the only ingredient, which makes it a fabulous, healthy, gluten free alternative to other pasta varieties. I've also had some delicious quinoa pastas! Just be sure to find ones with few, healthy ingredients because I have noticed many companies selling these types of pastas with lots of fillers and additives that aren't all that good for the body.

This meal is vegan, gluten free, and full of fiber and protein ♥

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

1/2 package pasta of your choosing
1 container cannellini beans, no salt added
1 small squash, sliced*
1 small zucchini, sliced*
1/2 sliced onion
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
a bunch or 1/4 cup of chopped arugula (set aside a couple leaves to garnish)
crushed red pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil (enough to coat the pan)
1/4 cup white wine or vegetable broth
s & p to taste

*I made this about a month ago and am not sure about the availability of fresh, local squash and zucchini now. If these ingredients are not readily available I would suggest substituting with any other vegetable of your choosing. Spinach, broccoli, and/or swiss chard would be great additions.

Instructions:

While the pasta is cooking, sautee squash, zucchini, onion, and garlic in olive oil. Once the vegetables are almost fully cooked add in tomatoes, beans, red pepper, arugula, a little salt and pepper, and wine or vegetable broth. Sautee until tomatoes pop. The broth or wine will thicken the sauce. If more juice is needed to the sauce, reserve 1/4 cup of the water the pasta was cooked in and add that. Combine pasta and sauce, squeeze lemon juice on top, garnish with arugula, and add some salt and pepper to taste. I love to drizzle some really good olive oil on top, but that's optional :) Enjoy!

*Healthy hints: Since pasta is a weakness of mine, it is extremely easy for me to overeat. To make sure this doesn't happen I add loads of vegetables to my pasta dishes. The vegetables fill me up quickly and add bulk to the meal without all the calories. I make sure my plate contains more veggies than it does actual noodles. Also, I cook a lot with vegetable broth instead of oil. It adds flavor without all the calories and fat. Olive oil is fabulous for you and has some great benefits but only in small amounts (2 tablespoons daily is what the doctors say!). What I'll do is cook with vegetable broth and then as I mentioned earlier, drizzle olive oil on top for flavor.

Lundberg makes the pasta used in this recipe. It can be purchased here.

lemon, tomato, and white bean pasta