A Super Pasta To Try

A bowl of pasta is not only delicious but nourishing, It's full of the good carbs and niacin, the perfect dish for a chilly fall day. Explore Cuisine has reinvented this centuries old dish and amped it up by adding beans to the recipe. The result is a super  pasta with a super taste.

Explore Cuisine has redefined pasta. They manufacture such kinds as below:

They also have rice pastas,in the fuslli,rigatoni and macaroni shape.I like the idea of red lentils and was excited to try the penne which is a favorite too.

This is what it looks like uncooked.

It's kind of a reddish  - orange in color. Would it taste bean-y. Cooking it like regular pasta will tell. I boiled it in slightly salted tap water as I would do with the wheat kind.

It only takes eight to ten minutes to cook al dente.

Did it have a beany flavor? Only slightly It' also still had a pale orange flavor. However it tasted like regular pasta with my Mom's homemade sauce recipe.

It was delicious. The only problem is that two ounce box only serves two people. You will need another box for a family of four. I did have leftovers which will be cooked with a butter sauce tomorrow.

As the temps drop, think Explore Cuisine beans and rice pastas. They are the perfect nourishment for chilly days and nights. Try them with different sauces and veggies for a total healthy treat.

New Year Challenges

A new year sometimes means a new diet. let's face it, After a season of feasting and excess maybe it's time to pare down the diet. There's a new sugar challenge out there where people cut out products that contain any type of sweetener  from honey to refined sugar. The theory can also be applied to cutting salt and fat.

The sugar challenge was the topic of an opinion piece in yesterday's New York Sunday Times. David Leonhardt, a Pulitzer prize winner and Times columnist penned  "A Month Without Sugar" after he did the challenge himself. It's not just giving up soda and doughnuts. Almost every food, he writes, save for pita bread and Triscuits have some kind of sugar in them.Our salad dressings, our breads, even our fruit juices and granola bars are loaded with unhealthy sugars. Going sugarless means enjoying more fresh veggies and scratch meals.it also means appreciating fruits and enjoying their natural sweet flavor, heightened by the lack of the processed stuff. Home chefs have to be diligent. Eschewing sugar means carefully reading ingredients and switching one brand for one that's healthier. Mr.Leonhardt  has found it to be helpful in a variety of ways, He lost his taste for sugar and all that goes with it as well as developing a keen appreciation of any kind of fruit's natural sweetness. It was hard at first but itsoonn became acceptable and then a part of his life.

Can salt and fat be given up for a month? It is possible. People have done such for both, Devin Ellsworth wrote about his seven day  foray on his vegan blog Plantiful. It's actually more healthful because a salty diet brings  about headaches, fatigue and headaches.it's also a crucial component in retaining water and bloating. Those disappear when the sodium intake goes down. He felt lighter and more clear-headed. Going saltless is good but there is a caveat. It's almost impossible to eat out. Mr. Ellsworth went to Chipotle, perfect for satisfying his vegetarian diet , however imperfect for finding salt free foods. The only fast food item that has almost trace amount of salt is a plain baked potato from Wendy's It only has twenty-five milligrams of salt and has to be eaten plain. The extras' such as sour cream and chives add on fifty milligrams. Fat is about the easiest to give up.If anything it's eating more fruits and vegetables and giving up dairy and sweets.Carbs can also be cut out too and more lean protein can be added in to for satiety.

Challenges can be a good thing, Doing ones that bring about a better life is definitely worth it. See if can be done , week at first, then a month  without sugar, salt and fat.

Eat Away Those Winter Blues

With yet  another snow storm happening, it's hard to get excited over the prospect of Spring.These cold , grey days make it hard to get happy over anything. However there are foods to chase these late winter blues away. Eat them and feel as happy as a lark on a warm day.

Naturally chocolate is a mood booster. Have a nibble during the day as a treat to alleviate mid afternoon boredom and give you energy. Stay away from  the milk kind and concentrate on the dark (in fact the darker the better). Don't go for the caramel or nougat filled candy bars. Stick to just a simple square  like GHiradelli Chocolate. Any kind of carb will also bring about smiles, however don't go wild with the cupcakes and cookies.Instead have a yummy rice bowl or a plate of whole wheat pasta for lunch or dinner. Start the day off with a slice of seven grain toast with warmed jam and a little butter. for a crankiness free morning.Another mood lifting dish sure to make you sing is risotto Milanese .It combines Arborio rice with  saffron, which is a natural Prozac. The spice has antidepressant fluoxetine and imipramine, two phytochemicals known to help depression.

It comes as no surprise that both fruits and vegetables help in lifting the late winter blues. Some citrus fruits and dark , leafy veggies such as spinach contain folate.Folate is one of the B vitamins affects the neurotransmitters that  impact our moods. To take advantage of this whip up a lemon vinaigrette for a spinach salad. Create dinners that are more veggie centric too. Think about pepper and tomato rich stir fries or meatless chilis with mood boosting beans.Snack on more fruit too, and even think of dipping  strawberries and bananas in rich dark chocolate = which just eating these brings about a smile. Fish , too, can improve moods.It has to be the oily fatty kind like tuna, salmon and mackerel and rainbow trout which are chock full of Omega-3's which alter brain chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin. Try a sunny salad Nicoise that's full of tuna and different veggies. It's a nice nod to summery days on the French Riviera. Another tropical mood booster is coconut, although sniffing it is actually more of a high than actually eating it. Wash any of these foods down with tea, black , green or oolong. The chemical in it , theanine, improves not just mood but attention and focus. Switch to  any soothing tea instead of the usual afternoon cappuccino.

Eat right and you won't experience any of those late winter blues. All that snow and ice won't get to you. You'll be a sunny as a Spring day.