Comfort Food Tuesday with a Healthy Twist

I've had one of those starts to a week when everything seems to go wrong and nothing works out. Instead of one inflamed eye I now have two and look horrible, Mr Patu decided to bite me at the veterinary yesterday, I overslept my nap yesterday and missed physiotherapy and woke up to bad neck pain this morning, next year's plans are wide open and I need to decide on some big things this week. I feel homesick and have a million things on my to do list this week. This would be a perfect time for some comfort food, pasta perhaps?

I had nothing in my fridge and had to head to grocery right after work. Not a good idea when you're hungry, angry and tired. But against all odds I managed to just buy healthy eats and avoid my usual "I know I'm on a diet but one little chocolate doesn't count" or "I've deserved a little garlic bread after what I've been through" yep, emotional eater's favorite phrases... Instead I came home with these:

Three bags of healthy foods! Even if I eat healthy most of the time, I have two weak points: carbs and sugar. Both of those I eat for emotions, mostly stress. Even if most of my carbs are healthy carbs, too much is too much. As I have rheumatism, an autoimmune disease, I have an inflammation in my body most of the time. Sugar and white flour are known for their effects on increasing inflammation values in our bodies so for someone like myself, it's really not a good thing to rely on these when stressed, which is pretty much all the time.

I decided to try to limit my carb and sugar intake gradually. A strict "no" right away doesn't work with me as after a little harder set back I'll just eat twice as much bread or goodies. I found a great replacement for pasta in my grocery store today, soybean pasta. This is fast to make, only takes 5min to boil and tastes great! I made a delicious chicken/cabbage wok to go with and have to say - yummy!

Easy Chicken Wok with Soybean Pasta

Serves 4, time 25min

2 chicken breasts

1 yellow bell pepper

1/2 a small cabbage (whatever type you like)

4 leafs of kale (according to taste)

1 bag of Santa Maria Chicken Thai Wok spice mix

1 bag of black soybean spaghetti

salt

Slice all ingredients for the wok and bring water to boil in a pasta kettle. Heat up a little oil on a wok pan and add chicken in. When lightly golden, add cabbage in, throw in the spices and mix up. Add bell pepper and kale and a little water. Boil the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Enjoy!

Time to go catch up on some ZzzzZ, lets hope for a more cheerful day tomorrow! 

Good night!