More Meatless Monday

Huh, I could abbreviate this post as MMM which would be kind of ironic since it's about food and good food that makes you say MMMMMM!!!!  Ok, enough about that.  I realized that I skipped over my use of a Pin from last week's Meatless Monday experience.  Truth be told, I used this recipe more as a guideline because I have used a similar approach to pasta toss meals, so this wasn't what I would call a "new" recipe.  Just a new variation of it.

From Meatless Mondays:
http://www.skinnymom.com/2013/04/23/skinny-mediterranean-pasta-toss/

Since I have made a version similar to this, I played around with the ingredients a little more than I normally would on a first go for a recipe.  First, I didn't have zucchini, so that didn't make the cut.  I did not have 10 small sweet bell peppers, but I did have one big one, so I compromised.  I also didn't have grape tomatoes, but had a fresh one from our garden, so I figured it was equivalent in other ways.  I substituted egg noodles for penne because I like it better for a pasta toss.  Turns out I was out of balsamic vinegar (*gasp*) because I had used the last of it to make Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing and hadn't remembered to get any at the store in a while (this has since been fixed).  I should do a post on that too - it was the best!  ANYWHO, back to the actual topic, given all those changes, the meal still turned out great.  I even added capers to the mix because, why not?

I think a pasta toss is a great way to blend a lot of fun flavors together.  Mine always include artichoke hearts and sun dried tomatoes with egg noodles.  The rest is whatever is on hand.  But that's my personal preference.  This is probably one of the few meals I really go off recipe for.  So far it has yielded some pretty tasty results.  I would encourage you to try it too!