Roasted Red Pepper and Asparagus Pasta Salad

I start my new job tomorrow, so I am making food to bring to eat all week. And it's spring. So I'm making pasta salad. I posted a pasta salad/bbq vegetables recipe awhile ago, and this is similar to that, but with less ingredients, and faster.

First, roast some red peppers.

This was initially intimidating to me and I was all like "omg, how do you do this, it must be so hard. i must google this and read 20 different websites to make sure i'm doing it right". you actually just put peppers under the broiler til the skins are black. It's about as difficult as making toast (if you are a toasterless hobo such as myself). So yea. First, do that to one pepper. After you broil them, put them in a freezer bag til they cool (the bag lets the flavors ruminate) for like 20 minutes.

The skins should peel off easily at this point. If they don't, whatever, skins are full of fiber and good for your bowel movements.

Here are the ingredients:
-bunch of asparagus, the skinnier the better
-half a sweet onion, sliced
-pasta
-1 roasted red pepper
-4 oz (1/2 a package) of tempeh
-olive oil
-salt
-pepper
-garlic or garlic powder
-crush red pepper (optional)
-the juice of a lime
-balsamic vinegar
-dried or fresh basil to taste

Sautee the onion in olive oil until translucent. Dump it into a bowl. Add some more oil, and sautee the asparagus until tender, with salt and pepper, dump into the bowl. Cut up the tempeh, add some more oil, crushed red pepper (optional) and some salt, sautee the tempeh until browned (i like all the burned crap that is on the pan at this point to give the tempeh a little extra flavor, but if that grosses you out, wash it off in between). Dump that in the bowl too. While you are doing this, you should've been boiling some pasta. I don't know how much because I like my vegetable to pasta ratio to be mostly vegetables, while some prefer mostly pasta. Once the pasta is done, drain it well and let it cool. mix everything together, add balsamic vinegar, a splash of oil, probably some more salt. Fresh basil is really good (home depot has the plants for like $1.99 and my mom has been out of town for 2 weeks and i managed not to murder her plant, so they are easy to take care of). Refrigerate until cool, taste it once more before you serve it and add more oil/vineger/salt/whatever before serving. I find the tempeh really sucks up a lot of moisture.

4th of July Vegetables

Sam and I made these to bring with us on the 4th to 2 bbqs. I used the leftovers to turn into pasta salad. Inspired by the roasted veggies that were in the Whole Foods deli case that week, as well as a pasta salad my sister made me when I was in Michigan last month.

-bag of carrot shreds
-1 bunch of asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces
-red onion, chopped
-one zucchini in small cubes
-one red pepper cut into small pieces
-one yellow squash cut in small cubes
-one clove finely chopped garlic
-chopped fresh parsley, to taste (I actually forgot this, but I had planned to use it)
-1-2T. of balsamic vinaigrette
-italian dressing
-salt and pepper to taste

1. chop everything and mix it together. use maybe 1-2 T. of balsamic vinaigrette, and enough italian dressing to comfortably coat the vegetables.
2. I let everything stew i the fridge overnight out of convenience. I'm not sure it made anything taste any different.
3. scoop a serving size onto a sheet of tinfoil, fold it up, and throw it on the grill. Cook it for about 5-7 minutes (depending on your grill). Upside, nothing you actually eat will touch the meat that anyone else might have cooked on the grilled before you.

4. Grill all the veggies (it made a lot) and toss them with some pasta and probably more italian dressing/balsamic vinegrette. Serve cold