Cooking for One, Part 5: Spring Pasta

This is a simple dish, good for Spring: Pasta Primavera. I think of it like eating spaghetti but with vegetables instead of red sauce. The essential ingredient is the grated Parmesan cheese on top. For this I use regular, finely grated Kraft, not something fancy with longer gratings, though you may like that. For me it's a texture thing. That's also why I prefer regular spaghetti noodles rather than spirals or shells or something:

 I usually cut the noodles into pieces two to four inches long after cooking, this helps with getting both noodles and veggies on your fork at the same time. For vegetables I use a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, ones without lima beans (again, its a texture thing) and with corn (that's a sweetness thing). In this case Greenwise, the organic brand from Publix. They microwave right in the bag. I keep them separate from the pasta and Parmesan cheese until ready to eat, just like you would traditional spaghetti. Then I layer them: pasta, veggies, and enough grated Parmesan to make it look like there's been a snowfall. No butter or anything needed, so pretty healthy, too. I usually pair it with some (less healthy) garlic bread. I've been partial to the Paisano bread from Whole Foods lately. Enjoy.

Cooking for One, Part Two

If you enjoy eating your meals or snacks, as I do, by dipping a variety of rigid finger foods into some type of sauce, then the idea below may be for you.

I've found that I really enjoy consuming potato chips and dip, tortilla chips and salsa (or cheese dip), vegetable sticks and dressing, and so forth. Even though I try to stick to reduced fat potato chips and low fat dip, I know that chips and dip are not my healthiest choices. So I'm trying to lean toward carrot and celery sticks and broccoli and cauliflower branches. They can be a bit dull, so: Amateur Tip (I know, the idiom is "Pro Tip", but I'm an amateur when it comes to cooking. I have worked at three restaurants in my life (bonus points to anyone who can name the establishments), but the closest I ever came to food prep was filling water glasses, foil wrapping potatoes for baking, and restocking a bottled beer cooler.): try Kraft Lite Thousand Island dressing. It's already tangy (says so right on the bottle in my fridge), and give it some extra zing by dicing up 3 or four pickled jalapeno slices.

Very tasty. Happy munching.