Back to School…it’s never an easy transition!
We are used to late nights, late dinners, too much dessert, lots of friends, lots of popsicles and a flexible laid back schedule. Not anymore folks! The alarm goes off at 6:00 (or earlier), you I have to PUULLLLLL your my kids out of bed, make a healthy breakfast, remind them of the day’s activities, and get them on their way all before 7:00am. And accomplish all of this while smiling and pretending I am happy and this is fun :)! We are having fun, right?
All that being said, back to school is a special time of year for renewal and reflection. The kids are a year older and ready to take on new challenges and adventures. I’m a year older (yikes – not quite the same). It is a time where I renew my “healthy eating” vows and declare that I’ll make at least 3 delicious meals for the family a week.
I fantasize about sitting around the kitchen table on those nights and laughing and talking about each other’s days. But the reality of multi sports, endless school activities and conflicting schedules makes this dream a bit more difficult…
We may not ALL eat together every night, but I do make a deliberate effort to incorporate more vegetables and healthier recipes into the mix. The Veggie Patch Pasta recipe here is light and healthy. It’s a wonderful accompaniment to grilled chicken, fish, or pork. The small pieces of veggies go almost unnoticed by the kids when tossed in this fresh tangy dressing. I love vinaigrettes just for this reason.
Feel free to substitute whatever veggies you have on hand or in the garden. Squash, zucchini, cucumber, etc….all would be delish! I’ve featured ABC-123 Pasta, but any short shape can be used. And don’t forget to save yourself some for lunch tomorrow. So farewell summer! Hello fall…football…cool nights…colorful leaves…comfort foods…farmers markets…actually, I think I’m ready!
If you are interested in seeing all of our pasta shapes, you can visit The Pasta Shoppe website. And if you have any fundraising needs, please check out Fun Pasta Fundraising! We’d love to hear from you!
- 14 oz. ABC123 Pasta (or other short shape)
- 1 cup green beans, blanched and halved
- 2 carrots, peeled and grated
- ½ cup red pepper, diced
- ½ cup green onions, chopped
- 4 T. lemon juice (fresh or frozen)
- 2 T. white vinegar
- 6 T. olive oil
- 2 t. lemon rind
- 1 t. sugar
- 1 t. Dijon mustard
- ½ t. salt
- ¼ t. pepper
- In a large mixing bowl, add the carrots, red pepper, and green onions.
- Vinaigrette: whisk the lemon juice, white vinegar, olive oil, lemon rind, sugar, mustard, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
- Cook pasta 6-8 minutes in gently boiling water. Add green beans with 4 minutes to go.
- Drain pasta and green beans and rinse with cold water. Add to veggie bowl.
- Gently toss pasta and veggies with dressing.
- Adjust seasonings to taste.
- Serve immediately.
We love the ABC Pasta! My girls begin kindergarten and first grade next week and like this pasta with cannelini beans mixed in!
Girls? Does that mean twins?! You have your hands full! Cannelini beans are a favorite of mine too…and what a great addition to this recipe – I’ll give it a try!
Very fresh tasting, love the ABC’s!
Fresh is right – someone suggested adding cannelini beans which I think is a great idea!
love your new pastabilities blog ! <3
Thanks Vickie!
This sound so good! I would add roasted corn too I think!
YUM…GREAT idea! Noted!
Not having grown up with pasta in our diet – now looking for new ideas for my husband who eats bowls of it.
Well I hope you find new ways to serve it here! Thanks Vicki!
I love all of your fun shaped pastas. It makes cooking dinner so much fun and my family loves them. These recipes are great!
Thanks Kathleen!
This recipe is a definite will make. You can’t go wrong with a mix of pasta and veggies!
Agreed! Try the BLT too! 🙂
Good recipe. I am always looking for ways to incorporate more vegetables into our pasta meals.
Me too…:)
Love the abc’s So do the kids,
And if they are happy, we are happy!
I just love that abc pasta. So fun for kids.
