Farmer’s Market Pasta, 5 points+

Happy Tuesday all!  You all are awesome and were totally cracking me up all day long with your “sayings”.  I actually found myself going oh yeahhhh, I’ve heard that and oh, I so “need” to use that too lol.

This morning as much as I wanted to skip my workout and every single reason that I could think of crossed my mind (sleep is more important, I am crampy, cranky, tired, just hit snooze one too many times), I didn’t let any of it stop me!  I just told myself to just get going…you will feel a million times better if you can just get on the treadmill.

You know what ~ IT WORKED!  By my second jog/walk series, I was pumped and ready to go ~ dare I say, I am finding my inner running bug again!

My reward ~ getting a Dirty Iced Coconut Coffee for an added boost. (SF+ 2 WPA)

I honestly had 0 time to prep breakfast, so I went the Grab-n-Go route by having a perfectly hard boiled egg and a banana (SF) (2 points+)

Today has just been a day where I am starving every 2-3 hours like I haven’t eaten all day.  On days like this, I go with it but make sure I pick healthy Simply Filling items and feed my genuine hunger.

Light Sargento String Cheese (SF) – 1 points+

All month long I have been CRAVING good Chinese food.  Not just a quick fix, not just Panda Express, but, this local place called Ma Jong’s Asian Diner.

One of my favorite things aside from the completely amazing food that you will forever crave once you try it, is their outdoor dining area.  For those who are familiar with DownTown Sac, this is next to The Park.

Everything on their menu is made with fresh ingredients and is very reasonably price.  I am pretty convinced I want to try everything on the menu at some point too LOL.

I get the Salad Rolls to share every single time we go.  They are so fresh, crunchy and the peanut sauce adds a nice, crunchy, nutty sweetness. I totally dip them in Sriracha too

2 points+ per half counted towards my WPA. (SF+4 WPA)

Today I fell IN LOVE with Ma Jong’s even more.  I knew I could order brown rice to make my side Simply Filling.  When I asked if they could cook my Spicy Chicken & Vegetable dish in chicken broth with the sauce on the side….they said, absolutely!

I topped my chicken & veggies with soy sauce, sriracha and a little bit of the Spicy Kung Pao Sauce.  As much as my mouth wanted to eat it all, I stopped half way through eating all the veggies, half the chicken and 1/3 of the rice. (100% Simply Filling!) – 5 points+ for my portion.

We all stopped at Starbuck’s on our way back for afternoon Iced Non-Fat Lattes (SF) – 2 points+

2 hours later….I was starving again LOL. (SF+1 WPA) – 3 points+

On my drive home The Husband requested Pasta.  I had originally planned on cooking this No Cook Summer Garden Pasta, but, realized, my snacker (The Husband) had eaten half the tomatoes I needed to make the tomato basil sauce.

After browsing everything we had in the fridge to make pasta, I decided to go with a super simple Farmer’s Market Pasta.  You can use any veggies you have on hand or use this recipe as a reason to find your local Farmer’s Market to stop up on fresh veggies to make your own pasta toss.  This recipe takes less than 30 minutes to make and it is 100% Vegan too.

FARMER’S MARKET PASTA (Print it!)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 orange bell pepper, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 2 yellow summer squash, quartered and diced
• 2 cups kale, chopped
• 1 cup fresh corn
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup white or golden balsamic vinegar
• sea salt & black pepper to taste
• 7 oz whole wheat linguine

INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Cook the pasta according to the packaged directions.

2.  While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add the onion, bell pepper, garlic and cook for 3 minutes.  Add the mushrooms, kale and squash cooking an additional 3-4 minutes or until the kale is wilted.

3.  Remove veggie mix from heat, add corn, tomatoes, basil and balsamic vinegar and mix.  Add pasta to veggie mix and gently toss.  Season with sea salt and pepper.  Divide into 6 bowls and enjoy!

Makes 6 servings, 1 1/2 cups each, 5 points+ per serving

Nutritional information per serving calculated at caloriecount.com

STEP – BY – STEP

Saute your veggies with olive oil over medium heat.

Remove from heat and add the corn, tomatoes, basil and balsamic.

Mix just until combined.

Add cooked whole wheat linguine or any whole pasta you have on hand.

Gentle toss to combine and season with sea salt & black pepper.

I served mine up with 1 tsp Parmesan (0 points+) and a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes.

Simply Filling & Simply Delicious!

There may or may not have been another Dove Sea Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate for dessert. (SF+1 WPA)1 points+.

STATS (12 am – 930 pm)

• 2,802 calories burned
• 10,748 steps taken
• 8 WPA used, 35 WPA remaining (25 Daily Points+)

Night all!