I'd Much Rather Eat Pasta Than Be Skinny

Pasta has been a major staple in my diet for a long time (unfortunately). I like all kinds of pasta: lasagna, spaghetti, pastas with cream sauces, cheesy pastas, you get the idea. I had a big craving for pasta last night, so when I ran to the grocery store, I picked up some whole wheat penne. I have always liked penne, and my Dad makes really great Italian sausage and peppers with penne. Except that now I won't be partaking of that particular dish. But I can always make it with vegan sausage!

Anyway, so last night I picked up some penne and I wanted to find a yummy tomato-based sauce to go with it. Sure, I could have bought tomatoes and stuff to make my own marinara sauce from scratch. But, I'm kind of lazy and just wanted to buy a jar of sauce to heat up. When I went to the aisle and started looking at all the jars, I got a little overwhelmed. There were about a thousand different brands, and then a million different types of sauce within each brand. Vodka sauce, three cheese sauce, mushroom sauce, fire roasted red pepper sauce, and the list went on. Well obviously the cheese sauces were out of the question. I decided that a tomato basil sauce sounded really good, so it was a matter of choosing which specific one. I finally settled on Emeril's Tomato Basil sauce.

I really needed some bread to go with my pasta because obviously one type of carbohydrate just isn't enough in one sitting. I ran over to the bakery section at the grocery store and found a French multi-grain bread. Yes, I know French bread doesn't technically go with Italian food, but I like those looooonnnggg loaves of bread wrapped up in paper. And the multi-grain bit about it is my favorite part because I love all the crunchy little seeds.

So I boiled my pasta, heated my sauce, and toasted my bread a little in the oven, and sat down to a yummy, comforting meal. And it was spectacular! I dipped my bread in some really good-quality (and stupidly expensive) olive oil and enjoyed every last bite of it all.

The thing is, I thought I really couldn't eat pasta without a creamy sauce. When I'd go to Olive Garden, I always got the Garlic-Herb Chicken con Broccoli. When I went to Jim's Spaghetti I'd get spaghetti with extra meat sauce. And my mother makes impressive lasagna with all kinds of ground beef.

But this pasta I ate last night was satisfying in a way all of those other types of pasta aren't. It didn't have any meat or animal by-products in it, so I could eat it with peace of mind, knowing that while I was eating more carbs than remotely necessary, I was eating something that no animals died for or were treated horribly for. And that, my friends, is truly delicious.