Snacks and Pasta

Me again. You know, I figured since this thing is called The Cooking Shed, it would be dumb if I didn't have any food related posts. But that's just me.

Snacks, huh? The so-called evil of healthy living? No way. If you eat something healthful in a reasonable serving, it's actually beneficial. It keeps your metabolism running and that helps burn fat. Plus, you're not hungry between whatever meal and whatever meal and then you overdo it later.

Now I'm not saying eat 24 hours straight, 'cause you'll make yourself sick and that's just... not very smart. But if you're hungry and it's not, say dinner time yet, get some tea or an apple or a frozen yogurt or something light. I personally like tea and tortilla chips; they have a nice amount of fiber. But drink something with your 'lots of fiber,' people, or you, your intestines, and everybody else will regret it.

Now I have a recipe for pasta. Read it BEFORE you start making it.

Boil a medium pot of water. Salt it to taste and pour in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.
Pour in each needed serving size small pasta, like rotini, shells, etc., and cook for at least 10 minutes or until the pasta is soft but not falling apart.
That's right. Past al dente.
Strain it, then put it back in the pot to keep it warm. Add 1/2 tsp of dried parsley (fresh is a bit hard to eat and gets stuck in your teeth -.-') per serving and a 1/3 of a tsp of dillweed per serving. Be careful mixing it; it might collapse on you if you're too rough. Put it in some nice-looking bowls and you're done!

Here're some variations:

More Traditonal Preparation: Just cook it until it's al dente this time.
Heartier Preparation: Chop up half a chicken breast or some crabmeat for every two servings. Don't eat this preparation too often. It get very old very quickly. I've only eaten it three times in my life and I'm already sick of it.
Just Plain Weird Preparation: Cook this in two different pots. Put five drops of one food coloring in one pot, five drops of another in the other pot. You could split it even more, in thirds, fourths... but after a while, it starts to look nasty... And creepy...
Sideshow Preparation: Just make this as a side dish.

That's pretty much it.

Later.