I’ve been in a really carby mood lately. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m always down for carbs. Lately, though, I find the carbs acting as the majority of my meal.

Last night? Pasta.

This morning? Hot cereal.

Followed by the last part of a slice of Starbucks pumpkin bread.

And lunch? More of the above pasta. With a slice of blueberry banana bread.

I can’t even blame this on stress or hormones. Sometimes a gals just gotta have her breads.

But about this food – it’s pretty good stuff I must say.

I took a nap yesterday after work an when I woke up, the usual dinner items just didn’t sounds good to me.

Pasta isn’t something I have a lot and that’s likely the reason I picked it last night. Variety – it’s the spice of life you know.

I didn’t have any sauce for it but I did have the beautiful tomatoes that my neighbor gave me earlier this week and I figured I could probably combine them with the tomatoes I already had and make a decent sauce on my own!

I put the noodles in a pot of water and started chopping the veggies – carrots, zucchini, mushrooms and tomatoes.

The first three went into the pan first followed by the tomatoes after everything had softened a little.

And that’s it! After the sauce simmered and became a bit more sauce like, I spooned it over my two portions (dinner and lunch) and my carbs were ready.

In other new foods news, I’m still getting by without my beloved rolled outs. On my new busy mornings, there is no way to make steel cut oatmeal (which can take up to 45 minutes) and I thought my mornings of oats were going to be limited to weekends.

Until…

Not too shabby.

Now this doesn’t hold a candle to my oats (rolled or steel cut) in terms of flavor or satiety but it does have a major advantage – convenience! It’s ready so fast, it’s almost too quick! And yes, that’s totally possible. I don’t even have time to put away the ingredients while it cooks!

I bring 1/3 cup of this and one cup of water to a boil (which takes about a minute on my amazing stove!) and then I turn off the heat and let it sit for 2 minutes.

The only thing I add to the pot is coconut oil.

The Trader Joe’s brand is much more distinctly coconut than the Fresh and Easy brand I was using before and as a result, I don’t like using it on vegetables as much any more. But I do love the rich coconut flavor that I get in this bowl of porridge and the small amount of fat (I use maybe a 1/2 teaspoon) helps keep me full a little longer.

I’ve done my traditional PB + jelly topping but I don’t love it as much in the porridge consistency. So I dug into my Foodie Pen Pals stash from way back in April and found this honey.

Which is perfect on the porridge.

Along with some raisins, cranberries and a few hemp seeds (my newest obsession, BTW), and that’s my 5-minute hot breakfast for my new uber busy morning routine.

Yes, it actually looks like that.

No, it does not taste the way it looks. It’s creamy and slightly grainy and very satisfying!

Speaking of creamy and satisfying, look what I was sent home from work with.

It’s kind of an inside joke but now I have an entire pint of something I crave but try hard to limit. Hopefully Will takes a liking to this flavor or I may be in a dairy overdose coma come tomorrow.