Happy Birthday with Pasta Rotini

We just celebrated my mother's birthday. It's getting harder and harder to come up with things to give as gifts for her. She doesn't want much - and anytime you ask her she responds with something a mom would say, like, "your love!"
I have been cooking more lately. When I moved into my new house I picked up all my pots, pans and cooking utensils and started throwing stuff together. She recently told me she was proud of me for learning to cook new things - so I considered making her lunch for her birthday. I made her a quick pasta rotini with artichoke hearts and stewed tomatoes. It doesn't really have a name other than just that - Pasta with Tomatoes and Artichokes.  This dish is fairly easy to make, but it tastes delicious. I found the recipe on VegWeb.Com - which is where I get most of my recipes these days.

To start this dish you need the following ingredients:

• 1 jar of marinated artichoke hearts
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can Italian style stewed tomatoes
• 1 cup dry pasta, rotini

Cook dry pasta, rotini according to directions on box.

Take the jar of marinated artichoke hearts and pour some of the oil from the jar into a skillet, heat should be around med-high.

Add the 1/2 cup of chopped yellow onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic into the skillet and cook until the onion is translucent. 

Add in the can of stewed tomatoes and the jar of artichoke hearts with the liquid. Bring to a boil.

Add the pasta you prepared above. 

Reduce heat and simmer for about 8-10 minutes. Let cool and then enjoy!

This recipe originally states it feeds 4-6 people. I had to double the recipe yesterday to feed 6 hungry family members with a little bit leftover.  

After lunch we went our seperate ways -- I had some work to do -- and met up later that night for the Chinese food for dinner and Cake for dessert afterwards. Overall, I think she had a good birthday and was stuffed with good food all day long.

Now, its my turn. My birthday is in a week. My boyfriend is planning something -- and I normally spend a dinner or lunch with my family. But we'll see how this year plays out.