Pantries, Peas, and Pasta

While I am an avid meal planner, I like to keep our pantry well stocked so when a need arises for a quick dinner – like practically every night with sports and active kids – one can come together in minutes. Keeping frozen vegetables on hand is one of my favorite tricks to make this happen. If you’ve got pasta in your pantry and green peas in your freezer – you’ve got a delicious, healthy meal. In 20 minutes. I timed it.

While it’s great to have frozen peas and pasta in your pantry, what if you’ve got greens in the refrigerator that need eating? Toss them in and let dinner happen! Have I mentioned this is all cooked in one pot? And, it’s good hot or cold. I know this because we had it for dinner warm and then my kids devoured what was left for breakfast cold.

Keeping Earthbound Farm organic frozen vegetables tucked away in our freezer means we don’t have to have a fresh green salad to have a healthy, nutritious dinner with vegetables. Frozen vegetables can be added to any dish. I love peas because they are ready to eat simply by adding them to hot pasta. Frozen peas also work well for cooling hot pasta down, too – like in this pasta salad recipe with shrimp and peas.

In our refrigerator, we always have Earthbound Farm Baby Spinach and Spring Mix (similar to their original Half & Half mix) and usually another green or two. Both of these mixes get combined with our green salads. While we had kale for most of our mild winter growing in the garden, it got to be too chewy for salads and quick cooking. We bought Earthbound Farm’s Kale Italia mix over the winter with tender baby kale, arugula, mizuna and radicchio. I like the flavor mix of the arugula with the kale and mizuna – and the radicchio adds just a bit of color to all that green! The Kale Italia mix was in the refrigerator, too, when I spotted the peas and pasta. Here’s how to put it all together in one pot for a healthy, nutritious 20-minute meal!

Pantries, Peas, and Pasta (plus Kale Italia)

You make the dressing while the pasta water comes to a boil. It’s easy to whisk up!

Hungry, active kids + busy weeknights = dinner needs to feed us quickly! This recipe delivers – plus, you won’t mind if you have leftovers for breakfast or to have for lunch.

Don’t forget – if you have leftovers from roasting a chicken the night before or another tasty meal you’ve prepared – chop them up and add them to this pasta dish. Just toss them in after the greens have wilted a little so there’s room in the pan.

Be prepared to toss together a tasty, healthy dinner – in one pot – by having a bag (or two!) of Earthbound Farm organic frozen peas on hand to add to pasta. Mix in some greens and this is a quick way to make a weeknight meal. Frozen peas are an easy way to add health and nutrition to a dinner and once those greens wilt a little, dinner will be served.

What’s your favorite frozen vegetable to keep on hand?

Go Gingham related links:

Carrot and kale salad – tasty and so good for lunch – or dinner
Chicken noodle soup – packed with spinach and heart-warming vegetables
So simple chicken curry salad – easy with lots of kick to it!
Broccolette and white beans – a winning combination and tasty dinner!

Thank you to Earthbound Farm for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting brands that help support Go Gingham.

Want Earthbound Farm to buy your cart full of groceries? Check out where they’ll be buying groceries and see if you can shop like the Earth depends on it – and get your groceries for free! You can also find out how ‘green’ your grocery cart is with this little quiz – and get coupons, too!