My favorite recipe: simple vegetarian zucchini pasta.

Hey y’all! Happy Sunday! Last night I made my very favorite pasta on the face of the planet and thought, heck, why not share this recipe with my Tumblr friends who like to cook? Here it is, if you’re at all interested! :)

Ingredients:

• 1 box pasta (I recommend rigatoni, bowtie, or corkscrew)
• 4 medium zucchini squash
• 1 small can reduced fat evaporated milk
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Boil the pasta in a pot of salty water. Slice each zucchini in half lengthwise and then into ½ inch half moon shapes. Heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the crushed garlic to the pan. Saute for one minute. Add the zucchini slices, salt and pepper, and cook between 12-15 minutes, stirring often, until zucchini is soft and has turned slightly golden. Add the can of evaporated milk, the Parmesan cheese, and the red pepper flakes to the pan. Mix and reduce the heat to low and allow sauce and zucchini mixture to simmer for about five minutes. Once sauce has somewhat thickened, remove from heat and pour the zucchini and sauce mixture into a large pot with the drained pasta. Serve with some additional grated Parmesan on top, and enjoy! I also recommend putting some toasted pine nuts or crumbled bacon (although that would make this recipe NOT vegetarian) on top, if that suits your fancy. This recipe yields about four heaping servings, or six “regular” servings.

Awesome things I just made: Mexican-spiced Nutella Hot Chocolate.

I have no idea what possessed me to make up this concoction, but I was really craving something sweet, and thought this would be an awesome fix. It’s so simple.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 tablespoon Nutella (or two…)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Directions:

• Just wisk it all together in a small pot over medium heat!

It’s only 180 calories if you use ONE tablespoon of Nutella! If you add a second tablespoon, count an additional 100 calories.

Awesome things I just made: Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte.

I experienced this delicious-ness for the first time this weekend at Starbucks. You could say it was love at first sip. I was pretty much addicted. However, I’m a broke college student, so I can’t be buying one of these $4 drinks everyday. I decided to try my hand at whipping one up at home. Turns out, it’s super easy!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tea bag of Rooibos/African Red Bush herbal tea
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon honey
• dash of cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

• Warm your water in a mug for about a minute in the microwave.
• Place tea bag in water and allow it to steep for five minutes.
• While tea is steeping, warm milk over medium heat in a small pot. Make sure the heat is not too high. You do NOT want your milk to scald.
• Once milk is warm, remove the pot from heat and wisk it until you have your desired amount of foam (don’t wisk it so much that you are left with foam only; you want some liquid milk to remain to mix with the tea) This will probably take a few minutes. I actually have an immersion blender with a wisk attachment, so it only took me a couple of seconds to get foam. So, if you also have an immersion wisk, use it!
• Stir vanilla and honey into tea.
• Pour milk foam on top of tea, stir slightly.
• Top with a dash of cinnamon and enjoy!