Super Fast "Pasta ~ Your Way" (w/ gluten and dairy-free options)

Need an easy recipe for a last minute meal?  Here is a great recipe using leftovers that you can put together in a flash.

Perfect for those”What am I going to have for dinner?!” moments.  I’m not the only one who has them, right?

Well, one of the best kitchen time-savers is — flexibility.  Making do with what you have and substituting where necessary.

This recipe gives you just that.

Mix and match ingredients, with no exact measurements needed.  Just use what-cha got, throw it together, and you’ve got a great meal!

The inspiration for this dish came from my friend, Sarah.  My boys and I were blessed to have lunch with her and her boys one afternoon, and she served up  a wonderful gluten-free pasta dish for us.

My oldest even ate the broccoli .  (Don’t you love it when they’ll eat something at someone else’s house that they won’t eat at yours?)

Anyhow, my kids kept begging me to make a similar dish, and so the next time we were in Chicago we went to Trader Joe’s and literally loaded up our cart (a little kiddie-sized one) with their unbelievably low-priced organic brown rice pasta (it tastes great too !), and I was prepared!

But here’s the point.  I didn’t need to call my friend for the recipe.  I just took the basics from her meal, made some substitutions and made it work with what I had.

And now you can do the same thing.

First, I’ll share with you the basics for this dish.

Then, I’ll tell you what my friend, Sarah, and I used, and I’ll give you some other ideas, just to get your creative juices flowing.

Finally, come back later this week for more great eating inspiration when I’ll share my complete recipe for the pasta shown in the photo above !

Time Saving Tips:

• Not to be redundant, but you have to read Save Time and Money Cooking Pasta.
• Have veggies chopped ahead of time in the freezer for easy access
• Prepare extra meat or beans ahead of time so you can have them ready at a moment’s notice.  Read my post on How to Store Prepared Beans for more info.

There you have it — fridge cleaned out, pantry items used up, and tummies full !

How about you?  Do you have a simple dish like this to share?

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