I like it that they are bite sized too!
Looks awesome! We have all of the ingredients on hand, except for the ABC123 pasta. Gonna have to do this with some farfalle instead. Lunch is handled!
Farfalle is a great shape – and will work just fine! Let me know how it goes – other suggestions have been to add cannelini beans or roasted corn!
Love these recipes. Wish this pasta was around when my kids were little.
My son works for Northwestern and ordered the Northwestern pasta for
tailgates!
Love it! And I plan to post about our Collegiate Salads soon!
Sounds wonderful! Will send it to my culinary arts major to try out for his 3 year old little sister and maybe the older girls too! So hard to find good recipes for healthy eating when your range of children go from almost 20 to 3 and time is so limited!
Whoa…that is a challenge! Let me know if he has any other ideas to enhance it!
This looks delicious, and super healthy!
Thanks Kay – it is!:)
This recipe looks yummy! I can’t wait to try it! and Thanks for the chance to win!
Sure thing Jennifer!
this looks delicious!!
Thanks Lauryn!
I Love that I can print the recipe without having to copy and paste it!! Love the new website!
Thanks Elizabeth – I’m finding that most of my favorite recipes come from food bloggers – and I love the ease of printing too!
We love your pasta! Kids are looking forward to ABC mac and cheese for the night before school starts!
Always a favorite…and I plan to post some updated versions of mac ‘n cheese soon – so keep in touch!
Love different shapes of pasta, running for hubby, baseball for grandson and bunnys for Easter, love them all. Think Im going to new love your news site, ty.
Thanks Betty!
Love the pasta shapes they are really neat would like to try it
Please do!
looks soo good and tasty
Thank you!
I’d love to try this recipe, it sounds delish!
Thanks Angela!
Love your new look!! AND loving these Pasta recipes!!
My girls LOVE pasta any way it comes..my smallest one just slurps them up with butter!1
Thanks for all the ideas!!
Thank you!
This looks awesome and I love how natural the recipe stayed..no added mayo but I have say, in duplicating it, I hope it comes out goo without the ref peppers or bell pepper because those are two things I just can not eat.
You can substitute! Add zucchini, or cannelini beans, or corn! Or anything else you like!
This is a definite dinner happening at our house! My children love the alphabet pasta! That’s the one time I allow them to “play” with their food! Plus it allows the soup to cool so they can eat it! Love hearing them laugh when they’re making words and trading letters with all of us together!
Fun! Thanks for sharing this!
Looks very good and healthy!
Thank you!
This sounds so yummy and such a great way to get kids to eat their vegetables.
That is the goal! Thanks Rachel!
Love all these pasta ideas!!!!
Thank you!
Happy Friday!!
You too! Have a great long weekend!
What fun shapes of pasta! these recipes looks awesome!
Thanks Debbie!
I am a big music fan and I LOVE the Music City Pasta!
Thank you! We love our country music!
This looks good. I love anything pasta.
Happy to hear that!
All the different shapes of pasta just makes coming to the dinner table even more fun. Our little toddler grandchild loves telling me the ABC’s and shapes. 🙂
Cute…have a great weekend!
This sounds really good! The kids do not care for bell peppers, so I think I would substitute zucchini or artichoke hearts.
The green ones are a harder sell than the red for sure! I love your sub ideas!~
This sounds yummy! I’ll have to try it.
Please do!
We absolutely love anything pasta. All these dishes look good.
You are my kind of people! 🙂
love it
Thanks!
This is fantastic we love pasta and hopefully my kids eat the veggies I’m gonna make this
Great! Please do!
this looks delicious
Thank you!
This recipe sounds delicious! I can’t wait to try it with my Tailgate & Celebrate pasta now that football season is here. GO PACKERS 🙂
Oh ya! I’ll be posting some other tailgate options soon!
I like it! 🙂
Appreciate it!
I Love your new Pastabilities blog! My family loves pasta and I will definitely be making this BLT Pasta Salad this weekend! Thanks for Sharing with us! Have a Great Weekend!
