Mayhem to Mealtime Week 2 Recipe: One-Pot Italian Pasta

As you may know, we are featuring recipes from our Mayhem to Mealtime Meal Preparation Program which includes 8 weeks of cooking tips, grocery lists, illustrations and videos of our food inspiration in our

Nourished: 10 Ingredients to Happy, Healthy Eating cookbook.

We email you all the details each Thursday to make five fabulous meals for the following week.
Why do we send these to you on Thursday? The reason is two-fold, one so you can plan out your food shopping list when you look at your calendar for the upcoming week, you may want to re-arrange the meals slightly based on your personal and professional commitments.
Next, you may want to cook ahead on Sundays, many of our REBEL Registered Dietitian Nutritionists cook ahead on Sunday for the busy work week ahead. We find that cooking ahead and even in multiple quantities to freeze ahead makes it so much easier to get a healthy meal on the table during weeknights.
Most of our recipes freeze well and leftovers can also be used to pack lunches the following day.
Give it a try and cook a couple of recipes on Sunday and see how much less stressful your work week will be.
One of our most popular recipes from week 2 of Mayhem to Mealtime is One-Pot Italian Pasta which serves 6 people.
Here is the recipe below and with each recipe, we add some of our own REBEL tips to help round out the meal:

How to make One-Pot Italian Pasta

one pot pasta (photo credit Kaitlin Williams Eckstein)

One-Pot Italian Pasta Recipe (Serves 6)

Ingredients:
4 c. vegetable broth
2 T.live oil
12 oz. fettuccine pasta
8 oz. frozen chopped spinach
1 – 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
½ T. dried basil
½ T. dried oregano
¼ t. red pepper flakes
Freshly cracked pepper to taste
2 oz. feta cheese

Add vegetable broth to a large pot. Break the fettuccine in half (it helps to make stirring easier later) and then add it to the pot. Add un-drained canned tomatoes, olive oil, frozen spinach, onion (thinly sliced), garlic (thinly sliced), basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, and some freshly cracked black pepper. Make sure the ingredients are submerged under the liquid. Place a lid on the pot and turn the heat on high. Allow the pot to come to a full, rolling boil; remove the lid and reduce heat to medium.

Allow the pot to continue to boil over medium heat without a lid for 10 to 15 minutes or until the pasta is cooked and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Stir the pot every few minutes as it cooks to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom, but avoid over stirring which can cause the pasta to become sticky and mushy. The pot must be boiling the entire time. After the pasta is cooked, crumble the feta cheese over the top and serve!

REBEL Tips:

Round out the meal by serving this with roasted chicken breast and a side salad.
Try out whole wheat fettuccine for more fiber which helps to maintain consistent blood sugars, lowers cholesterol, regulates digestion and contributes to feelings of satiety.
One-Pot Italian pasta will reheat well and can be made on the weekend to be used later in the week.

Grocery List

With each recipe, we include a grocery list to make shopping easier. Here is the grocery list for One-Pot Italian Pasta:

Groceries:

vegetable broth
olive oil
1 box fettuccine pasta
8 oz frozen chopped spinach
1-28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 onion
1 garlic head
dried basil
dried oregano
red pepper flakes
black pepper
2 oz feta cheese
rotisserie chicken if desired
veggies for side salad

What are people saying about this recipe? Here is some of the feedback and rave reviews we are getting:
“My favorite meal so far has been the one-pot Italian pasta” -RBA client
“One Pot Italian Pasta is my favorite dish” -M. Sturm

Hearing that this recipe is the FAVORITE of two of the 10 participants in our pilot program definitely sounds like a winner to me. Give this recipe a try and let us know that you think!

We would love to have you either purchase our Nourished: 10 Ingredients to Happy, Healthy Eating workbook/cookbook and or sign up for our Mayhem to Mealtime Program so that you can get a healthy, delicious meal on the table quickly, and easily.