Table Talk » Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 2 Pasta, Beans & Greens

For Day 2 of the Cook with What You Have Challenge, my goal was to create a dinner that would work as a vegan lunch for tomorrow. I decided on Spicy Cellantini, Beans, and Spinach.

Breakfast this morning was baked oatmeal that I made last night from pantry ingredients: rolled oats, apples, raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, ginger, and hemp milk. The oatmeal makes 6 servings and will be my breakfasts for the week. This morning when I had it, I spread a little bit of peanut butter on it because after breakfast I had a lot of wet heavy snow waiting for me to shovel.

Lunch was a veggie burger with some avocado slices. (I need to find a vegan veggie burger that doesn't contain soy! Any suggestions? I know, I can make them, but I haven't had time to do that yet.)

The inspiration for tonight's recipe is a recipe I have for Spicy Rigatoni with Beans and Greens. It has sauteed onion and garlic, canned diced tomatoes, spinach, white beans, sage, and crushed red pepper. A simple but delicious sounding dish. And an opportunity to finish the end of a box of cellantini pasta, a bag of baby spinach, a can of tomatoes, and a can of small red beans. No formal recipe here. The cellantini box had 5 ounces of pasta in it. Perfect for two servings, so I cooked that up and drained it. Sauteed a chopped onion and minced garlic (3 cloves) and some crushed red pepper. Can you believe that I have only one 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes in the house? Well, I didn't want all that liquid in this dish, so I spooned about of the tomatoes and juice into the pan, then drained the rest of the juice before adding the rest of the tomatoes to the can. In went the baby spinach, on went the cover and the spinach cooked until wilted. Added the beans, seasoned with salt and pepper, some dried basil, and a bit more crushed red pepper. The whole thing took about 20 minutes to cook, including cooking the pasta. Not the prettiest dish, but it was quite tasty. For dinner, I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it. But it is so flavorful that I know I won't miss that sprinkle of parmesan cheese tomorrow when I have it for lunch.

Links

Here are some links to other Cook What Have Challenge posts:

Cook What You've Got Challenge Headquarters: http://www.facebook.com/dineindiva

Garden, Grocery, Gadget Girl: http://gardengrocerygadgetgirl.blogspot.com/
It's a Simply Delicious Life: http://simplydeliciousbymartha.blogspot.com/
Tasty Tidbits: http://forgoodnesstaste.wordpress.com/
For Life!: http://forlifepersonalchef.com/
Newport Personal Chef: http://chefgal.wordpress.com/

Posted January 18, 2010 8:17 PM in Menus, Recipes

« Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 1 Cajun Crab Cakes | Table Talk Main | Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 3 Salmon & Lemon-Dijon Lentils »

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5 Comment(s)

Primethyme said… (on January 18, 2010 at 21:43 PM #)

Well I just took a baked oatmeal with apples out of the oven! Great minds, huh? No hemp milk here, though. :) I used to use a great veggie burger for my veggie client. I think it was Bocca Burger, but I don't know if it had soy in it. I suspect it did.

charity dasenbrock said… (on January 18, 2010 at 21:47 PM #)

hey, Patti. Thanks for the mention! I eat Sunshine Burgers, organic and main ingreds are brown rice and sunflower seeds. http://sunshineburgers.com

Patti said… (on January 18, 2010 at 21:48 PM #)

Marcy, Boca Vegan Burgers definitely have soy. (I like them!)

Charity, I'll try Sunshine Burgers, I saw them at one of my local stores last week. I also want to try to make some, but not this week.

Ginny said… (on January 19, 2010 at 16:33 PM #)

You are so creative, Patti! I don't mind cooking, but meal planning is a big weak area for me. I'm inspired by the way you construct your meal menus. Clever and practical.

Cole Jones said… (on January 20, 2010 at 13:13 PM #)

Dear Chef Patti:
Sunshine Burger makes certified organic vegan burgers with raw ground sunflower seeds and brown rice (no soy, no gluten). We have five different flavors, four of which are available in food service packs. Please contact me directly for more information. I will be in New England next week specifically to gain new distribution for our food service program. Our retail items are available nationwide through natural and organic grocers.
Sincerely,
Cole Jones
General Manager
Sunshine Burger