Quick Meals – Round 1

One of the biggest challenges for me is finding recipes that are quick, easy, and appropriate for my dietary restrictions.  There are so many nights that I find myself making scrambled eggs and salsa simply because I just didn’t have it in me to make something that called for 18 ingredients.

I thought I would share with you some of the meals I have prepared lately that not only used fresh, organic and gluten and/or grain free ingredients, but also had a prep time of 30 minutes or less. Added bonus: They are remarkably kid friendly too!

Round 1 brings us to a gluten-free pasta dish with hidden nutrition for the wee ones…or for you. 😉

I used three ingredients from my CSA box to make this dish, which always makes me happy. It’s a mission every week to use every item that I receive, so I love when I find new ways to make use of it all.

What you will need to feed 4:

1 large or two small squash, grated

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

1 jar of pasta sauce

1 lb organic grassfed beef

olive oil

dried oregano (which if you’re lucky like me, comes in a darling little pull string bag in  your CSA box)

2.5 cups of brown rice penne

In a large sauce pot, cook the ground beef until done.

While beef is cooking, use a cheese grater to grate the squash.

Set pasta to boil.

Once beef is cooked, add grated squash.

Cook until squash is tender.

Add pasta sauce (which you already know I have pureed into submission)

Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add basil and a tsp of dried oregano and cook another 4-5 minutes or so.

Add sauce to your now cooked brown rice penne (which you have NOT overcooked because it turns to a disgusting mush if you do!)

Toss with a handful of mozz cheese and a sprinkling of parmesan.

Serve!

We had this with iced tea and a delicious fruit salad made from season fruit in my CSA box (and a few fair trade bananas.)  I am seriously going to miss summertime fruit.

Delicious, quick, gluten-free, and the kids (and adults) have no clue they are eating squash. This is an easy to one to double and freeze too. 🙂

Enjoy! Round 2…comin’ up!