2 Since I was using the leftover kidney beans sauce, I pureed it in a food processor until nice and
smooth.

3 In a bowl combine together the spaghetti and sauce.

4 Transfer it to the prepared pie plate and spread it evenly.

5 Top it with the cheese and bake it for 25 minutes.

2 The pureed bean sauce can also be used as a dip. My son was eating baby carrots and I tried to
persuade him to dip it in the bean sauce and to my surprise he did like it.

2 Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes, until softened.

3 Stir the tomato sauce into the skillet with the cooked beans and seasoning of your choice. I used 1
teaspoon of dried Italian seasoning.

4 While the sauce is cooking, cook the pasta as per package directions. Once the pasta is cooked,
drain it, reserving 1/2 to 1 cup of the water. Add the reserved water to the sauce if required.

5 Increase the heat and bring the sauce to a boil, stirring. Add baking soda, if using and lower the heat, partially cover, and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until th sauce has slightly reduced.

6 Add salt/pepper to the sauce as per taste, transfer to a serving bowl. Serve the sauce over pasta and enjoy a hearty meal.

1 I read in a magazine that adding baking soda to tomato sauce or any other tomato dish would reduce
the acidity of the tomatoes. Since we are slightly sensitive to excessive tomatoes I added it.

2 Steam broccoli until tender, about 6-7 minutes.

3 Puree the tofu in a food processor or blender, until smooth.

4 In a medium saucepan combine tofu, pasta sauce and enough reserved pasta water to create a creamy sauce. Cook sauce over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Do not boil.

5 Season to taste with salt and pepper.

6 Transfer pasta to serving bowl; add broccoli, and toss to mix.

7 Top with sauce, and serve.

2 The original recipe had 1/2 cup chopped black olives. If you want to use it, you should add it to the sauce while it’s heating.

3 If you are able to find reduced-fat firm silken tofu use it, because that was mentioned in the original recipe. I didn’t get it, so I have used Mori Nu’s regular silken tofu.

4 My son loves broccoli, so there was almost nothing left for the pasta when we sat down to eat. I had a pack of frozen Italian vegetables (broccoli, carrots and cauliflower). So I steamed it and tossed it with the pasta. That was good too.

2 Meanwhile cook the pasta also as per the package directions.

3 In a blender/food processor puree together the cooked beets, ricotta cheese, lemon pepper seasoning, garlic powder and salt.

4 Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the beet puree. Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes and the pink sauce is ready.

5 Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce and it’s ready to serve.

2 My son eats only cauliflower, broccoli and sometimes carrots, baby corn in it’s original form. That’s why I blended everything together, you may choose to chop/grate the beets, add minced garlic etc.

3 Chances are you may have extra pink sauce for the above measurement of pasta and beet. So first transfer the pink sauce to another container and add sauce little by little to the pasta and refrigerate/freeze the remaining sauce for another serving.

4 I got this pasta from Trader’s Joe and forgot to note down the name of the shape. It’s easy and fun for kids to eat this pasta with a fork. My son had a nice time seeing how many rings he could get each time in the fork.

5 I can’t wait to substitute carrots in this beet recipe and surprise my son with orange pasta.

2 Saute peppers, onions and garlic in oil in large skillet for 2 to 3 minutes.

3 Add water; cook covered, over medium-high heat until soft, 2 to 3 minutes.

4 Stir in sugar; cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat until mixture is very soft and browned, about 20 minutes.

5 Season to taste with salt and pepper.

6 Toss with spaghetti; sprinkle with cheese if desired.

2 Don’t be tempted to omit the sugar in this pasta recipe because it makes the vegetables and the onions to caramelize and that in turn gives a nice flavor to the dish. If you think that the dish is sweet, you can spice it up at the end by adding black pepper powder.

3 If you have some left over peppers, try these chili fries. Unlike other fritters which use all purpose flour or chick pea flour for the dipping batter, this recipe uses whole wheat flour. I also added some rice flour to make it crispier.

1. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil to a medium saucepan; saute onion and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Stir in flour, curry powder and chilli powder. Cook 1 minute, stirring.

3. Add broth and heat to boiling.

4. In a small vessel combine the cornstarch and water, until the cornstarch dissolves without forming any lumps. Add this mixture to the boiling broth and bring it to a boil, stirring, until thickened, about 1 minute. (Actually it took more than a minute for the mixture to thicken.)

5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Assembling the Pasta

1. Steam the vegetables for 8-10 minutes if using frozen vegetables. If using fresh ones 6-8 minutes should be fine. Sprinkle some salt and toss the vegetables once, while steaming.

2. Cook pasta as per the instructions in the package. Drain it, reserving around 1/4 to 1/2 of the pasta cooked water.

3. Combine together the steamed veggies, pasta and the curry sauce. Check for seasoning and sprinkle cilantro.

2. Meanwhile in a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.

3. Add bell pepper, asparagus, lemon pepper, salt; cook, stirring occasionally until vegetables are crisp-tender.

4. Stir in lemon juice and beans. Cook until beans are hot.

5. Add pasta; toss with vegetable mixture.

2. Grated lemon zest was used in the original recipe. Since I had the lemon pepper seasoning, I used it instead. So you can simply use a combination of salt, pepper and lemon juice to suit your taste.

3. I would also suggest using any other hard beans instead of navy beans. Navy beans are very soft and it becomes mushy when you toss the pasta a couple of times. I think either Kidney beans or Chickpeas would be perfect.

1.  Preheat the oven to 350F (175C).
2.  Line a standard size baking sheet with foil or parchment and set aside.
3.  In a large bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly combined.

2.  Also slicing the baked log, requires patience, because it tends to break in the middle.

3.  I observed that the baking time mentioned in the recipe (both for baking the log and for baking the slices) are just approximations.  It took another 5-8 minutes to get the desired result.

4.  The biscottis came out well, but I would suggest using all purpose flour itself instead of whole wheat flour and also reducing the quantity of sugar to 1/2 cup.  It was very sweet to our taste, also it had an earthy flavor because of the whole wheat flour.  I have made chocolate cookies using whole wheat flour earlier and my family loved it, but we felt that it did not work out for the biscottis.  This eggless biscotti recipe is definitely a keeper and I will be baking it regularly using all purpose flour.

3. Heat slowly, stirring till the mixture resembles a syrup. Let cool to room temperature.
4. Combine flour with baking powder and spices (if using).
5. Pour in chocolate syrup and work into a stiff batter. (See My Notes)

6. Add almonds and raisins. Raisins generally stick together, so take little flour and mix it with the raisins and separate them with your fingers, so the raisins will be spread uniformly throughout the batter.

7. I scooped out the dough using half tablespoon (see My Notes) and dropped it on the cookie sheet. The cookie does not spread, so leaving 1/2 inch space in between is sufficient. I was able to arrange 24 cookies in a large baking sheet.

The cookies tasted more like chewy brownies with the perfect amount of sweetness from the combination of brown sugar and raisins.

2. At first I doubted the measurements, because I felt that adding the entire syrup would make the batter very watery. So I reserved 1/4th of the syrup and added the almonds and raisins. But once they were added the dough became very stiff, so I added the reserved syrup also which gave the right consistency to the dough. It was neither very stiff nor watery.

3. Spray the tablespoon with some non stick spray, so the dough will fall off the spoon easily. If you want perfect shaped cookies you can shape the dough into balls and arrange it on a cookie sheet or else you can simply drop it to get a nice rustic look.

4. The flavor of cocoa was dominant than the sweetness. I liked it very much. But if you have a very sweet tooth, you may want to increase the quantity of sugar.

5. I would also suggest toasting the almonds before adding it to the batter to give a nice crunch to the cookies.