Spaghetti with Vegetables

When I say that we are having spaghetti for dinner, this is what I mean. I always end up with this giant pan of vegetables and sauce and I love it. Now, in my defense, I intended to make this dinner when my mom was here visiting, so it was intended for 4-6 servings. Since we ended up having a different dinner one night, that means that I had lots of leftovers. But this is just as good leftover!

Spaghetti with Vegetables:

whole wheat pasta
pasta sauce of your choice
2 heads broccoli
3 carrots
4 stalks celery
1 green zucchini + 1 yellow zucchini
2 tomatoes
1/2 red onion
3 cloves garlic
** Note that you can use any combination of vegetables that you like. These are just my favorites. And note that there are no tomatoes in the picture because apparently they aren't safe to eat right now in Oregon. This makes me very sad, but I am adapting!

Directions:
1. Bring water to a boil and start cooking pasta noodles
2. Chop all the vegetables (I separate them into 3 bowls based on cooking times - see below)

3. See if Zoey wants to sniff the bowl with broccoli and zucchini:


She likes it!

Here is how I separate out the vegetables.

4. You can either spray the bottom of your cooking dish with cooking spray or add a little water. I steam the carrots, onions and garlic first.
5. After a few minutes add the broccoli.
6. After 2 more minutes add in the rest of the vegetables and allow to steam for 2 minutes.


7. Add sauce to taste. I ended up using the whole jar here, but normally I use about half the jar.


I served this over whole wheat pasta (You can see it boiling in the background). I generally eat just a little pasta and a lot of the vegetable sauce. This is my go-to meal when I want to serve a dinner with lots of vegetables and I am running low on creativity. This recipe is very forgiving, so you can add anything that you have on hand. And since I get carried away in the vegetable department, I always have leftovers for the next day- I love that.