April 12, 2013

My new favorite pasta: (faux) Bucatini All’amatriciana

Bacon pasta. Does it get better?  (Not really, no.)

Back by special request this week for PiC’s carbing up pre-MAJOR NEW RACE, I get to make an enormous batch of this amazing new recipe. As race support staff, I (so modestly) rock.

Pasta

One of my favorite things to do is experiment with new recipes if I 1) don’t screw it up and 2) have an appreciative audience. Number two is a given with PiC. Our diet tends to get staid and boring which, for such a health-oriented eater, is a surprising thing about him, but he does appreciate and enjoy anything I cook even when I think it didn’t turn out. So all that’s left to do is Not Screw It Up. No pressure.

After reading Eat and Run this week, I’m also inspired to experiment with the recipes shared in the book to see how that helps PiC’s running. And maybe it’ll have a positive effect on my health too. Guinea pig-dom!

Also happily, a now-local childhood friend is close enough to visit with us once in a while and we’ve found that we love cooking and eating together. We try to share new or new-to-each-other recipes each time.

This was the first time I’d ever cooked with crushed red pepper and boy howdy! Did I ever screw up. I normally always follow new recipes as exactly as possible (ahem, except every other recipe where I substitute one or three ingredients because our cupboard’s too lean. Including this one, as you’ll see.) and as it turns out, even our fire-mouth SE-Asia-travel hardened friend thought the first batch was eyewateringly spicy. Whoops.

We had this with an amazing kale salad and leftovers were just as incredible. The next time I made a batch, we two greedy-faces ate up the whole skillet in one meal. Good grief. Not totally recommended.

Bucatini All’amatriciana

serves 2 greedy-faces or 4 normal people.

Ingredients

1/2 pound thinly sliced pancetta, coarsely chopped*
1 red onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper*
12 ounces prepared tomato sauce*
Kosher salt
1 pound bucatini*
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves*
Grated Pecorino Romano cheese, for serving

*I use regular bacon instead of pancetta since it’s faster and easier to find.
HALVE the red pepper for the love of your taste buds.
Just used jarred sauce to spare my hands.
Bucatini is remarkably hard to find! So I use linguine instead.
I pretty much never have parsley.

Directions

1. (I trim at least half the fat off the bacon first.) Then, in a large, deep skillet, cook the pancetta over moderate heat, until lightly browned. Cook about 6 minutes.
2. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pancetta to a plate.
3. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat in the skillet.
4. Add the onion, garlic and crushed red pepper and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is lightly browned. Takes about 6 minutes.
5. Return the pancetta to the skillet. Add the tomato sauce, season with salt and simmer until very thick. Cook about 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, in a pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
7. Add the pasta to the sauce along with the parsley and the reserved cooking water and stir over moderately high heat until the pasta is evenly coated, 2 minutes.
8. Serve the pasta in bowls. Parmesan if desired.

 

:: Have you ever seen bucatini in a store?
:: If you’re a runner, how do you like to dietarily prepare for races?
:: Or are you more like me and just like to make yummy food?

April 1, 2013

Health and Fitness, March

March was WAY better than February. Hoo-rah!

I’m not back in the gym yet, but have extended Doggle walks on every nice day so that we both get our Vitamin D and stretch our legs a little more.

One night, I had this nightmare that PiC signed me up for a marathon, because he decided to run even more than that, and for some reason an ex-classmate I really didn’t/don’t like was going to run with me so of course I couldn’t admit that I couldn’t do it. Yeah, toughing out a marathon when you can’t run a full mile yet – that’s an awesome idea.

It’s probably an indication of how much desperately I want to be my “normal” self. The one who could run a mile without being utterly wiped out, or work out for a few hours and actually enjoy the process. Of course, that’s getting ahead of myself in a big way. It’s as frustrating to be this thoroughly out of shape as it was to be in debt; it feels like someone’s chained my wrist to my opposite ankle. Awkward AND limiting!

It would be amazing to have a workout buddy who can hang with me in the little leagues and work our way up together. Exercise is much more fun as a cooperative endeavor.

