Great Multi Grain Pasta Salad Recipe

That good-for-you brown pasta isn't the same in recipes as the yellow kind.  I still like the basic pasta (yes, even the traditional elbows) for a standard pasta salad, but I did monkey around and find a combo of stuff that seems to work pretty well with the hardy whole grain noodles.  Thought I'd share it with you, Dear Reader.

What You Need (Double This if You Want a Big Bowl of Stuff):

6-7 oz of whole-wheat pasta - e.g., 1/2 box of Ronzoni Healthy Heart 7 Grain Fusilli (the corkscrew kind)
1/2 cup good mayo (I like Hellman's Mayo for this)
1/2 container of plain yogurt
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1- 2 T balsamic vinegar  (I like this stuff, so I go for 2 tablespoons, you might not want that much)
stevia powder (I use KAL brand, it's just so much better than the rest) unless you have to use sugar (then 1 t of table sugar)
salt
pepper
garlic powder (shake in, stir, test it -- see if you need more.  I like garlic, so I put in more than most)
parm cheese -- grated (put it what tastes good to you, I like a lot of this stuff)
1 bell pepper (red, green, orange -- whatever is cheapest and looks the freshest, get a big one)
4 green onions - chop them all (green leaves n little white orbs)
handful (around 10) black olives, sliced into little circles
3 chopped hard boiled eggs
1 cup chopped grilled chicken or turkey -- great way to use up the leftover roto chicken you brought home from the store
celery if you've got it -- couple of stalks

Here's what you do:
Cook the pasta in boiling water, salting the water before you add the pasta but after it's boiling (saves your pot).  I add oil 2 the water here because I think it helps keep the noodles from clumping, but others will disagree with me.

Drain the pasta, and get it to room temp.  (In a hurry, throw it into the freezer while you are getting the other ingredients together)  You don't want to add hot pasta to the mayo, etc. -- messes things up.

In your big bowl, stir together the mayo, yogurt, oil, vinegar, and the powders (stevia/sugar, garlic powder, salt, pepper), shaking them in a bit at a time until you get the combo of spices the way you like it.  Stir this around till it's a smooth dressing for your salad (i.e., if you used sugar, you want it to dissolve). 

Chop up the veggies and the meat. Bite size.  Throw them into the dressing, coat them all up and then add the pasta, stir things around.

Fridge this puppy until it's nice and chilled. 

Tip:  I like to add the parm cheese to the hot pasta, and then the cheese sorta melts and coats the pasta.  This keeps that pasta from soaking up all the dressing later, which is great.  I hate to pop the top the next day, and see that the pasta has drank all the dressing/sauce/etc.  I do this all the time, assorted recipes.  Works like a charm. 

Tom's of Maine 24 Hr Crystal Confidence Deodorant: All Natural Deodorant that WORKS

This may be getting close to TMI for you, Dear Reader, but I just have to share this great personal find.  I've been wanting to avoid standard antiperspirants for years now, for all those bad juju reasons we've all heard about -- and because rolling aluminum bits into my body on a daily basis just seems stupid, quite frankly.  (For what that does, read the postscript.)

However, this posed a big, big problem because while I can deal with the transition from anti-perspirant to deodorant okay, I just did not want to ... well ... stink.  There I said it: stink.  Smell.  Clear a room smell-bad.  This is a big deal for me, and I bet it's a big deal for you.  Sweat is one thing.  Stink is another.

So, imagine how thrilled I was after all this trial and error to find Tom's of Maine's 24 Hour Crystal Confidence Roll On Deodorant.  I like the Citrus Zest version, because the scent is so nice.  I also like that it works. 

Not to say that other natural deodorants didn't work -- they just didn't work for me after around 3 -4 hours.  Working from home, this is easier to accommodate than my past life in the Office.  I had gotten into the habit of using some of the other versions periodically during the day, because forewarned was forearmed.  Better to be a little nuts and add a little more here and there, than have a Deodorant Failure.  Funk is bad. 

No need with Tom's of Maine's 24 Hour Crystal Confidence.  Now, it doesn't last me for 24 hours.  But it'll go a good 12 or more.  And that, to me, is just fine.

Try it -- see what you think. 

PS - Potassium alum vs aluminum in anti-perspirants

Tom's of Maine Crystal Confidence does contain potassium alum, but this is different from commercial antiperspirant's aluminum component.  Potassium alum has a different chemical composition; you can buy it in solid, crystal form as Thai Sticks if you prefer that to Tom's version, and from what I've read, it's not absorbed into the skin.  It's too big, cellwise. 

Potassium alum lies on your skin and kills baceria; in the commercial anti-perspirants, some form of aluminum ( aluminum chloride; aluminum zirconium tricholorohydrex glycine; aluminum chlorohydrate; aluminum hydroxybromide; aluminum hydroxide) actually goes into your body to chemically block the sweat glands from releasing their liquid.  Apparently, the sweat glands just swell up with sweat that's not allowed to escape naturally.  Ewww. 

FDA Warning Letter to Lipton's: Green Tea is a Drug and Lipton's is in Violation of Federal Law. Wow.

I buy Lipton Green Tea 100% Natural Naturally Decaffeinated - I bet you do, too. It's the little yellow and green box, and sometimes the price is right. Who knew I was buying a drug from a criminal?

However, that's apparently the case, because in August 2010, the FDA sent an official warning letter to Unilever, Inc., the company that provides us all with Lipton Green Tea 100% Natural Naturally Decaffeinated - and the letter's online for us all to read at the FDA website.

Here's some juicy tidbits for you:

"Based on our review, we have concluded that this product is in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) ...

"Your website, www.liptont.com. also promotes your Lipton Green Tea 100% Natural Naturally Decaffeinated product for conditions that cause it to be a drug under section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B)].

"For example, your webpage entitled "Tea and Health," subtitled "Heart Health Research" and further subtitled "Cholesterol Research" bears the following claim: "[F]our recent studies in people at risk for coronary disease have shown a significant cholesterol lowering effect from tea or tea flavonoids ... One of these studies, on post-menopausal women, found that total cholesterol was lowered by 8% after drinking 8 cups of green tea daily for 12 weeks ...."

"The therapeutic claims on your website establish that the product is a drug because it is intended for use in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease. Your Lipton Green Tea 100% Natural Naturally Decaffeinated product is not generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced uses and, therefore, the product is a "new drug" under section 201(p) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(p)]. New drugs may not be legally marketed in the U.S. without prior approval from FDA as described in section 505(a) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 355(a)]. FDA approves a new drug on the basis of scientific data submitted by a drug sponsor to demonstrate that the drug is safe and effective.

"Your Lipton Green Tea 100% Natural Naturally Decaffeinated product is offered for conditions that are not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment by individuals who are not medical practitioners; therefore, adequate directions for use cannot be written so that a layperson can use this drug safely for its intended purposes. Thus, your Lipton Green Tea 100% Natural Naturally Decaffeinated product is misbranded under section 502(f)(1) of the Act in that the labeling for this drug fails to bear adequate directions for use [21 U.S.C. § 352(f)(1)] ."

I could add more, but you're more than able to go read the whole thing for yourself.

As for me, Lipton's Decaf Green Tea may not be my preferred brand, but you can bet I'm gonna be buying an extra box or two -- just because this FDA action makes me mad.