Fusilli with roasted baby asparagus and grape tomatoes

Bring big pot of salted water to boil.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash a pound of baby asparagus and cut it into 2 inch lengths.
Wash a box of plum or cherry tomatoes and cut in half.

Spread asparagus on about 2/3 of a big cookie tray and the tomatoes on the remaining 1/3.
Drizzle with olive oil, grate on lemon pepper, and add a cube of frozen garlic in the middle of the asparagus and another in the middle of the tomatoes.  Pop in the hot oven.

Add fusilli to boiling water and stir often.

After a short time, take the vegetables out of the oven and stir the melted garlic into the asparagus and into the tomatoes so it coats them as much as possible. Grate on more lemon pepper. Pop back in oven.

Drain the fusilli when it is al dente and stir in a little olive oil.

When the asparagus and tomatoes are nicely roasted (asparagus tender, tomatoes soft and full of flavor), take them out of the oven.

Fill each person's bowl with fusilli and top with asparagus and tomatoes.
On each portion, shave on some Trader Joe's Uncommon Cheddar, add 4 or 5 green and black olives, and add more salt and pepper if desired.

Green Rice

This is very good with dal.

Blend in a Nutri-bullet or blender:

a few handfuls of baby spinach
a handful of parsley, stems removed
a knob of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
half a cup of water

In the Instant Pot, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add 2 cubes of frozen garlic or 2 big minced cloves and stir to release flavour into the oil.

Add 1 1/2 cups of washed basmati into the olive oil and stir.
Add the green mixture of spinach, parsley and ginger and stir.
Add:
 1/2 teaspoon of salt
the juice of a lime
1 cup water

Stir it nicely, put on the top, and set pressure for 6 minutes.
Let sit for a few minutes to release steam. Stir well when you remove the lid.
Serve with freshly grated pepper.
(Good with dal, mango chutney, and plain yoghurt.)

Roasted Vegetables with Quinoa

Heat oven to 400. On a baking sheet, arrange areas of different cut up vegetables such as:

carrots (in spears, or use baby carrots)
beets (in chunks)
baby red potatoes (cut in half or bite sized chunks)
red onion (sliced)
red pepper (in chunks)
grape tomatoes, cut in half

Drizzle with olive oil and grate on Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper or sea salt and pepper.
Stir minced fresh rosemary into the potato section.
Place a cube of frozen garlic in the potato section and another in the tomato section and pour a little olive oil right on the cubes.

Bake for about 15 mins. Take out of oven and stir the melted garlic to coat the tomatoes and the rosemary potatoes. Shift vegetables a bit with a spatula but keep them in their own sections.
Bake for about 10 more minutes and then take out and make room for broccoli florets in a middle area. (These will burn if they are put in at the start.) Give them the same olive oil and garlic cube and lemon pepper treatment, coating them with the garlic when it melts).

Cook till everything is nicely roasted, checking and turning now and then. Add a bit more olive oil and lemon pepper as needed. (Total time will be about 45 minutes, depending on size of chunks.)

About half way through the roasting of the vegetables, put 1 1/4 cups of quinoa, 1 1/4 cups of water, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into Instant Pot and set for 2 minutes of pressure cooking. Let it decompress on its own for 15 minutes. (Or cook in a regular pot according to quinoa package directions.)

Instant Pot Dal

Put Instant Pot on sauté setting.

Heat ghee or olive oil and add 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds till they crackle.

Add a chopped onion and continue sautéing.

Clear a space in the onions, melt a dab of ghee or regular butter, and briefly sauté 2 - 3 cloves of minced fresh garlic or 2 cubes of frozen garlic.

Quickly stir garlic into the surrounding onions before the garlic gets overdone.

Add 2 tablespoons of minced fresh ginger.

Stir in:

1 teaspoon of coriander

1 tablespoon of garam masala

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Quickly add: 

3 cups of boiling water with a teaspoon of vegetable Better Than Bouillon broth base (or use your own broth). 

1.5 cups of washed and sorted red lentils (check for tiny stones or earth)

several flavorful tomatoes such as Campari or dry farmed, cut in chunks 

Pressure cook for 10 minutes.

Let sit for 10 minutes.

Just before serving, add a few generous handfuls of washed baby spinach and stir (as much as you like because it wilts down into a small amount).

Serve with fresh cilantro, lime wedges, plain whole milk yoghurt, mango chutney, hot buttered naan, and mango lassi.