Ruth tumblred a thing about doors and pain

All true and so relevant.  I’ve never talked about it but I really hate doors, and heavy doors that remind me that I’m weaker than I used to be, or just plain make me look weak.  This is why I “shoulder” or “hip” doors instead of pushing them when I can.  There’s an amazing number of things that are much more difficult to manage b/c of pain: pocket doors, can openers, pots before food’s in, pots after food’s in, fancy cookware, lifting wet laundry in and out of washer and dryer. Round door handles suck, scissors suck, skinny pens suck. Yoga mega sucks because it’s so appealing, and not possible to do without hands/arms. Life is a strange thing viewed through the lens of what you can do or handle with only a very light touch.

It’s easier to dismiss said things I can’t do anymore or do well as jerks. All jerks. And then move right along.

Food

Using different grains and making more from-scratch recipes has been on my mind a lot lately; it seems like it’d be easier to eat more healthy foods this way. I finally had the energy (and the ridiculous need to procrastinate) to experiment with a couple recipes: Pasta and Barley Soup and Bucatini All’amatriciana.

The Pasta and Barley Soup was incredibly easy:

1 cup of ditalina pasta
3 liters of vegetable broth
1 diced onion
lots of diced garlic
1 diced potato
1/2 c diced celery*
2 diced carrots*
3/4 c barley
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for drizzling**
Parmigiana Reggiano**
Parsley**

* I only used 1 diced carrot and substituted in one extra potato for the other carrot and for the celery I didn’t have on hand. So, extra carbalicious!
** For topping the soup and serving.

1. Saute onions and garlic.
2. Add broth and barley to simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Add the vegetables and pasta to cook for 6-8 minutes. Original recipe called for 6 minutes but I had to go to 8 minutes to fully cook through. Add salt and pepper to season.

Serve!

I played with the ingredients a bit, cutting back on some ingredients (broth, pasta) to make a smaller batch. It was perfect for the first seating but needed extra broth for the next day reheating.

Your turn: what did you do in March to be a little healthier and happier?

March 18, 2013

Health and Fitness, February

This should have been written much earlier but in short: February sucked. So that probably be, meh health, no fitness.

The whole of February was positively miserable, starting from the end of the previous month, with a series of aches and pains that clung to me like PigPen’s trail of dust. I remember saying that the pain was only four days long and that was great because: “It really could easily have gone for ten times that long.”

Remind me to knock wood next time I type something that boneheaded, would you? Just quit tempting fate.

Flu-like symptoms alternated with flu-like depression of the immune system (the next step before actually getting sick); back pain, arms pain, neck pain and knees/hips aches … just to name a few. Unfortunately, that meant absolutely NO gym time.  Days blended into weeks and the weeks kept slipping on by before I realized I hadn’t done any exercise except a daily Doggle walks. Every time I remembered I was a slacker, PiC had to remind me that there was really a reason for my long layoff because it’d just melded into the back of my mind.  Pain, fatigue and forgetfulness?  Not cool. No wonder it feels like I’m losing my mind some days!

Most of the worst symptoms seem to have worn down, though. [knock on wood]

Weight Watcher (aka Why Bother?)

Just for kicks, I started weighing myself during the month of February. Almost every night, at about the same time, and sometimes again in the morning, I hopped on the scale.

This was a really interesting experiment. My weight fluctuated up and down on a five pound range nearly every day, even if my habits were pretty much the same: drink a bit, eat a bit, walk a bit, eat a bit. It didn’t make a difference, the weight just roller-coastered regardless.

This does explain why my pants fit so strangely: too big some days, too small others.

Half a lifetime ago, gaining weight was a challenge of unimaginable proportions. Ectomorphic and somewhat perpetually undereating, I was the scrawniest thing you ever saw.  For about ten years, I tried as hard as I could to put on weight because it just felt unhealthy to be that skeletal, despite my general all-around fitness.  My aim was to put on muscle, not random weight but eating healthy did not a thing for me.  About twenty pounds later, that quest has been largely abandoned. Feeling less scrawny, though perhaps not any healthier.

The most annoying things about being the weight I am: not being able to give blood, and having to tailor every darn piece of clothing. Tch.

