02/09/21 Notable Meal! - p a s t a

As I mentioned in my super late updates to the blog... oops, the newest thing I've noticed in this new adventure to being vegetarian is the dependence on cooking foods yourself. Granted I am aware that there are salad kits, frozen foods, and other options that you can make that would be "vegetarian" but if you are either moving to a vegetarian life style, odds are you are doing it for health reasons, environmental reasons or your personal morality. And with that comes, a greater awareness of what you are putting in your mouth! This was the first time I looked at ingredients lists because I am trying to avoid the consumption of anything derived from a animal that needed to be put down for consumption. So that meant, like 60% of the pasta sauces available at the store were out of the question. This was, I'd say, the first meal I felt that I did something that wasn't dependent on just heating up a soy patty or soy hot dog. I cooked a pasta meal! These veggie meals have me looking at the ingredients in my pantry, and having to think creatively on what I am going to eat for lunch. There is a greater focus on resourcefulness, especially now that I am trying to get full off of my meals with the ingredients I bought earlier in the week.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I've been trying my best to incorporate greens into my meals. And with my giant power greens salad kit I never put a dent in, (because I am not a fan of salads, especially the ones I make at home), I decided to put them in this pasta as well and it made it ten times better. The addition of mushrooms also made the pasta more interesting and provided some amount of protein to my meal. The exciting addition to this meal was actually the soy "grillers crumbles". They are obviously made of soy, and even looked like ground beef meatballs but they definitely did not smell like ground meat. During the cooking process, the kitchen developed a strong miso paste odor, which... I love. So I was excited for their contribution to my dish but literally after finishing the dish (mixing all the ingredients together), I couldn't find any "crumbles". It's as if the pho-meat disintegrated into the sauce haha. Regardless, I am sure I consumed some amount of protein from the soy crumbles, and mushroom combined. I decided to also use whole grain pasta because I felt that maybe if I am going to rely on carb heavy foods, I should at least try to incorporate healthy and hearty grains. And hearty they were, one small bowl was enough to fill me up and they were definitely a denser pasta. This meal also, potentially, showed me the world to my new favorite pasta sauce. The Arrabiatta pasta sauce has the slight spice that makes spicy food addicting, of course it wasn't enough spice for me so I added home made crushed peppers that I had in the kitchen which made the dish even better. And thank Kroger for making it vegetarian haha.

Regardless, this was a satisfying meal that even my two brothers enjoyed (even with the kale incorporated). My mom, who doesn't really care for pasta, enjoyed it as well. My father on the hand, couldn't handle the heat so I don't hold his distaste for my dish against him. Great meal so far! Felt that this adventure wasn't going to be so tough after all.