Quick & Healthy Weekday Pasta Recipe

Have you ever had one of those days you just don’t feel like cooking? In the beginning of my pregnancy, I had those days more often than not.

I felt queasy and tired. The last thing I wanted to do was to stand over the stove and cook a big, complicated meal. While it is quite tempting to order in or pop a frozen pizza into the oven, it’s not so healthy. I normally try to serve nutritious meals for myself and my family, but I am especially conscious of it while pregnant. I’m growing a human after all! 

So, whenever I am having one of those “take-out kind of a days,” I try to remind myself that by the time we pick out what we want, order our food and wait for the delivery, I could have whipped up something tasty and good for you in no time.

This quick and healthy weekday pasta recipe is one of those recipes I turn to when I’m feeling particularly lazy. It takes about 20 minutes from start to finish and I often have the ingredients already in my kitchen. It’ll be especially tasty as summer comes and brings plenty of fresh tomatoes!

Quick & Healthy Weekday Pasta Recipe

Since I am in a lazy mood, I really don’t want to spend a whole lot of time cleaning up afterward. Everything is cooked on one pan while the pasta boils in the other pot. The recipe calls for chopped mushrooms and tomatoes, but really you could keep them whole and avoid dirtying a knife and cutting board. While I toddler around, I automatically chopped things up into smaller bites. 

This dish is so versatile. Don’t like/have mushrooms on hand? Skip them. Vegetarian? Take out the sausage. Have lots of fresh zucchini you need to use up? Throw it in! Since there’s not much to this dish besides a little butter and seasonings, it’s really all about the fresh ingredients.

Quick & Healthy Weekday Pasta Recipe

Check out those pretty tomatoes and mushrooms cooking away!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I certainly take advantage of the amazing technology that is online take-out ordering from time to time. I think it’s a good thing to indulge every once in awhile. Yet, a meal like this is so simple and delicious, you won’t even think to pull up that website to order in.

Quick & Healthy Weekday Pasta Recipe

Quick & Healthy Weekday Pasta Recipe

Ingredients

  • roughly 1 lb italian sausage, removed from casting *I used turkey this time
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 8 oz package of white mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
  • roughly 1/2 lb mozzarella balls
  • roughly 1/2 lb pasta of your choosing *I used whole wheat linguini
  • 2-3 cups fresh spinach
  • handful fresh basil
  • salt, pepper, and oregano, to taste

Instructions

  1. Bring large pot of water to a boil.
  2. While waiting for water to boil, sauté sausage on medium-high heat until no longer pink. Set aside.
  3. Lower heat in pan to medium-low and melt butter. Add mushrooms and tomatoes and sauté for about 5 minutes.
  4. When water is boiling, add pasta and cook for time listed on the package.
  5. Add spinach, mozzarella, sausage, basil, salt, pepper and oregano to the pan and sauté until spinach is wilted.
  6. Toss ingredients together with pasta for an easy, healthy weekday dinner!
http://thegoodmama.org/healthy-weekday-pasta-recipe/

 

Quick & Healthy Weekday Pasta Recipe

Let’s hear from you! What’s your go-to weekday dinner to make when you just don’t feel like cooking? Let me know in the comment section below!

Quick & Healthy Weekday Pasta Recipe

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