Mason Jar Salad- End of the Week

I survived grade 8 camp!!! There were wood ticks (too many to count), whiny kids, fun activities, kids who didn't sleep, and all sorts of strangeness. I even conquered the zip line! I have photos of that but since the harness is in no way shape or form flattering, I refuse to show them but I did it!  I am still catching up on sleep though. I hope to be all caught up by Monday! Unfortunately I did not bring any mason jar salads with me to camp (I really should have).  Fortunately Hubby made salads to get him through the week. He reports that the salads did indeed remain fresh and tasty the whole week. We are going to keep trying these out with some different combinations.

Friday's supper was a super simple tomato basil pasta using a recipe from Jamie Oliver's book "Jamie's Food Revolution". I sort of followed the recipe, making only a few adjustments to use up some things in my fridge.

While at the Red River General Store the other week, we picked up some locally made pasta. We chose a sun dried tomato fettuccine pasta. (If you haven't been, the Red River General Store is all about local, fresh products and lots of antiques! We bought asparagus from a farm in Thompson, MB, wild rice from Northern Manitoba, maple syrup from Mcreary, and Pasta From Steinbach, Manitoba!!! We pretty much covered 4 corners of the province in just one stop)

Okay, back to the recipe. (Sorry about that)

 Classic Tomato Spaghetti (page 43 in Jamie's Food Revolution, Jamie Oliver)
Printable recipe here

2 cloves garlic (I used 3)
1 red or green chile (I used dried because that's what I had)
 a small bunch of fresh basil (from the garden)
1 pound dried spaghetti (Or any noodle you'd like)
olive oil
1 can diced tomato (recipe said 14 oz, but I used a 28 oz can)
sea salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese (I had fresh mozzarella but no parm so I used that instead)

Peel and thinly slice the garlic and the chile (if using fresh). This is also a good time to wash and dry the basil.

Get the water for the past boiling and salted and get a skillet over medium heat. Drop the pasta in the water and then add 2 tbsp of olive oil to the skillet.  Add the garlic and chile to the oil and stir things up.  Once the garlic begins to brown, add most of the basil leaves and the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.
As soon as the pasta is cooked, drain it and transfer to the skillet and stir it all up.

At this point I added some spinach to the pasta and some torn up fresh mozzarella (Because why not?).

Slice up the rest of the basil and top it off.

Let me tell you, rave reviews on this one.  The pasta had such a fabulous consistency.  I couldn't really taste the sun dried tomato but the pasta itself was fabulous. I will be buying it again.

I did manage to plant my celery that I had in my window sill.

Some other news in the Little Kitchen: Tuesday we pick up our first week's worth of fresh farm produce from our CSA. We joined a community supported agriculture program for the summer and are excited to see what we get this week.

In the mean time, I'm gonna go make some more jar salads!!

Until next time, stay dry and eat well!!!