Recipe-ish

So, my blog is unbelievably outdated, so I will work on that sometime... for now, I needed a place to post a few recipes more easily than FB, so this is it :-)

This is more of a technique rather than a recipe and it is what we eat nearly every day. You can feel sorry for my poor family and their lack of variety, but no one seems to mind, so "don't fix what ain't broke"

This would be a very typical meal:

*Saute about 1/4 of a large onion (diced) in olive oil at about medium heat until starting to get translucent (5ish minutes)
*Add about the same amount of diced bell peppers (usually a mix of colors) and saute another 5ish minutes.
*Add:
     large can of diced tomatoes in their juice
     1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
     1-2 cloves minced garlic
     pinch brown sugar (omit if using fresh tomatoes)
     cayenne pepper or Sriracha (a spicy pepper sauce found in almost all grocery stores in the "ethnic" section), salt, pepper, maybe some Jane's Krazy salt or Colton's seasoning
*Bring to a simmer
*Add 8-16 oz dried pasta (depending on how soupy you want the finished product) and 2 of the tomato cans of plain water or water with veggie soup base or bouillon
*Simmer about 9 minutes, stirring pretty frequently
*Add 8-12 oz frozen broccoli
*Bring back to simmer, adding a little more water if the pasta has soaked it all up
*Eat :-)

 ***********************OR*********************

Cook some pasta in just enough chicken or veggie stock (or water and bouillon) to cover fully (adding more while it cooks if needed, the goal is to have the pasta soak up almost all of the liquid (and flavor). After about 5-7 minutes add a hearty amount of olive oil, juice from a lemon, salt and pepper, bag of frozen California mix veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), and 1 T cornstarch dissolved in a cup of water. Cook another 2ish minutes and serve, so easy!

 We usually also slice some bread, top with a little olive oil and Jane's Krazy salt and broil it for just a minute until it starts to turn golden.

 We are sometimes fancier than this, but honestly, not often. LOL