Eat Your Greens Pasta

Here’s something about me you might not guess from all the baked goods I make: I like to eat healthy.  I exercise a ton, take omega-3 supplements, am always trying to eat enough greens (thus my daily kale smoothies); you get the picture.  I also like things to taste GOOD. I mean it – I LOVE food. I love eating.  I also love eating out, which often presents a decision crisis for me: do I eat healthy or delicious or sacrifice a bit of both.  There are the occasional restaurants where this conundrum doesn’t present itself, but the easiest place to eat is my own kitchen.

This homemade pasta fits the bill – it’s packed with greens (basically as much as I could fit in without the pasta falling apart) and tastes amazing.  Like homemade pasta should.

I cooked it up with more veggies (surprise!) and made an awesome pasta primavera.  Just some green onions and an assortment of yummy veggies sauteed together, topped off with white wine, lemon zest, parmesan, and a little pasta water (not to mention the ubiquitous S&P). Oh yum.

You will need a stand mixer for this and either a pasta attachment or a hand-crank pasta maker. Alternatively, you can do this without a mixer, but I read somewhere that you have to knead so hard/long that your butt will sweat.  I recently experienced this making a batch of bagels without a mixer and it wasn’t pretty.  My arms were sore for days (we won’t even discuss the state of my clothing).

The Perfect Challah Recipe and Round Challah Braiding “How-to”

First let me preface this post by saying that hubby and I are about to embark on a 3-month long gluten-free, dairy-free change in diet.  Shedding weight for sweatpants season may not be the norm, but on top of any weight loss that *may* arise, we are hoping that this cleanse will leave us feeling refreshed and ready to face the winter (there is no way I will be lucky enough to have another snowless winter).  I have to confess that we have already agreed to cheat on Thanksgiving (though I will definitely make a gluten free pie or two), but a cheat day here and there has its benefits.

Back to the challah.

I have worked for years to nail this bread.  It had to have the right softness, pull apart layers, a hint of sweetness, a golden crust (that’s still soft), and stay fresh for days.  I cannot count the number of loaves that flopped or the number of times it was almost there.

I finally settled on a recipe that I liked quite a bit, but no loaf has ever met all marks. Until this Rosh Hashanah.

I woke up early and started sleepily pulling ingredients out of the cabinet.  I wanted to get the dough rising before I headed out for one of my eternally-long, marathon training runs. I proofed my yeast and began measuring out the rest of my ingredients. Short on honey, I substituted the other half for granulated sugar. And I had it. The challah was outstanding – soft, pull-apart, and good to the last bite.

If the perfect challah has been stumping you, try out this recipe.