Squash, Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta

Summer squash,grape tomatoes and goat cheese over whole wheat spaghetti

My guiding principles for weekday dinners are that they are easy, fast, and take no more than two pans to make (one to boil a whole grain or pasta). This week I managed to surprise myself with a delicious meal. I had yellow squash and zucchini on my Mindful Battle Plan, and when I looked in my refrigerator I saw grape tomatoes that were about to go, and left over goat cheese. Tossed over whole wheat pasta, (yes, it's processed, but I had a hankering. Oh well.) it ended up being the perfect dinner for the false-summer April heat. I am rarely pleased with a new weekday dinner, but this was pretty dang good. And it's easy to customize for your specific tastes or refrigerator leftovers:

Summer Squash, Tomatoes and Goat Cheese with Whole Wheat Pasta

Serves 3

Squash (I used 2 yellow and 1 zucchini)

4 cloves garlic

oregano

crushed red pepper

1/3 log goat cheese

2/3 pint grape tomatoes

olive oil

whole wheat spaghetti

1. Boil water for the pasta. I like to use filtered water.
2. Chop the squash into quarter pieces and dice the garlic.  
3. If the water is boiling, put in 1/2 lb. to boil.  
4. Heat olive oil in saute or frying pan over medium. Add squash and tomatoes and saute 5 minutes.
5. Add garlic. It's really good for you, so if you want to add a couple more cloves feel free. If you like the taste of garlic, you may want to reverse the order and cook the garlic until golden before adding the squash.
6. Add 1 shake of crushed red pepper and three shakes of oregano.
7. Cook for a few minutes until squash is soft and cooked to your liking. This is what it looks like when it's done:   
8. Put a few tablespoons of pasta water in a large pasta bowl, then add the goat cheese. Stir until melted. If you don't like goat cheese, then skip this step. If you prefer olive oil and parmesan, add more olive oil to the squash.
9. Drain the pasta and add it to squash pan. Mix it up.
10. Add to the bowl with goat cheese, and serve with salt and pepper. If you are going the parmesan route instead, just add parmesan over the top.
11. I think the right mix is 1/2 vegetables, 1/2 pasta.

What I ate: 14 oz. green juice, 1/2 papaya, 1 latte, 1/2 c. Barbara's Bakery whole-grain cereal, 2 cups Good Earth tea, 3 c. whole wheat spaghetti + squash (see above recipe), 1 oz. pumpkin seeds, 2 apples, 5 macadamia nuts, 1 c. quinoa, steamed broccoli + tofu, 8 oz. mango kombucha, 1 mango, 1/2 c. brown rice + seaweed, 1/2 c. yogurt + 1T Sarabeth's strawberry-peach jan, 1 hot chocolate, 55 oz. water

Exercise: Ran 4.8 miles, 1 hour yoga