Have you ever made pasta in the slow cooker? It's awesome. It doesn't heat up your house the way boiling water does and you don't have to pay any attention to it. The only downside is that the noodles end up being a little mushier and less al dente.
I saw this Slow-Cooker Vegetarian Lasagna recipe and this Two-Minute, 24-Hour Casserole recipe and sorta mashed 'em together.
- 1 pound of whole wheat rotini
- 2 28-oz cans of tomato product (we did one can of diced tomatoes and one can of tomato sauce).
- 1 cup hummus (to make it creamy and proteiny. You could probably sub cheese)
This is a recipe that I'm excited to play with. Lots of different veggies could be mixed together. Mushrooms and black olives? Mhm.
Followed up with Chocolate Covered Katie's Cake Batter Energy Bars.
I've been missing rice krispy treats since going vegetarian (marshmallows have gelatin) and these almost did the trick. These were a little sweet for me, but I wasn't sure what to sub for the agave that wouldn't make everything fall apart. I'll work on this one...
While running, I found this in someone's front yard:
A huge stegosaurus statue. I especially like the color gradients :)
Another fun thing: Cinema in the Park! My favorite this year was The Muppets. Love those Muppets.
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On Wednesday, we went to see Green Lantern and it was so terrible, but I enjoyed laughing at the cheesy one-liners.
Lastly, a Public Service Announcement: If any of you have pets, please share the crazy things they do. Kaitlin recently did a charming post about the quirks of her dog and it was so fun to read.
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| He likes to sleep on her pillow. How adorable is that? |
Happy Friday! Hope you all have a great weekend.
What's the silliest thing that you've ever seen while working out?
Do your pets have any fun quirks?
Love the idea of slow cooker pasta - especially until we get central AC installed! :)
ReplyDeleteRight?! Pittsburgh is SO HOT!
DeleteI've been using hummus in EVERYTHING lately, but I haven't thought to use it with tomatoes in a pasta sauce! What is wrong with me? Haha. That stegosaurus statue kills me, by the way. Too funny.
ReplyDeleteA quirk my dog has is whenever we lay down on the couch and grab a blanket he comes running and wants to sit on our laps on top of the blanket. He gets so excited that half the time he tries to climb in our laps before we get the blanket down, which results in both of us getting tangled up in the blanket..
That's adorable! Cuddly dogs are my favorite kinds :)
DeleteIs it bad that I would totally put that stegosaurus in my yard? In fact, now I really want a giant colorful dinosaur sculpture. Great. And MUPPETS. I love them. So much. I may or may not own every movie--and I won't admit how many times I've watched The Muppet Movie (the original), it's my guaranteed put-you-in-a-good-mood movie. And my pets are chickens, which I believe are built of 95% quirks, 5% desire for food, 0% intelligence. I love them, haha.
ReplyDeleteOur neighbors just got chickens and I've been dying to see them, but there's a fence in the way...though if you kinda get close and peer through at certain angles...
DeleteI wish I had a pet to tell you about her quirks but my building doesn't allow animals :( it's so sad. I also would do terrible things at this point for a slow cooker. I keep seeing amazing recipes all over the blog world and pinterest and I am so sad I can't try them! I'll have to save this recipe away for the future.
ReplyDeleteOur building doesn't allow animals, either. That's why I like to read them and, fortunately, the internet is overrun with cat photos :)
DeleteSLOWCOOKER. You must. Try watching yard sales - they pop up often!
I wonder if using mashed banana would be an option (instead of agave) . . . Happy Friday!
ReplyDeleteAh, interesting! Especially if I put them in the freezer so the fruit would firm...
DeleteI had no idea you could make pasta in the slow cooker!! There's nothing that thing cannot do!! Lol.
ReplyDeleteThe slow cooker is the best!
DeleteMmmm, hummus with pasta. I have all of these ingredients in the house right now. Looks like I know what I'm making for dinner tonight!
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy! It's nice and healthy, too - so you can have dessert :)
DeleteMy dog is an entire quirk himself! Haha, there's no better way to describe him, really. My mom told about how he recently was riding in the car with her to go to the cleaners to pick up some of my dad's shirts that had been cleaned...and when my mom put the shirts in the back seat, he curled himself up among all of the plastic and made a little tent for himself to lay in! Gotta love animals! :-)
ReplyDeleteAlso, we should do yoga or something soon!!
Yes! Yoga ends on September 15, so we must!
DeleteOne time while running through a neighborhood, I noticed a large animal next to me out of the corner of my eye. I thought for sure it was a dog and was kind of scared until I looked over and realized it was a deer! Weird to see one away from the woods and just strolling around someone's front lawn!
ReplyDeleteHow neat! They are so beautiful.
DeleteWe just got a slow-cooker and CANT wait to break it in. The pasta dish looks great
ReplyDeleteI'm excited for you! Slow cookers can do everything - even cakes, I've heard :)
DeleteOoh I've never thought of doing a slow-cooked pasta dish, it sounds so comforting and tasty! I haven't actually got a slow cooker but we have a fantastic thick-bottomed casserole dish which is huge and perfect for slow-cooked meals like stews :)
ReplyDeleteOver here in the UK you can get vegetarian marshmallows which don't have any gelatin in them, can you not get them in the US?
We do have vegetarian marshmallows, but they don't really melt and goo, just hot. Although...it stands to reason that most everything would melt if it just gets hot enough. Maybe I will have to try again. Thanks for the suggestion!
DeletePasta in the crockpot? Genius!! Oh my gosh, my dog does so many funny things I can't even begin to tell you. :)
ReplyDeleteDogs have the funniest personalities :D
DeleteMmmmm awesome recipe! I loooooove slow cooker anything! So far, I don't think I've tried anything from the crockpot that I DIDN'T like. :) My fave things to make in it are pasta sauce, soup, and meat like pulled chicken, etc. And that's so cool you saw a film outdoors~Greg and I are really looking forward to doing that someday. :D Have a beautiful day Alex!
ReplyDeleteWe love watching movies in the park! We spread out a blanket and bring a picnic. On Friday, we saw Tintin :)
DeleteCool I've never tried making pasta in a slow cooker. You could probably add a bunch of veggies to it as well but closer to the end of cooking. I wonder if you could do something similar in a rice cooker because I don't have a slow cooker :(
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea! I do have a slow cooker...I should try that! Did you know that you can bake cake in your rice cooker? :P
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