Healthy Meal 2: Pasta Primavera

When you look at the nutrition facts on the side of a box of pasta, they don't look so bad. But have you ever measured out a serving of cooked pasta? I'm partial to Barilla Plus. I like the extra nutrients. Whole Wheat pasta is too hard and grainy for me. But the box of Barilla Plus says there are 7 servings of pasta in there. I usually get 3.

I decided it was a good time to figure out how to make a full meal with less pasta, but still feel like I'm getting a good amount of food. Pasta Primavera was the answer.

Pasta Primavera is basically a vegetable dish with a little bit of pasta thrown in there. Here's what I used for my recipe:

2 Chicken Breasts
Box of Pasta
2 Carrots
1 Zucchini
1 Broccoli Crown
1/2 lb Asparagus
1 Small can diced tomato w/ Italian seasoning
1/4 Onion
2 Cloves of Garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
White Wine (I used a Sauvignon Blanc)
Red Pepper Flakes, Parmesan Cheese, Salt, and Pepper to taste

This recipe serves at least 4.

I don't really measure when I cook. Mostly because I like to go by taste rather than the science of it all.

The first thing I did was cut up my veggies. I wanted everything to be bite sized so we didn't need to use a knife and fork in order to eat this meal. I started with the veggies.

The veggies are in separate bowls for this reason: They cook differently.

Once the veggies are all cut up, you can chop up the chicken into small bite sized cubes.

I started by pouring about a teaspoon of oil into a heated pan. At this point you can also get your water going for the pasta. Cook the chicken until there is just a little bit of pink left on the outside. Now pour just a small amount of wine into the pan and let the chicken simmer in the wine until it's finished cooking and the wine is mostly evaporated.

Remove the chicken from the pan and put it aside for later.

Now rinse your pan and toss a little more oil on it. Let the oil get hot and then add the onion/garlic mixture. Let that cook until the onion is translucent. Remove this mixture from the pan and then add the carrots and asparagus.

Cook this until the carrots begin to get tender. Once tender, add the zucchini and broccoli. Your water should be boiling by now. Add your pasta so it's ready to go when the vegetables are.

Pour just a little more wine into the pan. This will help to steam the vegetables a little bit. Add salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Once all of the vegetables are almost done cooking, you can add the can of tomato.

Stir this mixture and add your chicken to it.

You can let this simmer for a few minutes until the pasta is finished. Once the pasta is done, drain it and then return it to the pot.

You can then pour the veggies and chicken onto the pasta and stir to combine it. Because my wife is gluten free, we cook our pasta separately and instead of adding the mixture to our pasta, we just put it on top. We figured we could mix it on our plate. Also, we were too hungry to add another step. Once you plate the meal, sprinkle a little bit of Parmesan cheese on top. Yum.

Although this looks like a lot of food, you can pretty much see all of the pasta. It just covered my plate without piling up. I piled a lot of veggies and chicken on top. They're delicious!

If you are interested in having a glass of wine with this meal, I think it goes well. Especially if you drink the wine you were cooking with. 

Enjoy!