Pimp your Pasta: A Healthy Pasta Recipe

Do not let the supermarkets lead you down a windy road of fear and anxiety. It’s easy to follow the crowd, the herd or as Alice found, a very smartly dressed white rabbit down a hole a telling her she was late! If we have tension in our lives, if we are bored, then we are much more easily led. If we can think for ourselves then we don’t need to follow the herd mentality, but if we are anxious, unresolved, chaotic and not living our best life then being led can seem exciting and potentially can take us on an adventure. Leaving the sympathetic nervous system into a much calmer peaceful one of the parasympathetic; albeit for a moment in time.

Stockpiling pasta is crazy not only because there is no immediate threat to the food supply but also because we have lost our mechanism of survival to such a degree that all we are concerned about is arguably the least nutritious food in the world dried, shelved, pasta.

Do not be fooled you can still buy ‘ Taste the difference’ fresh pasta, egg pasta which tells me as a nutritionist about the health of the UK. This is clearly a moment to question own survival skills. How much do we eat, grow, purchase from scratch? How clued up are we on the seasonality of food, where it all comes from and what it all does for our bodies.

Loo roll and pasta two of the most sought-after things in the world at the moment. We thought the next war would be about water! Bowels are a contentious point for the Brits, who notoriously are private in matters of the nether regions. Sex and bowels seem to take on an awkward tone for the Brits and are two subjects not easily banded around the dining table or any table in the UK.

There is a caveat to all this as a diet of dried pasta will in time result in a constipated bowel adding to the constipated emotional states we find ourselves in. The incessant need for loo roll will become obsolete.

So find a trolley with loads of pasta in it and offer a good price for their loo roll as the nation become constipated. When you put a lb of dehydrated grain into water, the water is immediately absorbed. This is exactly what happens in the bowel. Except if there is no water in the bowl then the motility of the bowel gets hindered.

Here’s how not to constipate the bowel in these times of uncertainty and fear:

Pimp my Pasta

• Pick your pasta: May it be gluten-free, egg, rice, dried and shelved, pick one that suits your dietary needs or emotional status.
• Take your three base Ingredients: Onions, red onions, shallots, garlic, chilli, ginger, jalapeños.
• Always abide by the three vegetable rule! Spinach, courgette, leeks, etc.
• Dollop onto a base of leaves such as rocket, watercress: great for digestion.

 Method of madness:

1. In coconut oil fry a whole onion and five cloves of garlic. Here you start to really look after the health of your body. Chop a green fresh chilli or two; I put three in I suppose you could look at it from the status of your Bowels.
2. Take your green vegetables a whole finely chopped leek and 1/2 a modicum sized courgette. Keep the heat low and add your sea salt and black pepper.
3. In another pan, have your pasta simmering away and make sure you do not overcook it into a bowl of mush. It does not want to resemble Gnocchi. Imagine you are cooking for an Italian! Be on your best behaviour.
4. Then when the pasta is perfectly al Dante then add to the green vegetables.
5. Now you can either mix in a pot of red or green pesto or half and a half or just half.
6. Then you can pimp it with some Parmesan or some grated cheese just as you like or keep it plain.

I always advise putting a bowl of pasta on a bed of green leaves to mix in some raw fresh ingredients to the mix.

Now the trick here is to make sure you do not overeat this or eat too quickly as it tastes so bloody good.

If you do find yourself in a food coma shortly after eating this, otherwise known a postprandial somnolence semblance, have no fear you are not the first and will not be the last!

Here’s what to do:

• If you have food left in your bowl. – cover and refrigerate you will be hungry later, and someone will eat it.
• Sit on the sofa in half reclined position
• Undo the top button
• Breath with one hand on your belly as you inhale the belly should rise and as your exhale the belly should flatten (no chance after a bowl of pasta).

Most people digestive issues come from not being able to breathe correctly and end up with an inverted breathing pattern.

You can find out more about your digestive health with a copy of The Best Possible You. This book takes you on a journey through your body and teaches you were every organ lives and how you can heal your organs back to health when they fall out of balance with lifestyle, nutrition and movement changes. It is also full of useful tips for improving our mental wellbeing, and provides a truly holistic approach to living – and feeling – well.

Enjoy!