Veggie Pasta

So to solve many of the food related restrictions, I came across a spinach fettuccine recipe on Self.com (http://www.self.com/fooddiet/recipes/2007/06/spinach-fettuccine). I started out attempting to follow the recipe, but found myself making many substitutions and changes.

I was looking forward to spinach fettuccine, which I have seen in the store in the past. I know it is something that my husband would not like, so I was glad for the opportunity to use it in cooking and not have to worry about making a separate dish for him. But of course, there was none to be found on the day I was gathering for dinner. I opted for garlic parmesan fettuccine instead, since it would go well with the other flavors of the dish.

I had a monster zucchini in my garden that I wanted to use, so I just used lots of that rather than a mixture of zucchini and yellow squash.

I was not about to buy a whole carton of cream just for this recipe (though I am sure I could have found uses for the rest of the carton, I didn't want to put pressure on myself to make sure I used it all when I wasn't sure how much time I would really have later in the weekend), so I just went with the 1% milk I had on hand. I ended up adding a bunch more greek yogurt and milk than the recipe called for, since I wasn't happy with the consistency and sauciness. I also added in lots of extra grated parmesan, as well as some dried basil, oregano and parsley flakes because the final flavor was not very strong. All the extra additions made the dish that much better.

The fact that I was able to taste the dish and not only realize that there was something missing, but figure out how to make it better is exciting for me. There have been lots of times in the past where I could tell something wasn't quite perfect and couldn't figure out just what to do to fix that. I feel energized that I am making progress in understanding flavors and how they interact. There is a long way to go yet, but every step in the right direction helps.