Sometimes it's hard for grown ups to eat their veggies too. / Bacon Pesto Pasta

Alright I will be honest and admit that sometimes more than anything else I want to neglect my veggies and eat something covered in cheese, or chocolate or deep fried. Who doesn't? But thankfully sanity is usually on my side. Or at the very least I can't convince myself to go to the store to indulge that little devil on my shoulder and usually I keep the house pretty well stocked with healthier eating options.

That being said I can usually convince myself that eating vegetables is the right way to go. Heck that usually isn't a problem because there is hardly a vegetable in this world that I don't like. But some days it is just plain difficult. (Especially when you have Oreo balls taunting you in the fridge.)

But when push does come to shove I have a few tricks I use on myself. Today let me tell you about one of them. Let us never underestimate the power of condiments. How do we get kids to eat veggies? We let them use ranch. Makes em taste better right? Well that is precisely the mentality I used today. Except for instead of ranch I used pesto.

I in all of my craziness signed up for a 5k run in a little over a week and coming home starving from training for that I needed to carb up a little. Especially since I slept in and skipped breakfast (I have got to stop doing that.) Anyways so pasta it was. Like I said I usually try to keep the house stocked with healthy options and this is the pasta I had on hand.

Voila let the trickery begin. Now I had never had vegetable pasta before until this Summer when I went to visit my aunt and uncle and they introduced us to it. I had already transitioned to the whole grain pasta craze a while ago and I still eat that, but right now I am mixing in the vegetable pastas into my diet. If you haven't tried it. Do. I like when foods have more than just the ability to fill you up but they also provide another health benefit. Food twofers! Awesome. 

Anyways I will not fool you into believing this recipe is at all complicated. In fact the title is fancier than the process. I had all of this stuff in my house so feel free to use what you have on hand. I would say the base of your dish should be pasta, pesto, and bacon. Or if you are a vegetarian no bacon. 

Bacon Pesto Pasta

Servings: 1 ( I just made this for myself but it could easily be made for more)

Cook time: 10-15 minutes

1 c. uncooked pasta

3 strips of bacon

2 T. pesto ( I love the buitoni version with basil, preferably the reduced fat one. You can even make your own version. I will add a recipe for that later on.)

1/3 c. brussel sprouts 

1/3 c. corn

1/3 c. green beans

2 leaves of kale

2 cloves of garlic

 Cook the pasta according to package directions. While this is cooking cook the bacon in a separate pan until crispy. The brussel sprouts, corn and green beans were all frozen so I just cooked them together in a bowl in the microwave for about 2 minutes. When the bacon was done cooking I placed it on a paper towel lined plate to drain off some of the grease. In the bacon drippings add your chopped garlic and kale and sauté for about 4-5 minutes.

Chop up the bacon and combine all of the ingredients together in one bowl and add in the 2 tablespoons of pesto. Mix up and enjoy.