When time is crunched - home made dinner still winning.

Some nights are wide open and some nights are everything bundled all together into one. We had an all bundled together kind of night recently. Not only did we have a meeting in the evening, a school even too, we also had a financial call that lasted 90 minutes rather than the 60 max we normally have. That gave us 30 minutes to finish making dinner, eat, and get to the school event. Not ideal. I did have 30 minutes between when I was done with work and our financial meeting to prep as much as I possibly could. Thankfully I baked some chicken the day before so that was ready to roll. This recipe has a lot of separate cooking things. Onions, Mushrooms, Spinach, Garlic.... this may be a one pot (except you need another pot to cook the pasta in) but you are using that one pot over and over separately. The good news is this turned out great and Nicholas has had it for left overs each day since. We also managed to make it to all our things on time - having had a home cooked dinner. Yay go us!

One-Pot Garlic Parmesan Pasta with Spinach and Mushrooms
14 oz farfalle pasta
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, sliced
3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
14 oz mushrooms, sliced
10 oz fresh spinach
1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
Fresh cracked pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream (more or less, according to your taste)
1 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes, optional

1. To make the creamy parmesan spinach mushroom pasta skillet: Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente, according to the package instructions.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes until translucent and slightly browned. Remove from the skillet and transfer to a plate.
3. In the same skillet, add the mushrooms and sauté for about 3 minutes until browned. Add a bit of oil if necessary. Remove mushrooms to the plate with onion and set aside.
4. In the same skillet, add the spinach and cook for 2 minutes until just wilted. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Remove spinach and drain excess water. Transfer to another plate.
5. Still in the same skillet, heat a little oil, add the chopped garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, then deglaze with vegetable broth. Add cream, grated parmesan, chili pepper flakes, and Italian seasoning and cook for 2 minutes, stirring until combined and the cream gets some color.
6. Once the pasta is ready, add mushrooms, onion, and spinach back to the skillet, then put drained pasta and toss to combine. Add more parmesan and Italian seasoning and give a quick stir. Serve the creamy parmesan spinach mushroom pasta with red chili pepper flakes and more parmesan, if you like. Enjoy!