I love the days that I work from home, because it means that I can have something fresh cooked for lunch. I do love my leftovers, but it is nice to get my lunch out of a pan or a pot, rather than the microwave, when I can.

Today was a work from home day! Enter a delicious pasta meal for one (if you’re REALLY hungry) or two moderately hungry people. Having skipped breakfast, I was REALLY hungry!

I decided on some simple ingredients: pasta, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, garlic, lemon, store bought pesto sauce and seasonings.

I started by boiling my pasta and chopping up some artichoke hearts and slicing some cherry tomatoes (I love both of these foods, so much). They would be good added, as is, but I wanted to cook them up just a little bit in a pan to heighten the flavors.

The vegetables were added to a pan, after spraying a little bit of avocado spray and cooking some minced garlic a bit.

After the vegetables cooked for a while, I added the liquids (cream and lemon juice) to create a light sauce.

The next step was just to toss the cooked pasta in the skillet and mix it all together.

Finally, the pasta was topped with parmesan cheese and fresh basil.

Easy, quick and delicious lunch for one!

Vegetable Pasta for one (and change)

1 serving of pasta (I used spaghetti)
10-15 cherry tomatoes (halved)
2-3 artichoke hearts (from jar)
1 tbsp pesto sauce
cooking spray / oil (I use avocado spray oil)
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
juice of 1/2 – 1 lemon (depending on how much you like – I used a whole lemon)
2 tbsp heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan cheese
Fresh basil

• Boil pasta as directed, until al dente
• Spray skillet with a small amount of cooking
• Put a small amount of cooking spray / oil in pan
• Add garlic and cook for a few minutes
• Add tomatoes and artichokes to pan and cook about 5 min
• Add salt and pepper (just a pinch of each, or to taste)
• Add cream and warm through
• Add lemon juice and allow to cook 2 – 3 min
• Toss in pasta
• Top with parmesan cheese and basil and serve