Earth, Wind, and Pasta

Although I tolerate gluten just fine, I dabble here and there in the gluten free aisle every now and then. I went gluten free when I followed Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse, or detox. I became kind of obsessed with finding a gluten free pasta that tastes good. I'm not a huge fan of brown rice pasta, organic corn pasta is just okay, and quinoa pasta is okay, but super pricey. I feel bad for people who are gluten free. Pasta's and breads are not only not too tasty, they are out of this world expensive! So, I have been not eating gluten free pasta for awhile, until the other day I noticed a new to me gluten free option at Wegman's. It's made by bionaturae, and this pasta is made out of rice flour, rice starch, Potato starch, and soy flour. I've bought bionaturae's gluten-full pasta before, and I've always enjoyed it. The package promised to "taste like traditional pasta with no need to rinse". Based on the taste of other gluten free pastas I've had, this seemed like a lofty goal. I turned some soaked cashews into a creamy, garlicky Alfredo sauce, and boiled up these noodles. They cook in nine minutes, and the water didn't turn as weird of a color as it does with brown rice pasta. Grey water is kind of a turn off. Anyway, right after draining I noticed that it looks exactly like any standard pasta. Excellent signs so far. Next, I taste a noodle plain. And guess what? It does not taste weird in any way. It tasted like any standard Linguine noodle. Mind blown. I find most gluten free pastas are a much chewier texture than semolina pasta. This mimics semolina pasta in every way. If you, or anyone you know is gluten free, and struggles with pasta, I would tell them about this brand. I've seen it at several stores, so I'm guessing it's somewhat easy to find. It's always so satisfying to find a substitution that they nailed!
It's April, also known as Earth Month!! It's perfect, right now it is sunny, the birds are chirping, and it is almost fifty degrees in the morning! After what feels like the longest winter of my life, I can really smell spring. When I first moved to the city I live in, I lived kind of across the street from the landfill.(very luxurious) It was a mountain of trash. It truly looked like a mountain. If you looked close enough, you could see little trucks driving around and seagulls and such. I joked that I moved from seeing Mt. Rainier every day, to Mt. Garbage, said in a fancy way of course. Not sure why I felt the need to share that story, other than that sight made me feel really depressed, and really aware of how hard us humans are working to muck everything up.
Anyway, happy spring, and Happy Earth Month!