Pasta in Creamy Spinach Sauce with Roasted Tomatoes

Cleanse is now over. I liked it, and definitely will continue avoiding meat and excess sugar, and blending up veggie smoothies for breakfast – it does amazing things for your skin! Unfortunately I was out of smoothie products this morning, so I whipped up an old school bowl of oats.

Strawberry Pie Oatmeal

1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
5-6 large strawberries, chopped
coconut flakes
1 spoonful peanut butter

In a microwaveable bowl, cook oats, cinnamon and 1 cup water for 2.5 minutes. Stir in/sprinkle on remaining ingredients.

I head to the eat bay to meet up with my family friend, Claire for lunch in Berkeley. La Note is quite the hotspot for brunch, so we discovered, when we were quoted a 1.5 hour wait for a table.

Worth it. Fluffy scrambled eggs with goat cheese and chives, roasted tomatoes and rosemary potatoes, and wheat toast with homemade raspberry jam.

One of my favorite porn site food blog aggregator is Tastespotting. That’s where I picked up this delicious recipe for pasta with creamy avocado spinach sauce and roasted tomatoes. This made enough pasta for lunch for everyday this week, which I’ve sectioned out into (5) Tupperware. I love streamlining my mornings…

Pasta in Creamy Spinach Sauce with Roasted Tomatoes

1 pint cherry tomatoes
olive oil
kosher salt
pinch of sugar
8 oz whole wheat spaghetti
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb baby spinach
1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1 avocado, chopped
1/4 cup basil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375.  Toss the tomatoes with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, and a pinch of sugar.  Put on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes, tossing once midway through. Cook the pasta according to package directions, reserving about 1/2 cup cooking water for the sauce.

As the pasta cooks, saute the onion in 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet until softened, 5-6 minutes.  Add in the garlic and cook about 30 seconds more, or until fragrant.  Add in the spinach a few handfuls at a time, waiting until the previous bunch has started to wilt before adding the second.

Remove from heat and stir the Greek yogurt and avocado into the pan.  Add 2-3 tbsp of the reserved pasta water and, using an immersion blender (or a food processor), puree the mixture until smooth, adding more pasta water as needed to give it a sauce-like consistency. Stir in the basil and parmesan.  Add the noodles to the sauce, tossing well to coat.  Serve the noodles topped with a spoonful of the roasted tomatoes.