Recipe: Vegetarian Goulash

Operation clear out the pantry is underway. I actually made this recipe last week... or maybe the week before. They all seem to blend together these days. One thing is certain... we have a crapload of elbow macaroni in the pantry. Not sure why really. For some reason goulash came to mind and I found a recipe online. I actually found it on a pretty neat website call Plant-Based Recipes. It appears to be a blog and sadly they haven't posted recipes in a year. But there seems to be a lot of recipes on there and I am anxious to try a few more.

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 1/2 cups of elbow macaroni (whole grain is best!)
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1 bell pepper, diced (color of your choice...I used green because they are the cheapest)
1 onion, diced
1 package of baby bella mushrooms, chopped
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1 or 2 teaspoons of dried basil
ground pepper to taste
parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:
1. Bring water to boil and add macaroni. Cook until tender.
2. In large pan cook garlic, peppers, onion, and mushrooms in olive oil over medium heat. Cook until tender. Add spaghetti sauce and macaroni. Add ground pepper and basil to taste.

This recipe was super easy to make and super fast! So it's one that I will likely make again. It tasted okay. It wasn't unbelievably good but it wasn't terrible either. I feel like it was missing something. So I might experiment with adding things to it. Not sure what though. I am a huge fan of beans so perhaps I will try that. The spaghetti sauce I used wasn't the greatest either. I'm sure that played a roll in my feeling that something is missing. But the spaghetti sauce had been in the pantry.... well I won't tell you how long because its embarrassing. The pantry is slowly being cleared out. I've made two other dishes recently that I will share when I can. Expect more pasta dishes because there are a lot of dry noodles in there. I am looking forward to the pantry being cleared out except for what we need from week to week or use on a regular basis.

I went for another run today. It was hard. Probably because I ran the day before. But another four miles logged. I probably won't run again until Saturday. It's my birthday and I have got to run. If you've been following my blog for over a year then you know I didn't run on my birthday last year. Who remembers why?  If you can't remember or just started following me in the last few months you find out why here.

We are trying to transition Isaac to the crib. This is the second time we are attempting. The first time we gave up rather quickly but with daycare approaching quickly he needs to learn to sleep in a crib. Isaac has been sleeping a Rock N Play Sleeper. This is what it looks like.

He sleeps really well in it. But its at an angle so he needs to learn to sleep on his back. He hates the crib. For some reason he knows the second we put him down and starts screaming. Finally after many attempts he went down for a nap this afternoon. My thought is to try to make it a slow transition. Start by putting him down in the crib for naps. Once he does okay then try overnight. Its strange really... because he loves to be on his back on his activity mat. Check this out.

I love my mommy!

He loves to kick and move his arms around (as seen in this photo). He hits the toys often but its hard to tell if he does it on purpose or by accident. Isaac has been smiling a lot this week. I loooooove it!!!

Do you ever make goulash? If so what do you put in it? Other than meat of course.

Did you run today? 

Whats the last thing that made you smile?