Summer Pasta and a Nice Salad

I  haven't been doing so much on the meal planning lately. I'm on mat leave, somewhat impatiently awaiting the arrival of my new little man, and so, why bother?  I am home most of the day to cook, and I never know if I'm going to be home during the day to eat.  As it goes, my cooking has continued in the pregnancy-tiredness vein, meaning: some pre-prepared stuff in the freezer and some ingredients in the fridge.

Satruday I made pizza with homemade pesto.  Yes, basil season has arrived.  I just never use pine nuts enough, or any nuts besides nut butters and walnuts, so my pesto tends to be nut-free (basil, parmesan, garlic, lemon, olive oil).

Sunday I decided to go with pasta. I had a plethora of veggies from the farm - onions, zucchini, and a bunch of peppers - anaheim, green bells, and probably poblanos.  They were listed as "sweet", but I haven't tested the poblanos.

In the morning, I took 15 minutes to chop the veggies and toss them in a tupperware.  Then about an hour before dinner, I cooked them in my dutch oven until soft, added spices, a jar of marinara, some sun-dried tomatoes, a little bit of white wine, and some chicken sausage.  Let simmer.  For awhile.  I opted against the skillet pasta this time because my skillet isn't quite big enough now.  Instead, after draining the al dente pasta, I tossed 2/3 of the sauce with the pasta and we used the rest to throw on top.  It was very good, and I love things that you toss into a pot and only really have to stir occasionally.

We also had two big bags of salad mix this week. One baby hearts, one spicy mix.  My spouse washed all of it at once (I've had days in a row of salad with the spicy mix.  By day 4, it gets very tiring.)  We've now had two big salads and enough for one more huge salad tonight.

My salads have been simple and lazy lately - greens and Marie's ranch dressing.   This time, I actually made it a little fancier (back to my norm).  I made the dressing with olive oil, lemon juice, dijon, garlic, sugar, pepper, and parmesan.  I added olives and carrots and toasted walnuts.  Yum!  It really could have  used some avocado, but none of mine are ripe.