What's for dinner? (Tara's Easy Recipe #3274)

Seriously? Didn't I just cook dinner last night???? You mean I have to do it AGAIN?!?!

That's kind of how I felt yesterday afternoon when I realized I had no idea what was in the fridge to even cook. So, the table full of zucchini and squash were my opening inspiration. I decided on one of my favorite fall back easy recipes. Pasta with random veggies and maybe some kind of meat. I know, it doesn't sound remotely appealing on paper. I was gonna take a picture while I was cooking it, but I've been having some blackbery technical difficulties and pictures don't want to leave my phone, soooo you will just have to trust me that it looked worthy of the cover of Bon Apetit!

A few words of wisdom:
1. You should always keep a few boxes of pasta and sauce in the pantry. Not spaghetti noodles. Ok, you can keep that if you want to and I considered it briefly, but I drop food and spaghetti noodles are never good news for me so I am a penne or rigatoni girl.
2. Those bags of pre-cooked frozen salad shrimp are awesome. Its easy to add a handful of them at the very end of cooking to let them just thaw out and warm to the dish's temperature. It makes your thrown together meals seem....less thrown together.

So, pasta with veggies and some sort of meat.

Make your pasta. Directions are on the package. I am sure you've done this once or twice in your life.

Chop your veggies. I like to chop them to be about the same size as the pasta. It makes for a better overall texture. I used ZUCCHINI and YELLOW SQUASH and ONION and carrot, because its just that time of year. It would also be good with PEPPERS, maybe some GREEN BEANS. I also threw in a couple handfuls of frozen spinach and peas to make it a little more interesting. Cook the veggies. Again, I am sure you've done this once or twice....

Meat. I used some of Beau's "simply sausage", because if you haven't noticed, I've been on a sausage kick lately. There is just something about antibiotic free pork that makes it so much more delicious. BUT you could also use some of Sheppard Mansion's beef sausage (also yummy) or as I mentioned above. Frozen salad shrimp have been a great time saver for me. Just throw them in at the very end. If you want you can sprinkle a little cheese on top, but its great without it.

Mix everything together and voila dinner is ready in about 15 minutes.

~Tara, Wash Your Mouth Out Soap Company