Friday, August 7, 2009

Whole-Wheat Pasta with Fava Beans and Tomatoes and some Root Beer!


What to do when you spend three and half hours of your afternoon at the dentist with three hungry and grumpy children? Macaroni and cheese, pizza, a drive through or sacrifice the Fava beans you have been saving for a special and yummy meal? Now, I love my children but I spent too much money and time on my Fava beans to just waste them on grumpy kids. Oh how I wish I took my mom’s advice and ate them one by one when everyone was sleeping. I know the cost and labor that went into each and every bean. I could appreciate and savor every bit. BUT, like all good and lazy moms I made a quick dinner and shared them with my family. Dinner was very good although not the dinner I had planned in my head.



Whole-wheat pasta with Fava Beans and Tomatoes.


Ingredients:

  • Whole Wheat pasta
  • Fresh Fava Beans
  • Tomatoes, chopped (canned or fresh)
  • Basil Pesto
  • Paprika
  • Cumin

Directions:

  • Cook pasta until al dente.
  • Simmer bean, tomatoes and spices together.
  • Combine pasta and bean mix.
  • Sprinkle with fresh grated cheese.


Yesterday was also National Root Beer Day so, following the lead of Tina from Mommy’s Kitchen, I made homemade root beer. We have made root beer many times but never as easy as Tina described. As soon as I read her recipe I made a batch of my own. I have to tell you I was a bit concerned that the root beer didn’t need to ferment in the closet for 3-5 days as I’m accustomed to. After dinner I pulled my root beer mix out of the refrigerator, added the water AND the taste test results…YUM. I will replace our recipe with hers and enjoy root beer more often. Thanks Tina and Happy belated Root Beer Day to everyone!

As Seen at Mommy’s Kitchen.


Homemade Root Beer

1 1/2 - cups water

3/4 - cup sugar
1 1/2 - teaspoons root beer concentrate
1 - bottle (1 liter size) cold soda water, seltzer or club soda


Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Add concentrate; stir until well mixed. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Slowly pour soda into root beer mixture until well blended. I used seltzer. Makes 6 cups.

12 comments:

Jennifer said...

That looks yummy, I have so far been afraid of Whole Wheat Pasta, but if your kids can eat it, so can I!

Selba said...

With the fava beans and tomatoes, the pasta is definitely healthy.

I like to drink root beer with vanilla ice cream :)

Dr24Hours said...

Looks fantastic. I love finding new vegetarian recipes. I eat meat, but wife doesn't. I found a lot on cookingtipoftheday.blogspot.com too. Linda, the lady there, know her way around a kitchen almost as well as you seem to. Thanks for sharing!

Palidor said...

I had no idea that you could make your own root beer. How neat!

HappyTummy said...

I love fava beans! And pairing it with the whole wheat pasta looks fantastic...so fresh and simple. Yum!

Dewi said...

This is scrumptious! Love the fava bean in there.

Jackie at Phamfatale.com said...

'm very intrigues with your homemade root beer. Where can I find it?

grace said...

homemade root beer, what?!? awesome! crank up the ice cream machine and you have a made-from-scratch float, which is all kinds of amazing! (great pasta too.) :)

Creative Classroom Core said...

Rootbeer!?! Such a cool recipe! I cant wait to try it!!!

Juliana said...

Home made root beer? This is totally new to me :-)

The pasta looks yummie! Fava beans, I haven't had those for a while.

Leslie said...

What a fantastic dinner! I love favas but they are labor intensive. You are such a great mom to MAKE root beer!

Lilly said...

Where do you get the root beer concentrate?