A Soapbox Moment and Creamy Avocado Sauce Pasta

The whole allowing your pet to sleep in bed with you issue has been blowing up lately in the news and in the blog world. Chris and I allow Hadley to sleep with us in bed every night and will continue to do so. He is cute, cuddly, and doesn’t bother us. When Chris is working late, he keeps me company. I read one place about a rabies argument, but besides the fact that Hads is up on his shots, there hasn’t been a case of rabies in NYC in decades. The whole germ thing, in a cost-benefit analysis doesn’t persuade me either. Personally, I think today’s article in the NYT is a little over the top. I’m pretty sure they just found the most ridiculous case and wrote about it in the women who sleeps with her pig and owns 150 animals. I guess it was a slow news day at the NY Times. Does your pet sleep in bed with you?

Off that soap box, yesterday evening was a good one. Hadley and I made our first trip to the dog park where there were other doggies to play with for the first time in forever. The snow had kept most people out of the ice skating rink that was the dog park for a while, but Hadley and I persisted throughout the winter all the same. Hadley was thrilled to have friends to play with and it was a good time to watch.

Afterwards I almost skipped the gym because I was oh-so-sleepy, but I convinced myself that I would feel good once I was there. I ran my two miles and forced myself to get into it. I did so by being that person at the gym who lip-syncs to her ipod while rocking out on the treadmill. The guy next to me kept stealing glances and laughing. I was happy I could help others enjoy their workouts.

After my sweaty sing-along, I came home to find that Chris had brought home a bottle of red wine. Score! Cheryl came over, and we all enjoyed the wine while cooking a new recipe. Here’s what we made:

Creamy Avocado Sauce Pasta

Adapted from Angela’s recipe

1 Avocado

1 Lemon

2 tsp Olive Oil

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

2 serving sizes (6 oz) of pasta of choice

Boil water and prepare pasta. We used spinach fettuccine. While the pasta is making, prep the sauce. Peel and pit the avocado. Place the avocado in a blender or food processor. Cut lemon in half and squeeze half the juice over the avocado. Zest the other half of the lemon, but do not add the juice unless you want the sauce very lemony. Add the olive oil and as much garlic powder, salt, and pepper as desired. We went heavy handed on the garlic. Blend everything together to create a cream sauce. If using a blender, be prepared to stop it several times to help chop up the avocado with a fork and blend the mix by hand. When the pasta is ready, place it in a serving bowl and immediately mix the sauce in. Serve topped with feta.

This pasta was really creamy but included no cream! I actually didn’t love it, but that is because I always think that I like creamy foods, but rarely can eat much of them. If you are looking for a healthy fat alternative t o a cream sauce and/or are vegan (just exclude the feta) then this is a recipe you should try out. Thanks Angela for the idea!