Thank you so much!
Yummy. I still like making words out of my pasta!
Funny! Thank you!
Love this blog! Pasta, both hot and cold, is a favorite in my house!
Thanks Lori!
Can’t wait to give this recipe a try!
Let us know what you think!
We are a huge pasta family. I am always looking for new recipes. It goes far, and fills up my men- especially my 13 year old teen basketball player. Thanks for sharing. Love this blog/title.
Thanks ShaRhonda!
Great blog, and the recipe looks delicous!! Will have to try it out soon!! 🙂
Appreciate the nice comment…and let me know how you like it!
love pasta and this recipe.
Awesome – please try it!
HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND! Looking forward to the “pastabilities” of this new blog, haha 🙂
That’s pastably the nicest comment ever! OK – stop!:)
Katie B – you were chosen as one of our 3 lucky winners! Please email me directly with your name and address so Ic an send you a Pasta Goodie Box!! carey@worldofpastabilities.com
This is a great way to incorporate veggies!
We try!:)
Love this recipe! Thanks!
Thank you!
This looks so good and healthy too
Healthy and good!! 🙂
Looks delicious. Thank you fot the recipe. Always looking for recipes to incorporate veggies.
Me too – especially ones that my kids will eat!
Your recipes are WONDERFUL! Thank you for sharing them.
Thanks Kathy!
Looking forward to more healthy pasta recipes. My grandchildren love pasta and the more veggies they get with it the better. Any chance of making gluten free shapes?
Yes! We do have a gluten free pasta (a tagliolini)…but not in fun shapes. We import it from Italy because it must be made in a dedicated gluten free facility…and as of now our plant is all about the gluten! You can check it out here: https://pastashoppe.com/product.php?id=149&&c=2
cool!!!!
Thanks!
Your Veggie Patch Pasta is so colorful–I’m sure it tastes as good as it looks!
Thanks Natalie!
Great recipe! I’m definitely going to give it a try!
I hope you enjoy it!
Love it! my kids would love it too.
Try it out on them and see! 🙂
We really love the ABC’S Pasta!
Thank you!
between this recipe and the BLT salad I’m know what I’ll be making for our annual neighborhood block party on Sat – thanks for sharing love this sight
Thanks Jennifer – I hope the celebration is a success!
What a great idea! I love the ABC’s and kids would love eating them I bet.
Thanks Margaret!
Love the recipe and especially the pasta size. Will add it to my ‘must try’ list. Thank you!
And if you make it let me know what you think!!
ABC Pasta!! I’m not sure which I’m more excited about the ABC Pasta post or the fact that you have a Blog now!!
Aawwww….thank you! It’s been a long time comin’…stay tuned for more! 🙂
Can’t wait to try the BLT salad. Perfect recipes for this Labor Day weekend.
Please let me know what you think!!
Carol, you can make a 1/2 recipe…just make the vinaigrette and use enough for a 1/2 recipe – then save it for another salad! Can adjust veggies as you please! Thanks for your comment!
Sounds delicious!
Thanks Heidi!
We have been eating more fresh food and have cut way down on processed food. We have been making a pasta salad with fresh veggies and everyone likes it.
Sounds like a healthy and good idea! And of course we love that pasta isn’t processed!
Great recipe-simple and easy
Thanks Kim!
This looks so yummy and healthy, too! The best part is I think even my 2-year-old would eat it! Thanks for the great recipe!
You are welcome…enjoy!
Really good and fun recipe…love the ideas of white beans and roasted corn, which I’ll add next time–you might want to rename this “Veggie Mania,” as the addition of most any veg your family likes seems appropriate….your pasta blog is WOW, as I’ve never seen one devoted exclusively to it….thank you for sharing your genius of “quick-and-and-easy-go-to recipes!”
Alice, you’ve made me laugh! And I’m just warning you…the recipes may get a little more complicated! 🙂