Beat the heat with pasta

Summer  doesn’t just call for some sun screen and a straw hat. It calls for drastic measures that simply alter your life, and that of course entails a change in diet. Only the hopeless addicts continue their daily chairoutine, and it’s all about refreshing and chilled juices and drinks.

I for one, live off of lemonade for days at a time, but I can’t go on like that forever, so I have a few recipes up my sleeve that beat the heavy duty garam garam ‘desi food’ that I just cannot eat when I and the world around me are melting with the constant bombardment of sunlight and humidity that can drive anyone crazy.

It’s also impossible to slave away in front of a stove for hours at a time cooking, so this particular recipe takes 10 minutes from start to finish (the trick is to take all the ingredients out before hand so you’re not running around the kitchen gathering everything), and believe me, I’ve timed it!

The great thing about pasta is that it can be eaten warm or cold, so on those dreadful summer days when load shedding is at its best, you can still eat a decent meal without taking out the pots and pans to reheat it. This pasta is great on its own or with a slice of garlic bread and is the perfect lunch for me any day!  

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups fettuccini

1 bell pepper

1 tomato

2 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon mayo

 1 teaspoon mustard paste

1 teaspoon barbeque sauce

3 tablespoons cream

½ teaspoon each of crushed red peppers and black pepper

(Serves 2-3 people)

Method:

Boil water in a saucepan and add the fettuccini. While that’s boiling, thinly slice the tomato and bell pepper, and chop the garlic. Heat the oil in a pan and add the garlic and bell peppers. Add the soy sauce and sauté on high heat for two minutes (make sure the exhaust is on or everyone in your house will be coughing like crazy) and remove the pan from the heat.

Add the mayo, mustard paste and barbeque sauce and mix till the sauce is smooth. Now put the pan back on a medium flame and add the tomatoes and cream. By now the pasta will be done so drain it and quickly add it to the pan (don’t drain the pasta completely; it helps keep the sauce from drying out).

Now all you have to do is sprinkle over the crushed pepper and black pepper, toss everything around, and put in a plate and eat it right away.

I usually don’t fuss about decorating my food like carving our carrot leaves or tomato roses, but I do make an effort to make my food look good, so garnish it with a sprig of coriander and dish it out in a nice plate and it’ll taste so much better, because what looks good tastes good too! 

The writer is a communication designer with a passion for food and baking. She blogs atwww.fatimarana.blogspot.com

Chocolate is Yummy and Funny

If you are feeling depressed, then reaching for a bar of chocolate will put the smile back on your face. There is now a definitive link between chocolate and your mood, say a group of US based researchers.

Scientific Proof Exists That Chocolate Is Good For You

Dr. Natalie Rose from the University of California along with her colleagues observed that depressed people ate about 8 servings of candy whereas cheerful people ate only about 5 servings of chocolate over a similar period of time. Severely depressed people ate about 11 servings. One serving equates to 1 ounce of chocolate or just a small bar.

The group of researchers said there was a definite link between chocolate and lifting your mood. While we knew this all along, now studies have conclusively proven the fact. Dr. Rose and her associates conducted a study with more than 900 men and women. In it, they kept a record of what the people in the study ate. Their moods were assessed using a depression scale. And a clear link was found; depressed men and women consumed more chocolate than their peers.

But We Still Don't Know Why!

The study did not mention why chocolate put a smile on people's faces and made their constitutions sunnier. But there are several theories about this. Depressed people undergo the same cravings as everyone else when we feel like eating a chocolate. Munching on sugary sweets can be a type of self treatment when feeling out of sorts. On the flip side, eating too much chocolate can also make a person feel down.

Benefits of Eating Chocolates and Candy

Chocolate is known to provide antioxidants and it also provides a psychological boost, like a "feel good" factor. According to some people, chocolate also works like alcohol; both give us a temporary lift. When their effects wear off, we are left feeling even more depressed than before. More studies will be required before it can be determined whether chocolate helps us overcome depression or if it is the culprit that makes us low in the first place.

Modern Technology Serve-you-not-the-Other

• We have too many communication devices that must be checked regularly for messages. Constant interaction with technology can put unwanted strain on our relationships. Our techno tools can be dangerous, because they divert our attention from other more important tasks, e.g. driving or crossing the street.

It's all too easy to send/forward messages to the wrong person, potentially causing job or relationship problems.

"Make modern technology serve you, not the other way around "Similarly, computer games serve as a temporary -- and habit-forming -- escape from life's problems. The Internet