Very Veggie Dinner

Being an active person and knowing a thing or two about eating well-rounded, nutritious meals I AM NOT one to cut out carbohydrates from my meals! In fact, I always make sure I include them when planning almost every meal. 

Despite your thinking carbs are EXTREMELY important in your daily nutrition. It's just about what kind you choose and, like everything else in life, keeping it limited or "in moderation". 

Here's a recipe I whipped up with very little preparation...

Ingredients

2 pints grape tomatoes

6 cloves garlic

1 green pepper

1 small onion

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

3 turkey sausage links

1 package of whole grain pasta (use spaghetti squash or rice pasta if you need gluten free) 

Throw tomatoes, garlic, chunky-chopped onion, chunky-chopped green pepper, about 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, and a little salt and pepper on a cookie sheet. Mix it all up so the oil covers all the veggies. Put it in a pre-heated 425 degree oven for roughly 30 minutes (more or less depending on your oven). You will know when to take it out when the tomatoes burst open and there's a caramelized color on everything. Set aside. 

While that's in the oven put on a pot of water for the spaghetti and sauté up about 3 turkey sausage links. (Tip: I make sure to let it completely defrost if frozen so I can squeeze the meat out of the casing and throw that out.) As the sausage browns, continue to break it up into small pieces so it mixes throughout the spaghetti. Take out of sauté pan and place on paper towel to get a bit of the fat out. Set aside. 

When the water boils throw in your pasta and cook until al dente (according to package directions). Before draining, put a couple spoon-fuls of the pasta water over the veggies (on the pan) and scrap the yummy bits off the bottom. 

Go ahead and drain the pasta, add the veggies and sausage and mix until well blended...and you're done! I made this for 3 adults and 1 kid AND to have left-overs...but my husband has a HUGE appetite and apparently LOVED it so he finished it off!

Here's a quick side salad that's just as delicious and even more healthy and filling!

1 can drained chick peas

3 radish's diced

1 kirby cucumber diced

1 clove garlic

1/4 onion thinly sliced

1 tsp olive oil

splash or two of balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all up, cover and refrigerate for roughly an hour (the longer the better)