Lemon Goat Cheese Pasta

Today was one of those days. I just needed carbs. Not a piece of toast, not a cracker, but a massive bowl of pasta. This could in part have corresponded to the fact that I was slightly hungover, but I’d like to think it was more due to the kickass workout I had at the gym earlier. Either way, pasta was needed.

I fooled around with some inspiration I’d seen online and what I had in the fridge, and came up with this lovely dish. Super easy and really fast. The goat cheese adds a little comfort, while the lemon really brightens things up. I think adding chickpeas actually would have made it infinitely better and will be doing that with my leftovers. Or maybe even sundried tomatoes.

All it takes is some pasta boiled in salted water (I used quinoa pasta) and after its done, put about a cup of the water in a large saucepan, add in about 4 oz goat cheese, a bag of spinach, the juice of half a lemon and some zest from it, and stir to combine over medium heat until the spinach is wilted. Throw in the pasta, top with finely chopped walnuts for some added protein, and maybe a sprinkle of Parmesan, and voila! Carb craving satisfied.

Lent

Lent is always a selfish time for me. I know that Lent is supposed to be a time of contemplation – sacrificing something for 40 days is supposed to mirror the suffering of Jesus and the fact that he gave up his life, etc. My issues with this are that a. nothing I give up will ever be as severe as what Jesus did and b. I like to use Lent as a much heavier-guilt ridden diet.

So due to my recent bout of food poisoning that coincided nicely with the start of Lent, I am giving up meat. (Apparently said food poisoning was caused by raw or undercooked chicken. Considering I haven't eaten chicken in months, this is alarming). Since I also didn’t eat or drink anything for five days, I am continuing to not drink coffee, and I really am not going to eat gluten. For real this time. Except for the pizza I split with Katherine last night.

Regardless, there will be quite a few recipes showing up that are meatless. Meatless doesn’t have to mean bad though, as my dinner this evening proved. I should be embarrassed to say that I based my meal off of a recipe I found in Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook, but whatever. The lady makes some good eats. I decided to put a spin on her side dish recipe for “Green Rice” – brown rice with kale and scallions and soy sauce. I one-upped it by adding crumbled goat cheese and a fried egg – voila! Dinner. The nice thing about this one too is that it’s pretty versatile. I might scramble an egg tomorrow and throw in some black beans and use the rice for a breakfast burrito. Yum.