My hubby is was bonafide meat eater! Meat and potatoes used to make this man happy, happy, happy on a regular basis. Many years ago, I used to cook two meals, one for him and the girls and one for me but over the years he has slowly come over to my side. When we first saw Food, Inc. I was disgusted and I ate vegetarian for about 2 months but we went to Maui and I didn’t stick to my vegetarian diet 100%. For the next few months, I ate mostly vegetarian until I bought The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone and I decided to try a vegan diet, that was February, 2010. Since then, I don’t cook meat anymore and the only time my hubby eats meat is if he goes to Chipotle Mexican Grill. All of their meats are naturally raised so if you are going to eat meat, you should eat it with a conscious. Chipotle’s Food With Integrity mission is something that no other fast food restaurant is even thinking about, let alone doing so check it out! Rock on Chipotle!!! BTW, the food at Chipotle is sublime!!

Anyway, I digress. Since I started eating vegan, my hubby eats vegan at least 6 times a week sometimes 7 (the food is so good, he doesn’t have a reason NOT to!). He has been having these cravings for pasta and mushrooms. Not necessarily together but he just can’t get enough. So I’ve been on a mission to cook as many mushroom and pasta dishes as I can and so far he hasn’t gotten his fill!

I got this recipe for Garlicky Whole Wheat Pasta from the Whole Foods App, you can put in the ingredients you have on hand and it will give you a list of recipes…super cool! But you know me, I made a few upgrades to the recipe. For starters, I added carmelized onions. To caramelize the onions, put 2 tbsp of  vegan butter or olive oil in a large saute pan, add the onions and season with salt and pepper to taste. Over medium high heat, allow the onions to brown. The key to caramelizing onions is to allow the pan to ‘breath’ by making sure the onions don’t cover the bottom of the pan entirely, you just need to create a few ‘pockets’ of space so the pan can breath. This keeps the onions from steaming and allows then to get that awesome caramel color and exquisite flavor! I omitted the cheese on purpose and I forgot the pine nuts (probably because the recipe calls for you to add the nuts with the cheese). I will use the nuts the next time along with Daiya Mozzarella Cheese Shreds ( I didn’t have any on hand). I especially love how you ‘cook’ the spinach in this recipe.

I also made these Marinated Mushrooms for appetizers, but they so good that they were gone before I could take the picture so this is the picture from the Whole Foods website (please forbid yourself from looking at the meat in the background).

Enjoy!