Friday Night Special - Hearty Pesto Pasta

On Friday nights, I like to make something quick and easy for dinner. Most of the times, I am not in the mood to cook something elaborate as I just want to kick back and relax after a long work week. I tried making this easy healthy pasta yesterday. You can use any pasta that you like. I used Trader Joe's Brown rice Penne Pasta. 

For the pesto sauce, I used Costco's Cibo Pesto sauce. 

The following recipe serves 2 people.

Ingredients

Pasta - about 3 cups

1 small onion - sliced

1 cup chopped vegetables – Carrots, bell peppers

1 garlic clove - finely chopped

2 tablespoons EVOO – Extra Virgin olive oil

4 tablespoons Pesto Sauce

Salt to taste

2 tablespoons capers

Parmesan cheese shredded (optional)

¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (optional)

Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Put a lid on it so that the water comes to a boil quickly. Add a little salt to it so that you get some flavor to the actual pasta. Also add a few drops of oil to the water to prevent chance of the pasta sticking together. When the water comes to a boil, add the pasta. 

Meanwhile, chop the onions, garlic and vegetables.  

Heat a medium sized saucepan over low heat and add the chopped garlic and onions to it. Saute for a few minutes till the onions turn Cook until the garlic turns golden and the onions become soft. 

Add the chopped vegetables and sauté for a few minutes.

By this time, the pasta will almost be al dente. Remove  a cup of the salty cooking water and add it to the vegetables. Drain the pasta using a colander. 

Add the pesto sauce to the vegetables. And let everything simmer for a couple of minutes on low heat. 

 Add the pasta to the vegetables and toss everything together. Turn the heat off once you have mixed it all.

 Garnish with parmesan cheese and serve. 

I served this pasta with freshly baked bread. I also find that a glass of Sangria goes well with this pasta! Enjoy! :) 

To blog or not to blog

Everyone has a reason for starting a blog. For some, it's a hobby. For others, it's a career. Some start a blog to make friends; others start blogs in hopes that they will get recognition for their ideas. For me, I am going to use this blog as a platform to put all my ideas into one place, to document them all for future reference.

Ever since I was in high school, I have always enjoyed writing. Yet, for some reason, all this time, I resisted the urge to start a blog. Firstly, I was not sure I wanted to allow peeks into my personal life over a public forum. Then I had some other valid concerns as well - What if no one wants to read what I write? What if I can’t post regularly and the blog somehow dies a natural death like the zillion other blogs in the blogosphere? I finally made peace with all these concerns and decided to give it a go. After all, like everything else in life, I will never know unless I try.


While I intend to write about anything and everything under the sun, I have found that I work best when I have a defined focus.  I am going to focus on three things which I enjoy dabbling in the most – Food and Fitness.. and sometimes Fashion as well!.
  
Let’s get started. Join me along for the ride and let’s have some fun!

My First Blog Post

Hello World!


(P.S - I am a software developer by profession, so obviously, this had to be my first post! :) )