He Liked It!

Not superhero, but veggie-filled and luscious, here's a yummy recent meal that my carnivore really loved. My husband famously prefers most foods straight out of the jar, so I always offer everyone that option as well, and I don't mind so much if it is something as healthful as Barilla Marinara.

Imagine my surprise when I jazzed my Barilla up with well-chopped collard greens and smashed garlic cloves and the carnivore came running! He liked my jazzed up version better! I'm happy. I don't have a recipe for the sauce, but I used about 4-5 fresh collard leaves, minus the stems, and two big garlic cloves. I added the garlic while the sauce was warming on the stove, so they got a little cooked, and then I just stirred the collards in as I was pulling the pan off the heat. When I first added collards to a sauce, in days gone by, I thought it would be cool to create lovely chiffonade ribbons. Yeah, don't do that unless you want your chin all wrapped up like a very healthy Italian mummy. Little pieces of collards are better in a sauce!

Under the featured sauce is gnocchi, which is beloved around here. Gia Russa makes gnocchi that is vegan, both the whole wheat and the white varieties. But I picked up an Italian brand that I found at Wal Mart because I was curious. This Italian gnocchi has spinach in it. It was lovely and luscious. I have to fess up and admit that I am not sure the Italian gnocchi was vegan. My one semester of Italian did not afford me the ability to decipher the ingredients. I was looking for some reasonable facsimile of "huevos"  (though trying to use Spanish in place of Italian has gotten me into trouble in the past -- long story) but I didn't see anything that looked like "egg". I apologize to the Italian chickens, though, just in case. I liked the mystery gnocchi, but it wasn't any more fabulous than the kind I know to be vegan, So there ends my straying.

This meal was most satisfying, while being effortless. It takes hardly any time to add piles of veggies to something. Start chopping!