Vegan Mint Pasta

Today, I was given a great bushel of mint, causing me to think about what I can do with so much fresh mint.  Other than snacking on it, that is.  I decided to make a mint pasta dish!  The majority of the recipes I found I couldn't make due to lack of ingredients and laziness to go to the store, so I made up my own!  Definitely try it, I am enjoying every single bite.


Vegan Mint Pasta

1 cup fresh parsley

1 cup fresh mint

olive oil

8 oz whole wheat pasta

1 bunch broccoli

1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed

1 handful of spinach

salt, to taste

I started by putting the parsley, mint, and olive oil in the food processor and ran it until it looks like pesto.  I salted it a little, but not too much.  (I'm not sure how much olive oil I used, I just dumped some in.  I never measure olive oil, so all of this is guess work in this recipe.)

Meanwhile, boil the pasta until al dente.  After draining, put a little olive oil in to keep the pasta from sticking.

In a large pan on high heat, I cooked the chopped broccoli for about 5 minutes in olive oil.  Usually, I either give the stock to my dog as a snack or add it in.  Today I did a little bit of both.  I always salt my broccoli when I cook it, but be careful not to add too much, you just want to bring out good flavors.  I added the garbanzo beans, and after about 3 more minutes, I mixed everything together in the pasta pan.  Then, I added the spinach.  This allows it to wilt a little, but mostly stay stiff.  If you want more silted lettuce, add it to the skillet after the garbanzo beans, mix it up, and then dump it in the pasta.  I also should mention that I like my vegetables crunchy, so if you like your's more soft, cook the broccoli longer over lower heat.

Serve and enjoy!

                           

I have to say, I did an amazing job.  This recipe is just the perfect combination of fresh-lighness, from the mint, and hearty meal.  Also, the mint and the parsley together are amazing!  I might use this combination for my morning smoothies, too!

Why I Love Cliches

At work today, my boss said, "Well, even though it's a cliche; you win some, you lose some."

I responded, "Cliches are cliches for a reason."

Which is true.  Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and cliches are cliches because they really do touch on the reality of the human experience, just a little piece of the human experience packed into a nice little package that can be used whenever you need.  And they're catchy.  Whatever poetic or intense experience you have is not any less meaningful when placed inside this package.  If anything, it validates you and your experience as normal and human.  It lets you know that you are not alone.

In the work we do at the veterinary clinic I work in, things sometimes are a matter of life and death (and sometimes not, making the sarcastic version of this valid as well.)  The situations she was talking about were.  But you know what?  Life is hard, and it's like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get.  But despite that, I love it.  Really, how else are you going to get through this?  Because love is blind.

I recently read an article about how Lana Del Rey is nothing but cliches, and apparently this is why music snobs dislike her.  I agree with this article completely; this might be why I absolutely love Lana Del Rey.  I found her music when I was going through a break-up with someone who both treated me wonderfully and like shit at the same time, and it was a break-up that wasn't my choice.  Her first album was just a musical embodiment of this confusion, and while it's a long series of cliches, it was what I was experiencing and therefore comforted me.  I'm sure if she was more poetic about the lyrics, she wouldn't be as disliked as much.  But then, would the message get across as well?  I maintain, no.

Many movies are just drawn out, artistic versions of cliches.  While most movies with romance involved embody "love conquers all", there are indie films that "hipsters" love that are also a drawn out cliche.  Take Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for instance.  The move can be summed up in fourteen words: "It's better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all."  Does this mean that this movie was not beautiful and heart-breaking and soul-wrenching?  I supposed that's up to the viewer, but I maintain, no.  It is still one of my favorite movies, and maybe even more so because these fourteen words are true.  And see?  See how true it is?  But we have this package to put it in so that we don't have to show this movie to everyone every time what we really want to say is, "It's better this way."

I decided to look up cliches while writing this post, and found quite a few I didn't know.  This one is my favorite that I found:

Life is such, and it's getting sucher and sucher.