Dinner in 5! (or 10, tops...)

This isn't rocket science here, folks.  But it is a tasty, healthy and lightening fast dinner that you can put together in less time than it takes me to dry my crazy hair every morning.  Full disclosure: (I recently purchased some dry shampoo and now only have to dry my hair every other day.  Whoop Whoop!).

Like many if not most of the recipes I make up, this came together completely haphazardly based on the fact that I didn't get home last night until 9:15pm, was ravenous, and had these particular items in my fridge/freezer/pantry.  Feel free to make any substitutions you like while still following the same basic idea for endless combinations.  I did peas, pesto, walnuts, and soba noodles with broiled grape tomatoes, but you could do peanuts, teriyaki sauce, red bell peppers, and rice noodles with broiled whole green onions.  See how this works?

Tomatoes after broiling

Here's the breakdown of what happened to create this li'l ditty:

1.  Come home and turn oven on to broil.  Dump full dry pint of (almost at the end of their rope) cherry tomatoes onto baking sheet.

2.  Drizzle with a little olive oil (a couple teaspoons should be fine), sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Give the baking sheet a good jiggle so it does all the even distribution for you.  How thoughtful.

3.  Put it on the top rack of your oven and broil it while you do the rest of the steps.

4.  Boil water.  Add one bundle (soba noodles come in bundles that serve one to two people) of soba noodles to boiling water.  Pat yourself on the back smugly, knowing that since soba is made of buckwheat, you are doing your health a favor.  Cook noodles for four minutes, when they will be done.

5.  While waiting for the water to boil and then for the noodles to cook, grab a jar of homemade or store bought pesto (the Classico brand is totally delicious) out of the fridge.  Also grab a handful or two (1/3 cup) of frozen peas and defrost them in some warm water.  Cut a lemon in half.  Get your strainer.  Does this seem like several steps?

6.  Drain pasta and put back into pot with defrosted and drained peas.  Take your tomatoes out of the broiler and add them all to the pot.  Add about 1/4 c. pesto to the pot, and squeeze your lemon half over all of it.  Stir.

7.  Divide into two portions (or one if you're really hungry) and top with chopped walnuts, parmesan cheese, or a good dose of "nooch" (nutritional yeast).  Feast, Beast!

This photo makes it look gross.  It was really un-gross!  In fact, it was pretty, pretty tasty.

The thought for the day brought to you by the tag on my Apple Cinnamon tea:

"The finest pleasure is kindness to others."
-Jean de La Bruyere

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