Feed me, Seymour!

Dinner time around here gets a little hectic. Not as much as when school's in session, but hectic nonetheless. It's already nearing the end of July, but I start reeling when I think about school hectic! Homework, swim practice, more homework, piano practice, book reports, more freaking homework....Remember?? Yeah, I don't want to either! But ooohhh, the magic of summertime! Today was a lazy, stay home day, which means the minions were stirring up all sorts of ways to keep themselves entertained. I mean, what better way to while away the time than to tie your sheets together and rappel down the staircase! Although they did manage to get outside for a bit, decided quickly indoor rappelling was a much better idea!

Back at base camp I decided to use some of the tomatoes and basil that have been growing in the garden. Mind you now, I don't have much of a green thumb. I can hardly keep a fake flower alive. I leave the gardening to my hubby or my mom, the plant whisperers. So thanks to them, we have beautiful, organic, and local veggies and herbs on hand. Yum!

Roasted Tomato & Basil Pasta

Ingredients:

Tomatoes

Kale

Basil

Garlic

Lemon

**Olive oil

**Pasta 

Set the oven to 375 and boil some water & start cooking your pasta.

Slice off the top of a whole head of garlic and place with the tomatoes on a baking dish. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Roast on 375 for about 15 mins (but check at 10) or until the tomatoes and garlic have begun to brown. By this time, your pasta may be ready too, so drain it and remove the baking dish from the oven and let them cool while you get on with the rest of the dish.

Remove the ribs from the kale & cut the leaves into smaller pieces. Then I stack up all the leaves, roll 'em up, & slice them on the diagonal into little shreds.

I also roll up the basil & slice the same way.

Put the kale at the bottom of a big serving bowl, the heat from the pasta will lightly wilt them. Squeeze the juice of 1 whole lemon then add the hot pasta on top. 

**Drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil.

Pop the roasted garlic out of their skin and dice, then add along with the basil and mix to combine. 

Fold in the tomatoes.

Season with salt & fresh ground pepper to taste. Mmmmmm! This is when I have to shovel spoonfuls into the mouths of hungry & impatient small folk while trying to get it into bowls. Serve and enjoy!

**You can omit the oil altogether. Whenever I cook pasta, I always save at least 1 cup of the cooking water, just in case. When it comes time to drizzle olive oil onto the pasta, you can replace that with a little of the cooking water instead!

**Use whatever pasta you would normally, gluten free, brown rice, quinoa, etc. Or sub out the pasta with quinoa!