Popeye Pasta

A few weeks ago we had Olive Oyl Pasta from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. Tonight we had pasta dedicated to Olive Oyl's other half, Popeye. Again, this recipe comes from ED&BV. It's penne pasta in a tomato based sauce with lots of fresh spinach wilted in at the end. Like everything else I've ever made from this book, it was phenomenal. Along with the pasta we had a spinach salad dressed with Annie's Naturals Tuscany Italian Dressing, and Dreena's Simplest Garlic Bread. I also whipped up some White Bean Spread (also from ED&BV) to slather on the garlic bread. The bean spread was delicious and I can't wait to use it on some veggie sandwiches tomorrow.

The Popeye Pasta was enjoyed by all.....as you can see, Stella had it all the way up to her forehead.

I had initially intended to "hide" the spinach by chopping it up real fine in the food processor, because I figured there was no way Mairin would touch it otherwise (although, funny enough, she loves spinach in her omelets). Well, turns out that Mairin was playing at a friends house and ate some things over there, so I figured she wouldn't be hungry for dinner at our house. I don't have to "hide" anything from Stella, so I just chopped the spinach coarsely and tossed it in. Mairin came home from playing, and in an attempt to stall bedtime a bit, decided that she didn't eat enough at her friend's house and needed some "pa nay nay" (our made up word for penne......remember Sha Nay Nay from Martin??). Of course, I was sure she wouldn't eat it when she saw that it had green in it...........I was wrong, she ate all but about 2 bites of her serving. She never even mentioned the green!!