{Recipes} Sundried Tomato & Basil Pasta

I love when it only takes 15 minutes to whip up a fabulous dinner for my family, don't you? Although I love to cook, especially for my little family, I do not like to be stuck in the kitchen for hours on end.

This little recipe is one my sis-in-law {Jane} gave me a few years ago when we were all swapping easy and yummy dinner recipes on vacation. I had forgotten all about it and found it in my recipe box the other day. Here it is ::

Ingredients ::
~ 1 lb. pasta noodles
~ 1 jar sundried tomatoes
~ 1 cup fresh basil
~ Garlic {a few cloves}
~ 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Directions ::
1. In a food processor, blend the tomatoes, basil and garlic.
2. Cook pasta and save pasta water. Add some of the pasta water to the tomato mixture {a cup or so should do it}.
3. Pour tomato mixture over pasta, add some fresh basil for garnish, and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. YUM!

**I love sundried tomatoes, so I used two jars {and approximately two cups pasta water}. It was delicious but very, very rich!
**This is one of those recipes that you can follow loosely -- if you love one of the ingredients, you can experiment by adding more {or less} than what's listed.
**I thought it would be yummy to add a little chicken to this dish too {although that increases the time spent in the kitchen so maybe not ;-}

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Dean loves to help me in the kitchen. He wants to be held so he can see everything going on on the stove and countertop when I'm cooking dinner. Last night, he was too funny when I turned on the blender {I don't have a food processor -- on my Xmas list this year}. His expression was priceless -- completely awestruck! And he stayed like that for a good 5 minutes or so while I was blending.


How sweet is the innocence of a child? It's the simplest things in life that mesmerize them -- and makes me take a step back and appreciate the little things that I so often take for granted.


I pulled one of our stools for Dean to sit on so he'd have a front row seat of the blender {and because at almost 27 pounds, he breaks my arm when I hold him for too long ;-}