So so so sick of the snow and storms here. We’ve been nailed so many times this winter, and not with mild storms, but full on blizzards. I think there have been already 3 storm days in the last two weeks due to extreme cold and winter weather. Can it be spring yet?

All day today I was dreaming of pizza and all things bad. This weather really brings out the worst in my eating habits. Luckily they’ve closed interstates, highways, and there’s no travel advised. Most businesses closed early, so the options for pizza were little to none, and there was no chance we were going out. Getting home from work was enough of a challenge.

We also had our first trip to Aldi since we got one in town over the weekend. What a great shopping trip. We managed to over purchase produce for two people quite dramatically, which isn’t a hard thing to do. I made what I had planned for the week minus one thing, and ended up with quite a bit of leftovers. We had some bell peppers, spinach, broccoli, onions, cauliflower, and cucumbers with no plans.

Glad we bought some noodles, cause baby was craving Italian, hence the pizza. That being said, I wanted to use up as much of the produce as I could in this one meal. In this one I used bell pepper, half a bag of spinach, the remaining broccoli, and an onion. Made a good dent in our produce haul!

Being we didn’t have tomatoes or any tomato sauce, I figured I’d wing it with some olive oil, italian seasoning, basil, garlic, and parmesan. Can you say PERFECT? My cravings for all things bad were completely gone! If you’re craving some pasta, try this out. You won’t regret it.

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

8 oz spaghetti pasta (or pasta of your choice)
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
4 oz spinach
2 tbsp garlic
1 small onion
1 1/2 cups broccoli florets
1 bell pepper
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 cup parmesan cheese (or top as you wish)

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions
2. Rinse in cold water
3. Dry out cooking pot and add pasta back along with olive oil
4. Mix in onion, garlic, and bell pepper
5. Cook until onions start to turn translucent but not too soft
6. Add spinach and mix until it wilts
7. Add broccoli and additional olive oil if things start to stick or noodles look dry
8. Cook for about 5 minutes – depending on the size of the broccoli florets you may want to taste one to test the tenderness
9. Mix in basil and Italian seasonings
10. Serve topped with a generous amount of parmesan and salt/pepper to your taste
11. Enjoy!

This recipe would have been great with baby tomatoes or mushrooms as well. Feel free to utilize your fridge as I did to make it work to reduce waste! Make it vegan by omitting the parmesan.

Let me know what you think, if you modified with different veggies, and if you have any suggestions!

-Cassie