2.20.2009

Tomato Basil Cream Pasta & Morrocan Soup

It's officially the weekend. Yay!

I definitely fell asleep in my last class, really first time all semester. If you knew me, you'd give me cake or at least a hug. I used to fall asleep every 5 mins in class. I think having a computer to take notes is helping with that, as my body is more active, and if I get bored I can distract myself aside from snoozes. My friend woke me up in class since our teacher notices everything, and we sit 2nd row. I said 'I was listening, my eyes were hurting, think I have something in my left,' although that was true, I was definitely half asleep. I know I'm not the only one that does this. My mom will be reading a book, while we are watching TV, I will comment on something...no response. I look over she is pretty much drooling into the book. I cough loudly, and she'll just pretend she was reading the entire time. Seems like we all tend to pretend every now and then.

On a school night when I come home exhausted I need a quick fix meal. One that I found on VeganYumYum was Super Quick Tomato Basil Cream Pasta. With its few ingredients it made for a perfect meal to whip up in minutes. I never have tomatoes on hand, as I do not appreciate them in their natural state, so I just used a crushed can of tomatoes for the recipe. It took five-minutes to put everything in the blender and mix it up. Then a short heating of the pasta and you are ready. I decided I wanted to get a bit more fiber and protein, so I added some canneloni beans and a little freshly ground pepper. It looks really orange in the picture, but that is because our apartment has such high ceilings that our light isn't the greatest for photos. But this was so delicious, the cashews in the sauce really made it super creamy, but obviously no way near as unhealthy as cream sauces that our omni counterparts would consume. I was very pleased with the all of the flavors coming together, the garlic and basil was subdued a bit by the richness of the cashews. Very delicious and very, very quick.

Many nights I feel like making soup as it is probably one of my favorite meals ever. Whenever anyone asks what my last meal would be I have a hard time deciding between soup and thai food. Almost immediately after Happy Herbivore posted her Moroccan Soup recipe I made it. It was a nice soup since it had a lot of downtime that I could go off and do something else, like school work! It has lentils, onion, tomatoes, carrots, celery, and chickpeas...well and all the wonderful spices. My entire apartment filled with the exotic smells of the spices while the pot was simmering. The ginger, paprika, garam marsala, and cinnamon all complimented each other so well. When it was all cooked through I could not wait to get my taste buds flowing, it hit the spot massively. The warmness of the soup itself with all the rich flavors and textures and I could not believe how far the little bit of cinnamon went, it worked so well against the garam masala and paprika. I would recommend this soup to anyone and might just make it for my friends one night. I might even recommend doubling her recipe so you can have more to freeze for later. Yes, it was that good!

Hope you all have a good weekend :)

2 comments:

Kate said...

Psh, SOME of your omni friends maybe! (not like I don't eat cream sauce, but I def prefer vegan versions. cream sauces are just...too heavy for me most of the time.) You should post the exact recipes you're using as well!

Sarah said...

Yeah, most of my friends like to slather their meals completely in sauce. Even when I was just vegetarian, I only like sauces in small proportions.

And the recipes are posted. Follow the links that are in the post :) You should definitely make the pasta sauce, you'll love it.