Penne with Goat cheese and Zucchini

Zucchini seems to be a very abundant vegetable during the summer, it doesn't cost much at the store and if you grow your own you can wind up with so many that you don't even have a clue as to what to do with it all.

I remember when I was young in my mother's vegetable garden we'd wind up having so much zucchini that if we missed any of them on the couple of zucchini plants we had, they'd grow so large they wouldn't be good for anything other than bread or to feed to the cows. I also remember not being too fond of zucchini as a child unless it was in raw sticks and dipped in ranch dressing. Now as an adult I love the stuff, started liking it as a teenager (as I did with most foods that weren't "normal" in my eyes, though there wasn't much I didn't like as I wasn't/am not too picky). I try to use it frequently in my cooking as a filler and as a main veggie.

I want the little one to learn to like veggies more, but it's a long arduous task to get him to eat something that has either color or isn't just fish sticks, cheese, bread, rice or chicken. So in order to do that, the best thing to do is put veggies in tons of stuff and say "eat it, it's good for you and will make you grow strong and healthy!" Ahhh if only I were as cool a Pop-eye the sailor man and could just flex and eat it, making him all for the awesome healthy foods.

Now to make this wonderfully healthy meal, you will need 1 zucchini, 1 box of whole wheat penne pasta, a jar of vegetarian bolognese sauce, 1 onion, and 3 cloves of garlic. Cook the pasta till al dente, drain and put in a big bowl. Chop the onion and garlic, saute in enough extra virgin olive oil that it won't stick but not make it mushy. Add in chopped zucchini at the last minute and then put it in the bowl with the pasta. Take your sauce and pour about 1/4 of the jar into the bowl and mix. Pull little bits of the goat cheese and add it on top.


As you can tell this is healthy and simple to make and will make enough for 3 people and then some! Oh and did I mention I didn't get any complaints about dinner that time around? :D