The Cure For Stress Is In Your Cupboard

Ugh. I am still so busy. I haven't had time to thoroughly clean my house, let alone cook. I am getting home after 6 p.m. daily and I hate not cooking. Just the thought of it stresses me out even more. The other day I was fed up, stressed out, and overwhelmed so I told my husband Patrick,"You are getting a great dinner tonight and I don't care how much energy it takes!"

I searched my freezer for a morsel of something delcious that I could throw together. Then scoured my deli drawer to see if there was anything worth eating.  All I found was leftover food, scraps, and random cheeses. I starting thinking hard and was finally able to scrape something together, have it cooked and eaten within 30 minutes.

My stress level magically dissolved in a matter of minutes. I put a Louis Prima record on, poured a glass of chianti and went to cooking. 

As I started on my sauce, I realized I had no pasta! What proud Italian woman has no pasta in her home! Panic mode again ensued. As I started pulling cans of crushed tomatoes out of my cupboard to search for a thin blue box of DeCecco pasta, I found it. All of my excess pasta over the last month was in a tupperware container. It was a beautiful sight of angel hair, fettucine, spaghettini, and cappelini. I immediately poured it into my boiling water, disregarding the pasta size at all. In the end, I ended up with possibly the best thing I have made in quite a while. Patrick thoroughly enjoyed it and we ended up with leftovers for two days! 

All in all the point of my story is: no matter how stressed out you think you are, a little bit of creativity instantly settles you down. I always think about my grandparents and how during WWII in Italy most of the time they had nothing to eat, on top of the fact that bombs were exploding in their range of hearing. Yet they always ate, they always had something to sustain them. I always admired my Nonna because with that experience she was always able to scrounge something together and make it delicious. No matter if it was crackers and lunch meat for a snack, or a whole meal of polenta for our family of eight. 

Below is the recipie I threw together on one rainy, stressful evening. I hope you try and enjoy. 

Pasta del lavondino (Kitchen Sink Pasta)

Ingredients
1 lb pasta
1 lb shrimp
1 small squash
Olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
basil
2-3 cups feta cheese
5 sun dried tomatoes
salt
lemon juice

Bring water to a boil and cook the pasta until al dente. In a large pan put in about 1/4 cup olive oil and chopped garlic to brown. Add shrimp and squash and cook until slightly grilled add about 2 tbs lemon juice to the pan and continue grilling 
Add sun dried tomatoes, basil, a little bit of salt, and half a cup of feta cheese and mix thoroughly. 

After the pasta is cooked add to the mixture in the pan and toss thoroughly.  Add more feta cheese and continue tossing. Turn off the heat, put a cover on the dish for five minutes.

Plate and enjoy! 

I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer.  Thanks for reading!