Day Three Hundred and Thirty-One - Springtime Fresh

For many, many reasons I am a crummy vegetarian. Reason #1 would have to be the fact that I eat fish. Not often...or a lot of fish [and I've recently eliminated other forms of seafood like crab and lobster in an attempt to wean myself off the sea]...but I do acknowledge that fishes are living things and I would do well to stop eating them. Unless they insist. I can't help it - I just don't find it as gross as other meat. Anyway, another reason why I'm a bad vegetarian is because I eat a lot of carbs in place of meat or sensible meat substitutes. I am carb crazy...and honestly I think that everyone is to a certain extent. Carbs feature prominently in every type of cuisine around the world...and let's face it - they are fan-tastic. Although I adore bread, my main source of carb is pasta - it's cheap, cheerful and plentiful and you can make it a million different ways and not miss the presence of animal carcass. That being said - this week was pretty epic in our house for pasta as we had it everyday...Monday - fettucine alfredo...Tuesday - spaghetti marinara...Wednesday - vegetable lasagne...and today, Thursday - I made pasta primavera! My photo doesn't really do it justice or display the many, many vegetables too prominently...


See - I've always had it in for pasta primavera. Back when I became vegetarian it was one of the many banes of my existence when eating @ restaurants. No matter what type of restaurant...sitting there on the menu like a lame duck was pasta primavera. And that was your vegetarian "choice" [there would be nothing else...so really, not much of a choice]. It was always bland, uninspiring, pedestrian...noodles with what seemed to be rehydrated frozen vegetables. Hooray. And quite often you would end up paying close to $20 for the honour of eating this. My pasta primavera was a bit of a departure, so allow me to explain. I used a lot of different vegetables: button mushrooms, red bell peppers, yellow bell peppers, courgettes and tomatoes were all roasted with olive oil, garlic and basil. Broccoli and snow peas were added near the end. Vegetable pasta was used, as well as a blend of Parmesan and Romano cheeses. The end result was so delicious that I just might eat the leftovers. Maybe.