A Married Girl's Recipe for the Single Girls Life: Quick and Easy Truffled Parmesan Pasta!

Even though I'm a married girl now, Mr. 3's business often takes him out of town and I find myself reverting back to my single girl habits (random meals of the things I want to eat that often don't ~go~ together....avocado with hot sauce and a bowl of cereal anyone?) including trying to save myself a trip to the grocery store by throwing what I have in the cabinets together.

I rummaged through the cabinets, craving carbs, and I found a bag of veggie pasta from Trader Joe's which I had bought on impulse a few months back.  I usually try to stay away from pasta, but after a quick check, I found that 3/4 cup dry pasta was about 200 calories.  Typically, pasta servings are measured after they are cooked, not before.  Since pasta basically doubles in size when it's cooked...I basically got about 1.5 cups of pasta!  That led me to create this recipe which is perfectly sized for 1!

Quick and Easy Truffled Parmesan Pasta
3/4 cup dry Trader Joe's Organic Vegetable Radiatore Pasta
Olive oil (You will need an olive oil sprayer like the Misto or this Misto)  
Parmesan cheese  to taste
Truffled Sea Salt (a little goes along way!)

Prepare pasta according to directions.  Drain and put a small layer in the bottom of an individual bowl. Spray pasta with olive oil and season with truffled sea salt and Parmesan.  Repeat in layers. Add pepper if you are that sort of person.  :)

This is what you wind up with:

Quick & Easy Truffled Parmesan Pasta
Personal Photo

The truffled sea salt makes the dish sooo rich and wonderful! If I had a can of mushrooms and some sundried tomatoes I would have thrown those in as well to bulk up the pasta with some veggies.  It was super quick to make and super yummy.*  By misting the olive oil onto the pasta, I got a nice flavor with fewer calories.  I also used a shave Parmesan cheese blend that is 20 calories for 1 tbsp and I used probably about 4 tbsp on the dish.  The key is to use a really good quality cheese you need less (I like Bel Gioioso Salad Blend which you can get in big bags at BJs.  The cheese from the green Kraft can is probably NOT a good choice).  I think you are getting the whole dish for around 350 calories depending how heavy you go with the cheese and olive oil.  Definitely a tasty treat to take your mind off of any wedding diet woes!

If you give it a try let me know what you think!  Let us know if you have any yummy recipes to share when the hubby/man/life partner is away!

* I would advise you not to make more than one individual serving.  I practically licked the bowl and if there had been a whole pot on the stove of it already made...I would have landed face first.