on the fly dinner

i go from being super planned out on our weekly dinners, to being super fly by the seat of my pants, which doesn't always pan out so well.

last night was a "crap, i need to make SOMETHING for dinner" and with my picky crew that can just be an enormous pain. so i grabbed a bag of trusty pasta, grabbed some veggies out of the fridge an we were off!

The kids prefer their pasta plain w/ olive oil & "butter" (Earth Balance), so after the pasta was done i just scooped out some for hub and i and then dressed the rest w/ the above.

pasta w/ green yumminess

1 lb. pasta (divided to go w/ this sauce & some plain for kids)
cook as directed (but don't over cook!)

sauce:
olive oil (a few times around the pan)
onion (diced small)
garlic (couple cloves minced)
2-3 smallish zucchini (small dice)
fresh broccoli (mine was a small bunch of organic, which was about 3 smallish stalks)
few handfuls black beans (canned/rinsed)
hot pepper flakes
salt/pepper
water (or wine or veg broth)

i heated the oil, sauted the onions to my liking, then added the garlic & zucc & cooked a bit, then i added in the chopped brocc. stalks (NOT the florets yet, they cook too fast), then i added the hot pepper flakes & water and brought the temp of the pan up so it would reduce a bit. then i added in the brocc. florets (don't overcook!). i also drained a can of black beans and added about 3 handfuls to the pan. i also add salt and pepper as i go along to my liking. When everything was done, i threw some of the pasta right into the pan and let it finish cooking down a bit.

SO yummy and easy! i'll definately whip this up again!

OH AND another good thing..... DH didn't even look at his plate and say "where's the meat?!" like he usually says ;)

Now to figure out what to have for dinner TONIGHT..........

xo