Clingy Brains...er, Noodles

Happy Halloween!

Noodles look like brains. As I am Undead Q, brains it is for Halloween/my birthday.


A chance stop at Whole Foods in Tenleytown yielded this Creamy Tahini and Broccoli Pasta recipe, which is eerily similar to pasta nests that I remade from my mother's recipe in 2011. Like most Health Starts Here recipes, it is a blank slate. Add spice. I used a package of sweet potato noodles and two remaining skeins of millet noodles; they all clung to each other like the nests. Since I needed tahini for making hommos and had eaten the rest of a bag of broccoli-cauli mix last week, I substituted almond butter and indiscriminate frozen veggies for the eponymous ingredients.




Creamy Clingy Pasta
Modified from http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/creamy-tahini-and-broccoli-pasta

16 ounces noodles (I used 12 ounces of sweet potato noodles and 4 ounces millet noodles), cooked according to package directions

1 16-ounce bag frozen veggies of choice (I used a carrot-pea-corn-green bean combo)

1 small onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
other spices to taste

1 16-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup almond butter
2 tablespoons GF tamari
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tablespoons seaweed-based seasoning (I used yasai fume furikaki. Check your furikaki to make sure it's VGF)

Prepare noodles according to package directions. When finished, drain noodles and rinse with cold water. Transfer noodles to a large bowl and stir in the frozen veggies.

In the same pot as the noodles cooked in, heat the onion and cook until translucent, deglazing the pan with water as needed. Add the spices and toast when the onion is almost translucent.  Stir the onion and spices into the pasta mixture.

In a food processor or blender, blitz beans, almond butter, tamari, lime juice, and seasoning until uniformly combined.  Stir this sauce into the noodles.  Serve hot, cold, or indifferent.

The noodles cling like no other. We tolerate clinginess in noodles only because they're "all the better to eat you with, my dear." Otherwise we do not consider it a desirable quality. My preciousss. For a quick recipe, it's not half-bad. It's a tad bland, but for those of us on low-sodium diets, blandness is status quo. Because of the ease of preparation and flexibility of ingredients, this is a "make your own dinner/I just showed up at your house" kind of recipe.

Parting shots:


Birthday cake in progress. Saturday's post will reveal all. It's coconut cake and black and white cake sandwiched with cinnamon-pumpkin-pie vegan cream cheeze frosting.


Said cake in new-to-me cake carrier. The Guinness is my roommate's since duh, I don't drink and it's not VGF.

Cut my hair with new Wahl clippers. Guards were next to useless since I like a close shave!

Can you tell I like to bake? A case of coconut sugar, a cream canoe (aka: twinkie) kit, Laurie Sadowski's latest VGF baking book. Grandparents funded my baking and Doc Martens and music-listening habits for my birthday.

And my roommate's parents gave me a mask from a haunted costume shop! So grateful!




Costume Number One...red dress and black pentagram.

As for year 23 of my life:
Set it off right with a bright light coming through.
Set it off right with a fist-fight attitude.
Set it off right with a hate you discipline.
Set it off right when we get the truth back again.

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