Veggie Spaghetti

On the weekends when my parents and I are all home together I usually make lunch. My dad CAN cook he just chooses not to. My mom is usually occupied with stretching her green thumb in our garden so making lunch usually falls to me. I was craving pasta so I set about the plan of attack. One thing we ALWAYS have in the cupboard is pasta - conventional Italian or Asian ( somen, soba, ramen). I decided on angel hair because that was the only pasta that I could find we had enough for all 3 of us that I knew was going to cook relatively fast. 

If I had the time/energy I would really make my own tomato sauce completely from scratch (that's actually on my cooking bucket list) but seeing as how I'm just a trespasser in my mother's kitchen (her words, not mine) I don't think I'll be accomplishing that task any time soon. I settled on using a simple tomato basil jarred sauce I picked up from Whole Foods on a whim (I went there looking for stewed tomatoes contained in tetra packs, not glass or plastic-lined cans - my reasons for that I'll mention in another post down the road sometime). Next in the fridge I grabbed some red bell peppers & some bok choy that was already rinsed and trimmed. I grabbed an onion out of the freezer. (A tip: stick an onion in the fridge for an hour or more or if short on time then in the freezer for 15 min or so & you WILL NOT cry when cutting/slicing/dicing. Trust me.) Broke down all the produce & some cloves of garlic & sautéed them in a heavy stock pot. When the vegetables were about 1/2-way done I poured in the sauce to finish cooking. I also added a couple tablespoonfuls (yes i said TABLEspoon) of crushed red pepper. I'm Korean, I need a little heat in my food. I prepared 1/2 the package of angel hair - I wanted the least amount of pasta, my mom wanted more & I knew my dad wanted the most (it really was like the three bears from Goldilocks). Lunch was served - there was a comical moment when my mom was sprinkling the grated parmesan cheese onto her bowl - half the cheese poured out into her bowl! So she was furiously scooping the excess cheese into the other bowls... After we finished eating I noticed my dad still looked hungry - he wanted even MORE pasta. Thankfully, the extra pasta was ready quickly. My father LOVES noodles.