Vegan Paht Si-Yu

I make Vegan Paht Si-Yu (listed as the last recipe) at least every other week.  Suuuuuuuuuper easy.  I make a larger batch by using a whole pound of spaghetti. I just toss in more veggies and make a slightly larger batch of the sauce. Cathe Olson has this in her The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook which seems to be out of print. This is a total bummer, because it is one of my all-time-favorite cookbooks and I'm constantly recommending it to moms.  Many pages are falling out of my copy from lots and lots of love and use over the past six years. Hope you give it a try and enjoy!

Springtime Crockpot Minestrone

I recently made this dish while we had dear friends visiting. This was an incredible hit for the entire table of eight, which included my six, four, and two-year-old sons and our three-year-old friend. They all gobbled it up! I found the recipe on Pinterest, and it comes from how sweet it is. I made some changes due to what I had on hand, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Here are my edits to the recipe:
- Upped the garlic to 6 cloves...I always up the garlic.
- Rather than 28oz can of diced tomoates, I roasted 4 cups of baby tomatoes until they were soft and had burst. To do that, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast at 400 for 20-40 mins. Depends on how roasted you like them. I also crushed all 6 garlic cloves and roasted them with the tomatoes.
- Upped the asparagus to about 18 spears. I just chopped the entire bunch I bought at the co-op.
-Kale rather than spinach.
-Cut the cheese, ha, ha. I just placed grated parmesan on the table for those that wanted it.

I've never used ditalini pasta but went to Target to get this specifically (it looked so great in the pictures, and we don't have it at our co-op). Glad I did. It was a fun, thick noodle that held up well.

Enjoy!