Welcome back, y’all! I’m back to cooking after my surgery! I’m so excited! The surgery went great and I am finally out of pain! I lost pretty much all the strength in my left arm (that is the arm that the nerve was pinched in, radiating from the herniated disc in my neck). I have to be in a neck brace for 12 weeks (9 more weeks from the day of this post). It’s uncomfortable but I’m managing. I can work out a little. No running yet. It’ll be August before that becomes a reality. But I walk and do light weights at the gym. I’m just happy to be on the other side of this!!!
Anyway, back to food! For this dish we need some pasta. I opted for some shells but you can use whatever you like! We need some peppers, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, an onion, garlic, chickpeas, onion and garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and some raw cashews.
Cook the peppers, onions, and garlic in a pan. until they brown. While those are cooking, start boiling the pasta.
You can add the chickpeas to the pan with the peppers and onions to heat them up and brown them a bit.
Steam the broccoli.
You can add the broccoli to the pan with the peppers, onions, and the chickpeas and mix everything together. Stir in the Italian seasoning.
The pasta is the base for this dish.
Top with the mixture of the vegetables from the pan.
Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add those.
For the dressing, we need to soak the cashews in hot water for a half hour. Add them, some more water, and the onion and garlic powder to a blender. The less water you use, the thicker the sauce will be. I used a bit too much water but when I let it stand for a bit it thickened up.
Top the dish with the sauce (yes, it looks like baby vomit but it actually tasted really good)! Mix it in.
Enjoy!!!