Real Food Friday Feast - Cheesy bacon and mushroom pasta

I know, right?! Betcha never thought you'd see pasta anywhere on my blog;) Pasta is something I haven't eaten for a really, really long time. Reason being that most pasta is wheat and gluten based. Granted, these days you get all sorts of wheat and gluten free pastas but, the problem with a lot of those wheat-free ones is that they are maize based and that usually means GMOs. It's also really difficult to find a gluten free spaghetti that holds its shape and doesn't get all soggy when you cook it.

As the cook in the house I get a lot of free reign in the kitchen and I tend to decide what's on the menu for dinner. But, every now and then, GLM will say, rather wistfully, "I really feel like spaghetti..." I always feel so bad because it NEVER gets the nod for the reasons I gave above. However, this time I made it my mission to find a spaghetti my stomach could tolerate, for my wife's benefit.

Guess what? I found it!

I know they sound like normal rice noodles but this stuff is SO much like normal spaghetti it's amazing! It's not only delicious but it holds its shape and doesn't go even a little bit soggy. These particular noodles have wakame in them. Wakame is a sea vegetable FULL of minerals so that's an added bonus. The other bonus is that they take 6 minutes to cook. So this is a quick and easy meal that you can throw together in about 10 minutes and it's perfect comfort food for this chilly weather we're having.

Bacon is another problem food for me. I hadn't eaten bacon for over 12 years when I finally found it on an online organic and free range food website. I have NEVER been so excited! I made it for our wedding anniversary last week and ate it for the first time in 12 years. I felt like I was in heaven! It really is one of the best foods ever created;) The reason I couldn't have it was because my stomach had a real problem with digesting any meats but chicken and fish. I have since discovered that I can handle free range meats just fine, most likely because they aren't fed a diet of GM grains and so I've slowly been introducing other meats back into my diet and it's been such a wonderful experience! I feel like a kid at christmas:)

Bacon has gotten a bad rap for many years. Let's face it, it's a seriously fatty food. But I know very few people who can resist the smell of bacon frying. Even the most hardcore vegans have to walk out of a room because it's an almost unbearably delicious smell and the temptation is too great!

The only time I would say to avoid bacon is if it's conventional bacon. By that I mean, it comes from factory-farmed pigs whose diets consist of feeds that include soy, corn and other inferior oils. Nutritionally, free range pork is worlds apart from farm fed pork. Yes, it's full of fat, but let's break the fat down:

• 50% of the fat in bacon is monounsaturated and is mostly made up of oleic acid, which is the same stuff we all value in olive oil. 
• About 3% is palmitoleic acid which is a monounsaturate with valuable antimicrobial properties
• About 40 % of bacon fat is saturated and this is what worries a lot of "fat phobics" but that saturated fat is the reason why bacon fat is pretty stable and unlikely to go rancid. 
• 10% of the fat is in the valuable form of polyunsaturates
• Pork fat also contains a form of phosphatidylcholine that is a more powerful antioxidant than Vitamin E. 
• Bacon fat from free range pigs contains fat-soluble vitamin D but the bacon MUST be from foraging pigs that play outdoors in the sun for most of the year. Factory-farmed pigs that are kept indoors and fed rations from soy, casein, corn meal, and other grains will have low levels of Vitamin D

So many good reasons to eat free-range bacon. Another exceptionally important reason is simply that factory farmed pigs are treated very cruelly. Pregnant pigs are kept in crates JUST big enough for them to lie down in and they are kept in those crates for about 4 weeks with their piglets. After that they are separated despite the fact that piglets usually suckle for 12 weeks. They separate them for a reason. It causes stress to the mother and makes her come into season much faster so that she can have another litter sooner than nature intended. Truly awful treatment of an animal whose life is devoted to feeding us, against their choice! That is why it is VERY important that you buy free range pork and never support the conventional pork industry.

Cheesy bacon and mushroom pasta

Cheese Sauce

2 Tbs butter
1½ Tbs chickpea flour
1 cup milk (use cow or goat's milk)
½ cups freshly shredded cheese 

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Add the butter to a pan on medium heat
• Once melted, add the flour and half the milk
• Stir in with a whisk and then add the remainder of the milk
• Keep stirring and add the cheese
• Stir for a few minutes until it thickens and then remove from heat

Bacon and mushroom

1 packet free range bacon (buy it here if you're in Jhb and here if you're in Durban. Anyone with a Cape Town source, please let me know!)
1 small onion
1 garlic clove
2 Tbs butter

Origanum

Salt and pepper

Method

• Add the butter to a pan on medium heat
• Once melted, finely chop the onion and garlic and add to pan
• Fry until soft (about 3 minutes)
• Chop up the bacon into bite-size pieces and add to pan
• Fry for about 3 minutes
• Roughly chop mushrooms and add to pan
• Mix everything and fry for about 5-10minutes
• Remove from heat and leave to sit for 5 minutes
• Add bacon and mushroom mix to cheese sauce
• Serve over a bed of pasta

This meal is a healthy, TASTY meal that kids will LOVE. Remember to always go for healthier options like an organic, gluten free pasta. You may think you can handle gluten but most people can't. Stick to healthy cheese from the farmer's market. Avoid anything conventional off the shelves of a grocery store wherever possible unless it's organic or free range. Mushrooms are part of the "clean 15" so if you can't find organic mushrooms, just give the conventional ones a really good wash.

That's it! Have a wonderful, health-filled weekend:)