alfredo and spinach pasta

half of the jar of alfredo sauce went to last week's tofu and collard pizza, and half went to this week's pasta dinner that couldn’t possibly go wrong.  (trust me, not once you’ve had just a little bit of practice ;)

healthy things i’ve been craving lately:

kale chips

green salads with tamari and oil dressing

pickles (i am NOT pregnant!)

pasta

(as opposed to the UNhealthy things i’ve been craving lately, like chocolate and espresso and expensive port.....)

so: pasta dinner with green salad and pickles to snack on while i cooked.  perfect.  (i even managed to creatively get the kale chips in there too, which i’ll tell you about in a bit ;)

i put about six cups of water on to boil (ok, i asked will to put about six cups of water on to boil ;) and really didn’t have a lot to do until the noodles were done.  

the salad didn’t take long at all to throw together, the standbys these days being leaf lettuce, whatever peppers we have on hand, sunflower seeds, cilantro or green onions (or both!) and a sprinkling of ground flaxseed with a fair drizzling of olive oil and tamari (soy sauce).  it’s best with some fresh garlic too, but if anyone could over-garlic a meal it’s yours truly!  ;)

when the noodles passed my consistency test, i drained and rinsed them and put them back in the pan with the alfredo sauce.  (i could have used another pan to preheat it but i figured i’d save a dish :)  

i chopped up some spinach into smallish pieces (1/2 inch or so) to allow them to mix better with the sauce rather than dominating mouthfuls, and let it heat in the mixture for ten or so minutes to soften up a little, but not lose its beautiful color!

that went into a bowl while clever me took a handful of exquisitely crunchy kale chips and crushed them on top for seasoning.  (when made right they definitely crush! :)

alfredo and spinach pasta

approximate price: $3