 hard to keep some balance in the family. There is no substitute for real (and healthy!) connection. A firm finding is that teens from families that regularly have meals together – and not in front of the TV! – are less likely to act out. More family dinners leads to less running away, drinking, drug use, violence, theft and vandalism.
Finally, for much more consider Jaron Lanier’s book, You Are Not a Gadget. He brought us the term ‘virtual reality’ and is a computer scientist who has deep concerns about technology uprooting our humanness. Or perhaps take some time and just consider the book’s title.<?php

namespace Frutos\MainBundle\Controller;

use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\Route;
use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\Template;

class DefaultController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * @Route("/")
     * @Template()
     */
    public function indexAction()
    {
        $user= $this->getUser();
        if (isset($user))
        {
            return  array();
        }
        else
        {
            $users = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getRepository("FrutosUserBundle:User")->findAll();
            if ($users) {
                return $this->redirectToRoute("fos_user_security_login", array("users" => $users));
           } else {
                $group = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getRepository("FrutosUserBundle:Group")->findAll();
                if ($group) {
                     return $this->redirectToRoute("fos_user_registration_register",array());
                 } else {
                     return $this->redirectToRoute("fos_user_group_new");
                 }
           }
          }
    }
}
I’m super excited to announce this post is sponsored by World Kitchen, who I love for their gorgeous colourful bakeware. I collect both vintage and brand new dishes all the time! (No really, you should see my ridiculous collection). I have been compensated monetarily and with product. Woot woot!
 Why yes, I do wish I was eating you right now… which would be for breakfast… which might be odd, but I am still so into the idea. Cold pasta fans anyone?
This dish is comfort food heaven! It’s like creaminess and comfort got together and had a baby and they named it Vegan Spinach & Artichoke Pasta Bake. No, not the cutest baby name I have ever heard of, but it will have to do. We can call it “Baked Love” for short.
Can we take a moment to appreciate the beauty of these CorningWare dishes? I LOVE the bright fun colours of these pans, they are just so totally me. I mean the turquoise one… I can’t even, I just think it’s the cutest.
These days it seems like most of the things I own are turquoise: I’m sitting at a turquoise desk, next to my turquoise cabinet, eating cereal out of a turquoise bowl (not so secretly dreaming of eating Baked Love straight out of this turquoise CorningWare pan). So when I received this package of colourful dishes in the mail I was jumping for joy at the gorgeousness. You’ll probably see these dishes show up in a lot of posts from now on. If you’re in a shopping type mood, you can get the set shown above here, or choose from a huge range of other colours, shapes, sizes, and styles.
Back to Baked Love.
This is a great dish for an easy weeknight dinner, but it would also be ridiculously perfect for a big party! A crowd pleaser if I ever saw one. I’m not just talking about a crowd of vegans, (where is this crowd of vegans? I want to come!) I am talking about EVERYONE. The cashews make it so sinfully creamy, an entire extra large box of spinach is crammed in there (Popeye would be proud), paired with marinated artichokes. We all know those two are a super great match. This pasta tastes just like the classic dip, but it’s all disguised as dinner.
What’s that dull rumble? That’s the sound of thousands of vegans running to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for Vegan Spinach & Artichoke Pasta Bake.
Let’s get cooking! First you need to either soak or boil your cashews until they are very tender. Then add them to a blender with all of the sauce ingredients and blend until very smooth and creamy. Set aside.
Melt the vegan butter and mix it up along with all the bread crumb toppings. Now set that aside too.
Drain the artichokes and roughly chop leaving them still leave them fairly chunky. Chop the onion. You guess it, set those aside.
Boil your pasta according to the package directions. In the last 30 seconds of cooking time, add all of the spinach to the boiling water along with the pasta.
Stir the spinach into the water until it is all wilted, then drain pasta and spinach together.
Add the pasta and spinach back into the pot, and now add the onion, artichoke, and all of the sauce. Stir to combine.
Spread the pasta out into a 9x 12 3 qt. baking dish. Then evenly shake the breadcrumb mixture overtop. Bake at 350F (180C) for 25 minutes until hot all the way through and the breadcrumb toppings have lightly browned. Feast away my friends, feast away.
This is a great dish for an easy weeknight dinner, or potluck. This pasta tastes just like the classic dip, but disguised as dinner.
To make the sauce: you can boil or soak the cashews. To boil the cashews: Cover the cashews with water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, and boil for about 10 minutes until the cashews are very tender, then drain. To soak the cashews: Put the cashews in a bowl, and cover them with water. Let soak for 3-8 hours until very tender then drain.
Add the cashews along with all of the remaining sauce ingredients to a blender and blend until very smooth and creamy.
To make the topping: mix together all of the topping ingredients.
To make the pasta: cook the pasta according to package directions. In the last 30 seconds of cooking time, add all of the spinach to the boiling water along with the pasta. Stir the spinach in until it is all wilted, then drain pasta and spinach together.
Add the pasta and spinach back into the pot, and add the onion, artichoke, and all of the sauce. Stir to combine. Spread the pasta out into a baking dish. Then evenly shake the breadcrumb mixture overtop. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until hot all the way through, and the breadcrumbs are lightly browned. Serve hot.
* For gluten free use a gluten free pasta such as brown rice pasta (my favourite), and gluten free bread crumbs.
*For oil free, skip the tablespoons of vegan butter in the topping.
Hi Sam!!! I have everything to make this but i got frozen chopped spinach. Do i put it in the water with the pasta still? I can’t wait to make it! Giving it a 5 star before i even make it because all of your recipes i have made are all 5 star worthy and i know this one will be also!!
I would, just for a few seconds to thaw it. Enjoy!
This was awesome; the sauce is so flavorful with just a few ingredients. I have enough for lunch for the entire work week. I used spaghetti noodles (broken in half) instead of penne and I also used frozen artichoke hearts and frozen spinach and they worked great here. Off to try some more of your recipes!
Hi, am making this for a potluck and was asked to make it “nightshade free” so…no chili powder. What could I substitute?
Ooph, I love nightshades so that’s a tough one, haha! I think you’re right, maybe some mustard powder would be good. Enjoy!
How would you suggest I prep this for a potluck that is for the next morning?
I would just recommend making sure the pasta is quite al dente so that when it’s reheated it doesn’t get too soft. Enjoy!
Can this be made with macadamia it’s or walnuts instead of cashews? My husband can’t have cashews or almonds. Thanks.
Macadamia nuts would be great! Enjoy!
How would I make this with fresh artichoke instead of canned? Looks Amazing!
You would have to cook the artichokes first, clean and chop them. Enjoy!
Heck, I'm not vegan myself, but I'm always curious about trying new foods and am always down to try out vegetarian or vegan dishes here and there. We ended up using regular butter instead of vegan butter, since we had that on hand. But, I definitely wanna try out some vegan butter at some point though.
Hi Sam, I