Chef Colin's captivating culinary creations containing carbs, carrots, citrus and candy!

It's time to see if C-$ McDonald can cook as well as he can run half marathons (which is really well).

Spoiler Alert: He can.

Last night he treated us to Pasta Primavera and HE MADE DESSERT.

Because the phrase "eat dessert first" is, to me, not so much a funny saying as a mandate from God, we'll do dessert first. But seriously, if you're making both, make dessert first. It needs to chill.


Lemon Breakfast Parfaits (recipe courtesy of tasteofhome magazine)
Serves 6.

First, you'll need this stuff:
3/4 cup fat-free milk (we used 2%)
1/3 cup uncooked couscous
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup lemon yogurt
1 tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp grated lemon peel
1 cup sliced peeled kiwi
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh raspberries
(Fresh mint would be awesome on top, but we didn't have any. One fresh plant at a time).

• In a small saucepan, bring milk and salt to a boil. Stir in couscous. Remove from the heat; cover and let stand for 5-10 minutes or until milk is absorbed. Fluff with a fork; cool.
  
• In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, yogurt, honey and lemon peel. Stir in couscous.
  
• Combine kiwi, blueberries, and raspberries; spoon 1/4 cup into each of six parfait glasses. Layer with couscous mixture and remaining fruit. Garnish with mint, if you have it. Ginger would be nice, too.

It should look something like this:



Now let it chill while you make yo dinna.

Pasta Primavera. (Recipe courtesy of tasteofhome magazine)
(Serves 8-10)

Sidenote: I looked up the definition of "primavera" and this is what I got:
(noun) the hard, light-colored timber of a Central American tree.

Oh. Right.

So first, you'll need this:



A Central American tree with
lightly colored timber.







You'll also need this stuff:

1 16 oz pkg of spaghetti
1 lb. fresh asparagus. trimmed and cut into 1 in. pieces
2 medium carrots cut into 1/4 in. slices (as you can see, Colin used more).
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/2 lb. sliced fresh mushrooms
2 cups cubed fully cooked ham
1 10 oz. pkg frozen peas, thawed
3 green onions, chopped (the recipe tried to make us use 8, we said "no, no, no.")
3 tsp. dried basil
1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper (the recipe said white pepper, we said "huh?")
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup grated Parmesean cheese (split into 2 half-cups)

Once you've chopped and diced and blahblah, start boiling your water for the spaghetti, then..

• In a large skillet, saute asparagus and carrots in butter for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms; saute until crisp-tender.
  
• Stir in ham, peas, onions, basil, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add cream. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes.
• Drain spaghetti; place in large bowl. Add contents of skillet and 1/2 cup cheese; toss to combine. Serve with remaining cheese.
  

Hopefully, the new contents of your large bowl look something like this:

I think this is Colin's way of saying "we need to eat more vegetables."










And once we've combined all of the above with the garlic bread our dear friend Natalie brought over, you should have a plate that looks like this:






"Aw man, I thought we were supposed to mix the dessert in with the pasta!"

No.









That's it! Covers all the food groups, including dessert.
Average cost of the pasta primavera per serving (based on 8 servings): $2.80
Status of basil plant: flourishing

Ditch the easy mac. Make this instead.