Adventures in Eating--Linguine!

Eating around our house is always an adventure--especially when I am trying to tweek the way we normally eat something, and make it healthier! Today I had been reading about increasing fiber in pasta meals, so a little while before lunch I employed the "Stand and Stare" method of meal planning and thought "PASTA!". You know the method--I can't be the only one who uses it, because I actually read about this method of planning on another blog. So I "KNOW" I am not alone. There is at least one other like me "out there"! You stand in front of your cupboard and refridgerator and see what ingredients just seem to go together.

Today, I started with a 13 ounce box of Ronzoni Healthy Harvest whole wheat linguine. Got the water boiling on the stove and put it in to cook.

Meanwhile, I opened and rinsed two cans of Great Northern Beans, throwing them into a large bowl. Next came a can of black olives, which I decided to slice so they would be spread throughout the dish better. We have lots of fresh garden tomatoes currently, so around 10-12 romas were chopped and added in.

Last step was to make a pesto sauce using fresh basil from the garden. The only change I do in my pesto recipe is I only use 1 Tablespoon olive oil, instead of the 1/4 c. olive oil that the recipe originally called for. I know olive oil is a good type of fat, but it still adds quite a bit of fat to recipes and today I was trying to add in more fiber, not fat! I have found 1 Tablespoon seems to still be enough to spread around and keep my pasta from sticking in one clump--and the pesto still has some water, lemon juice, and walnuts blended up in it, so there is other moisture.

The food may look kind of funny if you are used to pasta with NOTHING mixed in, but honestly, the only word to describe this new dish is YUMMY! Both kids had numerous servings of it, and I think they would have finished it all off except I finally took the bowl off the table because I wanted some leftovers for tomorrow! There were only four of us eating it, and the bowl size is a huge one!

Needless to say, I will definately be making this recipe again! Which means I need to write it down in my cook book before I forget what I put in it! (But at least now I can always go back and look it up here!)

Pesto Sauce:
1/2 c. walnuts
1/4 c. olive oil (I use 1 T. and then fill the rest in with water)
1/3 c. water
1/4 c. lemon juice
1/2 c. fresh basil leaves
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. salt

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Makes approximately 1 1/2 cups.