Confetti Spaghetti

If you're exhausted from Christmas preparations, and have hours of cooking ahead of you in the next few days -this might be the perfect recipe for tonight!

As you can see, this recipe is mistitled. When I first started making this dish, I used spaghetti and it looked like confetti - lots of pretty colors. I eventually switched to bite-sized pasta because it held onto the veggies better (usually shells, but sometimes ziti or bowties or whatever) but I couldn't bear to get rid of the rhyming name.

This is a super-simple dinner, one of my favorites to make on nights when I don't feel like making anything. It takes the time the pasta takes to cook - with time for surfing the net included!


This is also a great clean-out-the-fridge and frugal recipe.


Confetti Spaghetti
Boil water, and prepare your favorite shape pasta (whole grain or not) according to package directions
While Water boils & pasta cooks, prepare veggies - you want about an equal volume of veggies & cooked pasta when you're done. Use a HUGE bowl.
Use what you have - these are some of our favorites you might want to choose from:
Chopped Fresh Tomato
Chopped Carrot
Chopped Celery
Chopped Bell Peppers
Black Olives
Green Olives
Capers
Frozen Green Peas, Thawed in sieve under hot running water
Frozen Corn, Thawed in sieve under hot running water
Chickpeas
Drained Marinated Artichokes
Broccoli Trees
Those cooked veggies you had for dinner the other night, and never finished.

When Pasta finishes, Drain it and toss it with veggies.
Add Generous
Garlic Salt
Italian Herbs OR Basil
Toss.
Add more
Garlic Salt
Italian Herbs OR Basil.
Taste.
Add more seasoning if needed, till just right.

Serve & Enjoy!

Tips for dining with Omnivores - you could throw some bits of summer sausage, pepperoni, salami, shrimp or chicken into the omnivore's portion. Or, you can serve this as a side-dish for a meat meal (although, personally, I like to think of the meat as the side dish, and the vegan dish as the entree : )