Tara's Favorite Quick & Easy Meal

A recipe? From me? Shocking, it's true. I'm definitely not a cook/chef/baker (although I do make a mean chocolate chip cookie). And to be fair, this isn't even my recipe, it's just one that I found and loved and change from time to time depending on whether I have all the ingredients or not. So here's my favorite quick and super easy pasta (made quicker and easier!). You may have seen similar things like it on Pinterest; I know I have. And I drooled heartily at them all. This girl likes her pasta.
Since I don't remember what it's called, it shall be named....

Fresh Herb Pasta!

Ingredients needed:
(Keep in mind I made this for just me and measured nothing, so I didn't include any kind of useful amounts. Fortunately most of it is preference-based anyway)
--An amount of spaghetti (for one person I just took a small handful)
--water? (to boil the spaghetti...yeah. Just being thorough, here.)
--oil of choice (canola for moi)
--Parmesan cheese (freshly grated would probably be delicious, but I just use the ol' powdery stuff)
--red pepper flakes
--garlic (again, original recipe calls for a clove or two, but I was out and so used garlic salt. It works)
--herbs of choice! (my preferred combo is oregano, basil, and chives. mmm.)
--salt and pepper, if ya want.
--tomato (optional)

How is it Done?!?
First, bring water to a boil. Then, cook spaghetti!

My handful of spaghetti!

Boil, boil! Mwahah.

Meanwhile, as you patiently wait for your pasta to cook, cut up your fresh, delicious herbs. Or if your herbs are dried, I guess you could spend the time measuring our the amounts that you want, which would be significantly faster. I'm sorry, dried herb users, I don't have much else to occupy your spaghetti-boiling-time. I guess you'll just have to play this video and dance around your kitchen. Do it! I promise your day will be happier.

Actually, you should do that even if you had to chop herbs.

I got my fresh herbs from my recently made herb garden (yay!) which is simply blooming and oh-so-happy! I can't believe I've kept them all alive.

Basil

Chives

Oregano. Did you know that oregano is fuzzy? I didn't until I took this close-up
and now I'm vaguely creeped out. Don't worry, it's still scrumptious.

Now would also be a good time to cut up those fresh tomatoes. These are optional, so if tomatoes aren't really your thing, just leave em out.

I should also point out that if you're going to use actual garlic cloves--the more delicious way to do it, admittedly--then while your spaghetti cooks you would put the cut up clove(s), a bit of oil, and some red pepper flakes (to taste) in a little pan and heat it up until the garlic starts a-sizzlin'. You'll take this off the heat and then dump it over your drained, cooked spaghetti, add the rest of the ingredients and it is sooo good. So good.

Or if you're just using pantry stuff like me, you'll want to drain your spaghetti, douse it with some oil, and then dump in all these things, to taste: garlic salt, parmesan, herbs, red pepper flakes (leave this out if you prefer milder tastes, it gives the pasta a bit of a kick), herbs, salt & pepper if you want, and tomatoes. I like to wait until the last moment to add the tomatoes so they're still cool when I eat the dish. Delish!

The ingredients of choice.

In the end, you have this pretty pasta that you feel good about eating and, bonus, is also extra delectable!

It's seriously my favorite, I eat it for lunch at least twice a week. Yum. Let me know if you try it!