Trader Joes Easy Pasta

Time for an easy pasta dish!  I love to cook and try new recipes.  Sometimes you stumble upon something so good and easy that it becomes one of your staple recipes.  This pasta dish is a family favorite that I make once a week or at least every two weeks.  I love that the ingredients are easy to locate and that it takes about 20 minutes to make.  Even better is the fact that I can morph the leftover pasta into another meal!

I start with whole wheat pasta from my favorite store, Trader Joes (alright, I have many favorite stores, a hazard of loving to shop, but TJ’s is my favorite food store) then I add their marinara sauce and their frozen meatballs (they have turkey and beef; both are tasty and family approved).

Trader Joes Easy Pasta

1 package whole wheat pasta

1 jar marinara

1 bag frozen meatballs

Cook up your pasta the regular way, while boiling pasta, place meatballs in a glass microwavable dish and cook in micro for 4-5 minutes.  When meatballs are done, pour marinara over meatballs, return to micro and cook for 2-3 minutes.  After draining cooked pasta, dish up pasta and sauce/meatballs.  Easy pasta is complete (I usually add a salad from our garden)!

Since I make a whole package of pasta I usually have leftover plain pasta.  I throw that in a container and put it in the fridge for the next day.

 Day two:

 With a large skillet, add some olive oil, the leftover pasta, seasoning (I love 21 season salute from Trader Joes), and some cut up veggies (my first choice is asparagus).  Sauté for 5-10 minutes, turning to coat and prevent burning. Now you have pasta primavera for lunch!