Never Buying Pasta Again!

I am like a kid on Christmas morning! The pasta maker that my mom gave us for Christmas came out of its box today, and I am never turning back to store bought pasta again!

First, I will rewind to this morning when I woke up to a gloriously warm winter morning. Well, it was probably around 35, but it felt warm! I did a brisk 2.5 mile walk to my gym and then did another 2.5 miles of hills on the elliptical. My legs were still quite sore from Saturday’s 10 miler, but all of the movement really helped me work out the kinks.

For lunch I had a new Trader Joe’s product, a boxed cheese lasagna which turned out being quite delicious. I normally like to make my own fresh lunches, but once in awhile its nice to be able to grab something and go in the morning. I will be keeping an eye out for these again in the future. Since they are shelf stable they would make a good desk drawer, last minute lunch option.

My day was pretty bleh, so I will go straight to the pasta making. The temperatures have certainly dropped since this morning, so the pasta dish I had planned was the perfect dinner.

I love pasta that is full of flavor, so I decided to make a cracked black pepper whole wheat pasta, making it a little bit healthier than using regular flour. My pasta dough was simple,a whole bunch of cracked black pepper, 2.5 cups of whole wheat flour, 3 eggs, and enough water to help the mixture become a firm ball of dough. It was a little crumbly, so I guess a bit more water would help.

The hubs and I were like little kids playing with play dough as we rolled out the sheets and fed them through the fettuccini blades.

The sauce was simple, one container of chopped shitake mushrooms, a head of chopped broccoli, about 1/4 stick of butter, 3 TSP olive oil, crushed red pepper, and shredded parmesan cheese.

Making the pasta was quick and easy, and the topping was earthy, delicious, and sort of healthy, well, minus the butter. I am not sure why I always thought making pasta was so difficult. After my first try, without a machine, I started brainstorming pasta flavors, and now I am hooked!

Monday is over, and it is a short week, hooray! I am working on a “Memorable Foods of 2009” post as well as a review of a skin product I received samples of, PLUS, a healthy, VERY easy, fresh, crunchy veggie dinner for healthifying the new year and lots more. I finally feel like blogging again!

Have a great night everyone, and be careful out there. At least on the East coast, temps have dropped and black ice is everywhere!