Any Italian meal is incomplete without pasta. Pasta has gain a lot of popularity over the years, kids especially love pastas. Pasta comes in variety of shapes and sizes! In today's recipe I have used Penne Pasta.  I prefer pastas with light sauce and veggies compared to pastas loaded with sauce and cheeses.  Pesto is a favorite condiment at our house, it is very much versatile and can be used on pizzas, pasta, sandwiches, on roasted or mashed potatoes, eggs and more! Ingredients for Pasta 5 cup cooked penne pasta or your favorite pasta 1/3 cup chopped broccoli 1/3 cup chopped zucchini 10-12 grape or cherry tomatoes halved if too big 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil 3 tbs prepared basil pesto(recipe below) or store bought Salt and Pepper for taste Grated Parmesan cheese(optional) Crushed red pepper(optional) Method For Pasta Boil Pasta according to package instruction. I had leftover cooked pasta in the refrigerator hence used that.  Add a teaspoon of olive oil in a pan on medium heat .

 The idea for this post came from one of my dear friend. She one day asked me what kind of green leafy vegetables you make. I said to her that I make quite a few. She suggested why don't I post pictures and names of the leafy vegetables that we get here in US. I liked her idea and started writing this post. Just a note that I have mentioned only the ones that I have used in my kitchen. There are plenty of leafy greens out there to try! In marathi we call all leafy greens as पालेभाज्या. My mom makes variety of greens but living in US we might not get all of them as in India. I shop for groceries in a Korean store but they carry all Indian vegetable variety plus all other Indian groceries.  I tried some new leafy greens and tried to make Indian/Marathi style recipes. I have listed names of few greens that I normally cook with. Swiss Chard Young Radish Mustard Greens or Sarson/सरसों का साग  Red Shen Choy/लाल माठ  Gongura/Sour Leaf/आंबाडी Spinach/Palak Methi/Fenugreek Leaves Swiss Char

 Mushrooms are low in calories and sugar and packed with nutrition. They are loaded with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants along with vitamin D. Mushrooms are super food for vegetarians as they can be replaced with meat. They do come in lot of variety like crimini, white button mushrooms, portabello, shitake, oyster and lot more.  Frankly speaking I had never eaten mushrooms growing up in India. I was introduced to them when I came here to US, though my husband devours it as he has been eating them since childhood and so does my elder son. Me and my younger son  not a big fan but we can eat them.  Today's recipe is matar mushroom magic. I have added paneer to this recipe as paneer makes everything special :) and plus I can pick and eat more paneer than mushroom 😉😀 Just a note that I got my mushrooms from Costco so they were huge. Ingredients 8 large or 1 regular sized packet white mushrooms 1 small onion chopped  1 small tomato chopped 1/2 inch ginger grated 2 cloves garlic gra