I suppose I could write about the snooze-fest that was last night’s State of the Union speech, but I think I’ll write about something very important instead. I’m going to write about carbs.

Last week, I went out with a group of women, and the conversation turned inevitably to the discussion of diets. One woman said that she was on one of those portion control diets and lost 5 pounds. Another said she was on a carb-free/sugar-free diet and had lost 10 pounds since New Year’s. Her diet took a very hardline about carbs – no beans, no squash, no peas, no potatoes.

We’ve become more conscious of our carb consumption in the past year, because we’ve read so much about the evils of processed flour and sugar. Over the summer, when I had a fridge full of vegetables from the CSA, Steve and I tried to live solely on the produce and meat. It was difficult, because I still had to make a carb for the kids for dinner. To feel full, we had to eat several vegetable dishes. Between making our vegetable dishes and kid-friendly food, I had to make a six-course meal every night.

A caveman diet for us and a normal diet for the kids was too much work, so we moved to a limited carb diet.

Last night, I made pasta with jarred sauce and leftover chicken for the boys and their cousins. On another burner, I cooked up some broccoli rabe with sausage and threw in a few scoops of the pasta. So, we ate pasta, just a lot less of it than normally.

Recipe for Broccoli Rabe and Sausage with Pasta

1. Cook up a package of Italian Sausage in a tablespoon of olive oil.
2. Take out the sausage and cut up about half of it. Use the rest in a dish the next day.
3. Pour a couple of slugs of your glass of white wine in the pan and scape up the burnt bits with a wooden spoon.
4. Add a little more olive oil and sliced up garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt. Cook for a minute.
5. Add one bag of frozen broccoli rabe and a little bit of water. Put on the lid and let it cook.
6. Add the sausage.
7. Add a couple of ladles of cooked farfalle (bow-tie pasta)
8. Add a little chicken broth or reserved pasta water
9. Add black pepper and some Parmigiano cheese