Keep it (Kinda) Simple Garlic Pasta
Everyone knows the staple "college foods".
Basically anything and everything simple: pastas, ramen (or ramyeon depending on what brand you get), pizzas, ready-made meals, sandwiches, the works. If it can't be thrown in a microwave or easily made then its a no-go.
Jennifer Bui, College Food Pyramid
Well, unfortunately for me and those probably like me, that's not so simple. Due to some health problems, the foods I get have to either have to be insanely specific or have to be relatively fresh. So I can't rely so heavily on the keep it simple meals that so many college kids eat. So nothing that can just be tossed into the oven or put into a drawer that can last for a few months (with maybe the exception of pasta).
Last year, when I was diagnosed with IBS, I knew that my options were going to be more limited and more expensive. If I wanted to use butter in recipes, I was better off getting the avocado butter than the cheaper kind. Pasta (which I have yet to find a gluten-free alternative for that I actually like) had to be treated as something to make more on the weekend so I can deal with it at my dorm. Ice cream in general was a no go.
To put it simply, it sucked.
So I started trying making my own recipes using ones I already knew. If I wanted to make pasta with a type of meat sauce, it wasn't going to be simple; I was going to add garlic, onion, a bunch of spices, mushroom and spinach (for the fiber). Instead of using normal lettuce for sandwiches, I just used spinach. Burgers were to be kept more vegetarian if I could help it. Potatoes were made with avocado butter and a bunch of spices. You get the idea.
During this time, I was also teaching my roommate how to cook. I was showing her the basics, what spices go together and how to make sure she didn't accidently poison herself.
One day, she asked me what she could make out of pasta. I blinked at her as if she had grown a couple of extra heads and said, "Uhh... literally anything? You can toss it in sauce, butter, a sort of pesto, it doesn't matter."
Well she told me she didn't want any of that. We ate pasta with sauce a lot, we don't necessarily have pesto just lying around and butter was too boring.
I told her it didn't have to be so simple, the easiest thing to incorporate with other things would be the butter. So I told her to saute some onion and garlic in the pan with butter while cooking the pasta and then toss it all together with spices.
Needless to say she slow blinked at me and I had to walk her through how to make it.
Eventually, it was done cooking and she had the garlic butter pasta for the first time and... she really enjoyed it. She really liked the garlic and it wasn't boring like she was expecting it to be.
This recipe is essentially how I taught her to make it, only with more vegetables to give it some variety.
butter (I use avocado butter as an alternative, olive oil butter is also good)
3-5 cloves of garlic, minced (I added 6 but that's just because I love it)
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 grated carrot (you can also use match sticks)
1 small bag of frozen broccoli
1 tablespoon of olive oil
*NOTE: I did not include measurements to the seasoning nor did I do it to the butter because I feel its to ones preference how much they add in this dish. I added the seasoning pretty liberally but that's purely because I prefer to be slightly more heavy handed in seasoning because that's how I like it. You do not need to do this. Add however much of one thing or another as you like. My only precaution is to not completely coat everything in seasoning, since that will overwhelm the dish. Roughly 1 teaspoon of each seasoning with each new vegetable added may be more than enough for some of you.
Boil your water for your pasta and add a tablespoon of olive oil in the water to prevent the pasta from sticking and salt to the water before adding the pasta. Cook that per package instructions.
While waiting for the water to boil, prep your vegetables.
In a saute pan on medium heat, add butter then slowly add your vegetables, starting with your onion and garlic. Add a dash of salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and basil to your pan and toss together.
*important note: if you feel you need to add more butter to this dish, feel free to do it. I added butter with the addition of every new vegetable added to the saute pan. I used roughly 6-7 spoonfuls of butter in this, but that's because I added roughly a spoonful for every addition to the pan and wanted to make sure it was buttery and delicious.
4.After 1 minute, add your carrot and mushroom to your saute pan and add another dash of the spices mentioned above.
5.Add your broccoli to your pan, adding one more dash of garlic powder and onion powder.
6. When the pasta is finished cooking, drain the pasta and slowly start adding it to the pan, making sure to coat the pasta with the butter and vegetables each time.
7. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of basil and red pepper flake. Serve immediately.
That's it! This dish is incredibly simple to make and tastes delicious. This can be served with chicken, beef, or just by itself for something simple and flavorful to eat. Plus, because this recipe could realistically feed four people, its perfect to save in the fridge for the few days and eat more later. And try adding your own favorite vegetables into it to see what combinations you like and let me know your favorites too!
