Artichoke & Lemon Pasta

     There isn’t too much more that I love than a simple bowl of pasta dressed up just slightly with a little something special. It is the ultimate in comfort foods for me and I could eat pasta almost every day for lunch at work with no regrets. I would make it more often at home, but the spouse isn’t the biggest pasta fan and tires on it rather quickly, so I try for maybe twice a month or so.

     This pasta dish is a quick throw together lunch for one, or you could easily double or triple it for dinner for the family or for several lunches during the week. It comes together so quickly, that I’ll sometimes make it in the morning while I’m scurrying around the house getting ready for work. I try to heat up my lunch and store it in a thermos so I can avoid the lines at the microwave in the break room and the awkward conversations that brings. It is also super convenient to just grab my thermos and walk over to a local park and eat lunch outside – it makes for a great change of scenery.

Artichoke & Lemon Pasta
Serves 1 hungry person

Ingredients
1/3 – 1/2 Jar of marinated artichoke hearts
1/4 bag Trader Joes Brown Rice Pasta
1/2 Fresh lemon

Optional Toppings
If you’re feeling ambitious, you can zest a bit of the lemon into the pasta
For a creamier pasta dish, add a bit of non-dairy salad dressing. I like Drew's All-Natural Salad Dressing and 10 Minute Marinade, Roasted Garlic & Peppercorn, 12-Ounce Bottle

Method
First... Boil your pasta according to bag instructions, drain, and return to pan. If you want this to be a cold dish, which is equally delicious, rinse your pasta in cold water for a minute or two.

Then... Remove the artichoke hearts from the jar and cut into quarters. Separate the layers and add to pasta. Squeeze the lemon, being careful to avoid seeds, into the pasta.

Finally... Stir well, adding any optional toppings you want, before serving immediately or packing away for lunch.

- Patricia

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DC Schools Remove Chocolate & Strawberry Milk, Nix Sugary Cereals

     I was happy to read early this afternoon that Jeffrey Mills, food service director, announced that the Washington DC school system would be pulling all flavored milk, chocolate included, as well as sugary cereals beginning with the fall 2010 school year. This is a huge step towards increasing the general health of our nation's population. A bonus to this is the fact that purchasing only regular milk will save the school district money as the flavored milks are a bit pricier.

To pull a few figures from the article, an eight ounce serving of low fat milk will contain around 12 grams of sugar found in the form of lactose, the chocolate equivalent contains 24 grams, and the strawberry flavor contains 28 grams (seven teaspoons).

When the point is made to parents and non-parents that companies are trying to grab a customer for life when they market towards children, they often dismiss the idea. Companies like Pizza Hut, Gatorade, Nike, Reebok, Kellogg's, and others pay school districts to carry their products and their brand. Period. When a child is given a choice of Pizza Hut (did you know they had these in some high school cafeterias?) or the regular Salisbury steak from the cafeteria line, what do you think they will choose?

A child learns what they grow up with, and Pizza Hut everyday is not an option any child should have on school grounds. If a child is given a plate at lunch everyday that is filled with whole, recognizable foods (chicken nuggets are not a food), nutritious options like fruit, yogurt, or cheese on the side, and bread or grains of some sort, a person will learn to love them as much as a child who grows up on McDonald's will love Big Macs when they grow up.

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