(Insert Italian Name) Pasta

I am the biggest carbivore! Being that I work in retail, I try to save money, and eat somewhat healthy, by making my own meals. I normally do the typical pasta and marinara sauce thing, but lately, I've been trying something new out (I think it's the former culinary student in me.) I also love that I can use tomatoes and basil from our garden. This is a great recipe if you are carb loading while training. I love the fresh flavors.

(Yeah, I made that.)

It's a fairly foolproof recipe. I get four meals out of this bad boy recipe.

What you will need:

One box of Rotini pasta

Olive oil - just enough to almost cover the bottom of your sauce pan

Garlic - About 1/4 - 1/2 a teaspoon minced (I use Spice World, 1/2 tsp = 1 clove)

Five large fresh basil leaves (more if you're into that kind of thing, less if you aren't)

Grape tomatoes (the amount is up to you, I'm not a big tomato fan so I don't use a lot) or one plum tomato. Slice the grape tomatoes in half or dice the plum tomato.

Lemon - one half (I slice mine because I like to throw it into the pot after I juice it)

Sea salt - to taste

Fresh ground black pepper - to taste

Fresh mozzarella - About a cup diced

What you do:

After cooking the pasta, strain the pasta in a colander. Using the same sauce pan that you cooked the pasta (I like an easy cleanup), pour your olive oil and put the garlic in. I normally stick the pan back on the hot burner, even though it's off, to let it simmer for about a minute. Add the basil, tomatoes, salt, and pepper and stir for a bit. 

You can add the lemon juice now or wait until the next step to. I wait about two to three minutes and then I add my pasta back to the pan and stir. At this point, you may need to turn your burner on low. If you haven't added your lemon yet, go ahead and do so. Once everything is mixed together, add your mozzarella and stir until the chunks have melted. Take the pasta off the burner and voila! 

If that's not enough for you, do what I did and add shrimp!

I saute the shrimp in some olive oil with some minced garlic (about half of what I used in the above recipe), lemon juice, salt and pepper. After the shrimp is fully cooked, add it to the pasta. 

(Note to self: remove little tails before cooking shrimp.)

Happy Carb Loading for those that are and Happy Eating to those who are just hungry!