:: What’ve you done to stay healthy or fit this month?

January 24, 2013

Health and fitness: January

Fitness

Two thirds of the way into January, this “working out” thing is … working out?

I wanted to go to the gym (free, or already paid for in the HOA fees) about two times a week.  That sounded nice and doable.

Thus far: I’ve clocked gym-time about two times a week and walked/jogged about 15-25 minutes once a day. Later in the month, once in a while, I fit in two walks. (Walks: courtesy of Doggle) On occasion, he’s feeling frisky and takes me for a bit of a gallop!

The first day out, in December, I jumped on the elliptical for 20 minutes and predictably crashed and burned.  This is a common problem whenever I attempt a fitnessy thing: go fast, go hard, go plant yerself in the corner for the next week or three.  Seriously – that stunk. I felt thoroughly mocked – neener neener wussypants! You can’t even do 20 minutes on the elliptical!

Sigh, whatever.

Cranked it back down to 10 minutes at the lowest level for the next few visits.  That sounds pathetic when I say it out loud: I worked out for ten minutes! whoo!  But yes, ten minutes. I was that easily tired out and trying not to break myself again.  Then cautiously came up to a very easy 15 minutes. 15 was a frustrating plateau. After every workout, I was still flat tired. Heavy-limbed and struggling heavy breaths. Where was that second wind I always flew on after pushing through a wall? Right. I left that behind in my youth. *grumble*

In the last visit (Week 3, January) I forgot to stop early and went the whole 20 minutes without triggering a great deal of pain or exhaustion.  Interesting ….

To start the 4th week, I tried 20 minutes at Level Two. Finally broke a sweat and HR140, pain holding steady at a mere 4 or 5 points on a 10 point scale. Ten minutes of stretches afterward. Balance stretches, strengthening stretches, yoga stretches. Stretches and reps of things I haven’t done in 10 years. I could feel my spine crunching a bit, not a fan!  But my quads held up under the abuse.

Second visit of the week, arrogance got the better of me and I hit the StairMaster for a few 300 step reps. That was followed by a day of regret. Though I can’t be sure if it’s the exercise or the change in weather.

I found myself thinking of the Good Ole Days. When splits were easy, when I could out-limber nearly anyone – more stretches held for longer, all making my muscles lean and long and smooth. Looking around the gym stoked a strange feeling. Nostalgia mixed with questions. Will there be a day when I can do circuits again? Maybe. Sure as shootin, the idea that I might find myself in shape enough to do something neat like running in a race remains a hazy hope.

Today, I’m doing what I can and it’s twice as much as I could two months ago.  Color me grateful.

Next month will be more of the same. Slow and steady, working up to slightly longer intervals that won’t put me flat on my back. Let’s see whether 30 minutes is on the horizon.

Health

I quit my medicine regimen 3-4 weeks ago.  A long term, long acting pain management anti-depressant, heavy hitting narcotics, a cocktail of over the counter pain relief: all now only as needed. It might not be how I’m supposed to handle the anti-depressant but my doctor went out on leave without leaving contact or alternate information so I can’t really ask.

This seems to be the right approach right now. My head is slowly clearing up. Fewer days, whether I’m registering at a 4 or an 8 on the pain scale, are spent convinced that this life, any life, is not worth living. More days are filled with some kind of activity: physically, mentally, intellectually. My internal motivation combustion engine feels internalized again. Mostly. A bad day, an unmotivated day still crops up every so often, as it will.

So far as diet goes, it’s been generally healthy with the exception of a few pizza nights. Not surprisingly, we’ve got decent alternatives to the travesty of a Domino’s run: Zachary’s in Berkeley and Di Napoli in the Peninsula. Both were unanticipated treats from other people but served to redeem my faith in the existence of good pizza.

Fruit and veggies made a more prominent appearance this month after a couple stops at the produce shop down the road. It was an amazing haul for remarkably little money, each time. Produce shopping makes for happy though I’m not sure it’s going to be the key to staving off the flu or whatever is trying to break through.

No great predictions or plans here: For now, it’s one step at a time lest cripplingly bad pain days snowball into a whole other thing.

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