Family Meals Month – Fast and Flavorful!

By Jacqueline Gomes, RDN, MBA

Weeknight dinners are hard, no doubt about it! If you want your family to join you – that may feel near impossible! However, with just a few ingredients and a plan, you can have dinner on the table start to finish in just 30 minutes.

How you say?

• Start with a few convenience staples like canned beans, cooked shrimp, rotisserie chicken, pre-washed cut up veggies and even pre-prepped starches like rice, potatoes and pasta.
• While it’s tough to get everyone to sit down at the same time, one-pot meals make it easy to reheat later in the evening, take along in a thermos or container and makes clean up that much easier
• Don’t limit yourself to traditional dinner meals. Lunch meals like salads, sandwiches and soups work great as quick weeknight meals as well!

Family Meals Month tip:

Family meals free from distractions provide a chance to positively influence eating behavior and improve health and well-being.

Let’s get cooking with my super easy White Bean Fettuccini, a budget conscious, plant-based meal the whole family can enjoy. The best part is, this meal will re-heat beautifully for lunch the next day!

White Bean Fettuccini

Prep: 10 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Makes: 4 (12 ounce) servings

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces Buitoni Fettuccini
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper
• ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 can Goya Cannellini Beans, drained and rinsed
• 8 ounces asparagus, ends trimmed
• Parmesan cheese for sprinkling over final dish

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta, cook according to package directions, before training pasta, reserve ½ cup of pasta water. Drain pasta and set aside.
2. Trim ends of asparagus and then cut asparagus into one-inch pieces, set aside.
3. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and sliced garlic. Cook for about one minutes. Add in tomatoes, a sprinkle of salt and pepper and Italian seasoning. Cook until tomatoes begin to burst.
4. Add in asparagus, tossing frequently cook for another 3 – 4 minutes.
5. Now add in beans, cook until heated through. Taste for proper seasoning, and adjust as needed with salt and pepper.
6. Add the pasta and reserved pasta water, toss to heat through. Portion pasta onto 4 dishes and top with parmesan cheese if desired.

Nutrition Information for ¼ of recipe plus 2 teaspoons parmesan cheese:  

354 Calories; 62g Carbohydrate; 6g Fat; 17g protein; 526mg sodium; 9g Fiber

Recipe by: Jacqueline Gomes, RDN