Healthy Pasta Salad

Now that Sarath is going to day care, I have to think about lunch options. They actually provide lunch but, it is usually meat. Since we are vegetarians and I hope to raise Sarath to be a vegetarian, I decided to pack lunch for him. They give the kids 30 min for lunch (which I feel is a bit less but, he seems to be doing okay so far), he has to finish his main course in around 15 min so that he will have some time left for his fruits and milk/yogurt. So, I have to come up with lunch options that are healthy, easy to eat and ones that he likes. I should make sure he is also getting some protein with his lunch. So, yesterday, I came up with this pasta salad and Sarath loved it. He stayed home yesterday and I thought it would be the perfect time to try a new recipe. It tasted great, has a lot of protein and was just yum!

Ingredients:

Pasta: 1/2 cup (I used alphabet pasta, but any pasta can be used).
Tomato: 1 medium – diced
Peas: 1/4 cup
Corn: 1/4 cup
Cilantro: 1/4 cup chopped
Black beans: 1/4 cup (I used canned)
Black Channa (black garbanzo’s): 1/4 cup
Lemon juice: 4 -5 tbsp
Fat Free Shredded Cheddar cheese: As per taste
Green chillies: 1
Salt: As per taste

PS: I had soaked the black channa a few days back, boiled them and had them ready in the freezer.

Directions: Cook the pasta according to the instructions. When the pasta is cooking, cut the tomatoes, chillies and cilantro and keep them aside. Add the black beans, black channa, corn and peas to the tomatoes mix.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it slowly and add some cold water to the pasta. Let the pasta stay in the cold water for around 10 – 15 min. If you are short on time, you can add cold water and put the pasta in the refrigerator for 5 min. This makes sure that the pasta does not break down into pieces when you mix it with the veggies.

After the pasta has cooled down, drain it and add it to the bowl with tomatoes and the veggies mix. Add cheese, lemon juice and salt and toss the salad. If you are planning to eat the pasta for lunch, add a little more lemon juice. The salad tastes best if it marinates in the lemon juice for an hour or two.

If you cannot handle spice, you can omit the chillies in the recipe.

This is a nice heart healthy lunch for me and DH as we are struggling to reduce cholesterol in our diets. Read the full post here.

Indian Style Pasta

I found this recipe somewhere on the internet and modified it a little bit to suit our tastes. It does not involve a lot of preparation time and can be a good and healthy option for lunch or dinner. Any type of pasta can be used. I even tried it with whole wheat pasta and it tastes amazing.

Ingredients:

Unboiled Pasta (any type) : 4 cups

Cut vegetables (carrots, beans, corn, peas) – 1 cup

Onion(diced) – 1/2

oil -1 tbsp

salt as required

green chillies – 3 or 4

pasta sauce – 10 tbsp (adjust this quantity as per your taste)

lemon juice – 3 – 4 tbsp

Cheese – 3 tbsp per serving

Procedure:

Heat water in a large vessel and bring it to a boil. Add a pinch of salt and 2 drops of oil to the water. Add the pasta and cook until tender. drain all the water and add some cold water to the pasta so that it doesn’t get dried up.

Add oil to a wok and add onions and cut green chillies when the oil is hot. Fry the onions until tender. Add all the cut vegetables. Add salt and let the vegetables cook. Then add the pasta sauce and cook for five minutes. Add some lemon juice and cook for two minutes. Now add the boiled pasta and mix it well with the vegetables. Add some coriander leaves if you like.

Just before serving, sprinkle some cheese on top.

Vegetarian Wraps

Veggie Wraps

These are delicious healthy vegetarian wraps. I love this recipe. It is very simple and very fast. I haven’t tried packing it for lunch. I am guessing it’ll taste just as good.

I just cut the wrap into small pieces for my son. Add any other veggies in this wrap and the kids won’t even notice them.

Ingredients:

Big flour tortilla’s:  4

Oil: 1 tea spoon

Onion:   1 medium sized diced

Tomato: 1 medium sized diced

Black beans:   1/2 can

Corn:      5 or 6 table spoons

Hot Salsa :     3 or 4 table spoons

Cheese:  3 or 4 table spoons per tortilla

Salt as required

Procedure: Preheat the oven to 350⁰.  Heal oil in a non stick pan. Add onions and fry until tender. Then add tomatoes, corn, black beans and fry for 1 minute. Then add salt and the hot salsa (this can be substituted with medium salsa as well). Place the corn, tomato black bean mixture inside a flour tortilla. Add some cheese. Roll the tortilla and place some cheese near the edges and place it with the edges facing down on an oven tray. Repeat the same with other tortillas too.

Bake in the oven for 5 – 10 min.