Creamy Garlic Sauce and Broccoli Pasta

Sorry to all for abandoning the blog for about a month, but I swear there's just cause.  First, it was the end of the semester.  

Nuff' said, I know, but there's more.  

I published a book with the Black Unicorn Press.  By publish, I mean we hand-bound my English Honors project, which got accepted (hooray!), obviously.  Mine's on the right (WE).

Then, as if I hadn't already convinced you, I made a six-minute movie about sexual identity in public schools to head off a presentation which nearly brought the class to tears.  They laughed, they cried, we got 15 points extra credit.  Then! to not even top it off yet, I graduated with my B.A. in English.... as the valedictorian (one of 22).  I got this sweet sash for it.  Totally worth all the hard work.  And finally, we've been going through all the dorms move-out trash to scavenge some delicious, incredibly processed foodz.  Among some the finds were frozen vegetables, a bag of apples, beer (on a dry campus), a new blanket (still in the package), enough folders and paper for the next two years, a frozen apple pie, backpacks, baskets, cheese, and a ski pole (oddly, only one).  So we've been trudging through our unhealthy eating to save the world one pop-tart at a time.  Thus our recipe creations have been a hodge-podge at best.  For example, last night we had instant mashed potatoes with frozen mixed veggies and potato chips with a mashed black bean barbecue sauce dip (actually not bad).  

But all that's over now.  Maybe.  So, hopefully we'll keep adding recipes and whatnot.  This creamy garlic sauce thing is something I've been unsuccessfully trying for awhile.  It would come out lumpy or... basically just come out lumpy.  It'd still taste good.  Just not very creamy.  I lost all my previous notes (probably to the recycling bin) and had to start anew.  I guess it was a good thing because this is what I'd been going for.  Here's the final recipe in all its creamy goodness.  

Serves almost two normal sized people or 1/4 a giant.

Creamy Garlic Butter Sauce

2 T Vegan Butter

2-4 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced 

2T nutritional yeast

1/4 c plain soymilk

dash of basil (1/4 to 1/2 t)

Melt that delicious chunk of butter in a small pan over medium heat and add your garlic in.  Let it sizzle for about a minute and  your cooking area will dazzle your nostrils with garlic awesomeness.  While that garlic is doin' its thang, mix the soymilk and nutritional yeast together with a fork and add it to the pan.  Stir the sauce until it's all homogeneous-y and whatnot.  Finally, let the sauce boil just a lil' teensy-weensy bit.  Keep on stirrin' and the sauce will thicken up a bit (about 2 minutes for us).  When you like what you see, dip in some cooked broccoli and wonder why cheese could never be this amazing.  

Kale Penne Pasta

Michelle loves this recipe.  Everything about it.  It's easy, got some healthy greens in it, the sweetness of the onion, blah, blah, blah.  Our relationship with this meal started after a fellow young parent couple invited us over for dinner.  We accepted, but let them know we ate a vegan diet, and after a short discussion on what that meant, they decided on this awesome recipe.  They added bacon and toasted walnuts to theirs.  We added pine nuts, tons-o-garlic, and nearly-caramelized onions.  Here's our take on their meal.

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Kale Penne Pasta

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1 pound penne pasta

2 T olive oil

1/2 onion diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups kale ripped into pieces

pine nuts (optional, but awesome)

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Make the pasta according to package directions. 

Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat (we use the pot that we cooked the pasta in, and leave the pasta in the strainer).  Add the onion and cook until caramelized, stirring occasionally.  Add the garlic and cook until it releases its fragrance, about a minute.  Stir in the kale, cover, and bring heat down to low.  Keep stirring occasionally until all the kale is wilted. Sprinkle with pine nuts.  Add the cooked pasta and toss until evenly mixed.  

Dainty Tomato Sauce

We were going to go out to a local Mexican food extravaganza and get a gigantic Burrito Pachanga for 6 bucks (enough to feed us both), but it was too nice of a day to drive somewhere and it wasn't worth the walk.  Michelle knew I was going for my staple "garlic-chunky, yet dainty" tomato sauce and decided to add an ingenious lemon and black pepper asparagus side.  Delicious?  Doth thou even needeth to ask?

Garlic-Chunky, yet Dainty- Tomato Sauce

1/2 T olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced (we used three because one was a total Frank-clove)

1 (14.5 oz) can petite cut diced tomatoes

1/4 t marjoram

1/4 t basil

1/8 t sage

1/8 t fennel seed

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Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until you know it'll crackle when you throw in the diced onion.  Stir every time the pops start to worry you (about 45 seconds for me).  Once they've become a golden brown add in the garlic and stir.  Once the scent of garlic invades your nostrils, add in the can of diced tomatoes and all the spices and mix it up... a lot.  Like this.  Not like this.  The liquid should start to boil after a bit and keep it boiling until about 1/2 the liquid has evaporated (or as much as you want left).  Serve it up over your rotini or penne.  Devour.

The Franken-clove 

We'll post the lemon asparagus later.  It's late.  Time for more homework then bed.  Goodnight.