Back of the box recipes- Penne Pasta with Spinach & Tomatoes
I always see the recipes on the backs of boxes and insides of labels, but I never actually use them. I tend to think they’re there just to make the food look good. Plus, I usually don’t even have the ingredients on hand that those funky recipes tend to call for.
Well for whatever reason, I decided to change that and try out some of those dishes that are supposed to be oh-so-good.
Success! I already had everything and it turned out delicious.
I even got the dingy orange/yellow color going on to match the picture on the box, woo! Really, though, the pasta was more this color and was much more appetizing than the grainy box image let on.
Recipe, in case you can’t read the box:
Penne Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes
Ingredients:
8 oz penne rigate
3 oz chopped pancetta or bacon (about 4 or 5 slices)
2 T olive oil
2 cups baby spinach (I used frozen and it was fine)
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/4 red wine vinegar
1 1/3 cups grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup parmesan (good without it, too)
Prepare pasta according to package. While cooking, saute pancetta in olive oil until crisp. Remove from pan, leaving oil in pan, and set aside. Add spinach and garlic to pan, sauté until wilted. Add vinegar and cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook until softened and hot (2-3 minutes). Add drained pasta and bacon to pan and gently toss. Sprinkle with cheese. Serves 4.
Wordless Wednesday – At least the jelly doesn’t come with strings attached…
<3 Spud Comics (be sure to click through to see the awful, awful lame puns to make you giggle, hehe)
More bentos – Not always the healthiest, but still better than school’s?
One of the challenges I ran into while making bento boxes is making sure the food I sent was both healthy *and* something they’d really enjoy eating.
After all, I didn’t want them to feel like they were missing out on what other kids were eating at school. Fortunately, they dislike a lot of the cafeteria foods, but when I’m sending lunches, I want them polishing most of the food off instead of discarding various bits like they would off a lunch try.
Here are some more attempts, which aren’t always the healthiest (see those fries? yeah….), but still manage to balance out quite nicely:
- Homemade pizza pockets
- Peanut butter and crackers
- Dried pineapple chips (they taste like laffy taffy!)
- Cauliflower
- Orange slices
- Homemade roasted red pepper hummus (not pictured)
- Pork onigiri rice balls with soy sauce
- Baby dill pickles (they look like sweet gherkins, but they’re dill)
- Vegetable straws
- Pretzel crackers
- Fresh strawberries
- Peanut butter and banana sandwiches
- Spaghetti
- Orange (I ran out of time to peel or slice)
- Cucumber, tomato, red onion Greek salad (but they call it Canadian salad because I made it the first time after a trip to Vancouver)
- Overstuffed chicken fajita with chicken, peppers, onions, salsa
- Boiled egg on a bed of sprouts
- Homemade beef jerky
- Peanut butter banana sandwiches by request
- Spaghetti with meat and olive tomato sauce
- Chopped pink eggs with funky colored yolk sunshine
- French fries
- Homemade dried pineapple chips
- Frozen strawberries
- Ketchup packages for the fries (totally going with the traditional Japanese bento here, huh?)
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