Is Cheese a Processed Food, and Other Burning Questions

I've been reading a lot lately about very beautiful, insightful people. They are everywhere once you start looking for them ... on blogs, on facebook, in magazines. People who can run 30 miles and still glow, who take spin classes and yoga classes and enjoy them, people who cook fantatsic fresh healthy "whole foods" and have beautiful, caring supportive husbands/partners. People who are spreading messages of inner peace, self confidence and enlightenment through exercise, healthy food and meditation. These are the people I want to be. I want to start cooking dinner at 4:00 in my bright sunfilled kitchen while my fabulous husband photographs our fresh ingredients recently delivered by our CSA. I want to still be glowing from my yoga class, ready to fuel my body with healthy organic unprocessed food.

I am not one of those people. I am not sure those people really exist. 

The picture accompanying my cooking blog would be a picture of anemic looking non-organic produce being cut with a dull knife on a worn cutting board in a tiny, not so clean kicthen. It would not be a sun-kissed room as the sun has always set by the time I get home. The flickering flourescent light would be the only light source, highlighting the old, barely functioning electric stove and the lamentable lack of functioning counter space. I would probably not have gone to yoga because I was just too tired or too hungry and couldn't bear the thought of losing one hour of my precious free time in the evening. It is possible that I would be drenched in sweat (not in a pretty way - literally drenched) having just staggered my way through a 4 mile run. My hair would be alternatively stuck to the side of my head, or flying free in a weird static halo. I would be wearing pajamas that would almost certainly have holes in them, and I would be drinking a glass of wine and I would really proud of myself for making it through the day and actually cooking something that didn't start in a frozen bag.

Surprisingly, this photo was not taken in 1985. 

Actually, where is that cooking blog? I would read that blog! The blog for those people who can barely cook, but have to anyway? Who consider 1 hour of cooking time to be wildly impractical for a weeknight? (And please don't remind me that I could always cook all my meals Sunday and then reheat/reconstitute them througout the week. That is not a real thing. People who want to do things like that are the same people who don't mind cooking on weeknights.)

I want the inner peace and the glowy skin and the skinny thighs and all of that too, even if I can't be perfect all the time. I want to be the lady who writes the Sprouted Kitchen Blog (seriously, you should check out that blog because she is awesome and all the things I wrote about in the beginning of this entry)! But I am always left with the feeling that I am failing somehow. That these step by step plans for making over your life and your diet work for everyone else, just not for me. Am I the only person who doubts the logic of a juice cleanse? Am I the only person who desperately wants to do a juice cleanse anyway, but can't afford one and thinks they look terrifying and so reads articles about how cleanses are bunk just to make herself feel better?

I cannot be the only person who feels like she is stumbling through life, thinking that she's polished and buffed and worked herself into perfection only to find out her dress was on inside out the whole time.

With that in mind, this one is for you. You overworked masses who just want to make dinner and get to the part of your night where you can sit in bed and watch episodes of old TV shows. Here is the recipie for "whole food" noodles peas and cheese. It's totally unprocessed (except for the cheese? I confess I struggle with the whole concept of unprocessed. I guess pasta is probably also not unprocessed).

Noodles Peas and Cheese

Prep Time: About 5 minutes depending on how long it takes you to grate cheese.
Cooking Time: About 11 minutes depending on how you like your pasta
Number of pots/dishes required: Two pots, one cheese grater
Number of servings: Completely depends on how bad a day/week/month it has been. Reheats very well for work lunches.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of 100% whole wheat spiral or bowtie noodles (I reccommend Trader Joe's 100% whole wheat pasta but any will do. Just make sure you read the ingredients because lots of pasta says whole wheat but then isn't. It turns out, it can't have white durum flour, or wheat flour or any of that. Who knew?)  
• 1 block of cheese, grated (I usually use it all. Don't judge.)
• 1/2 package of frozen peas (Frozen peas still count as unprocessed right?

Preparation:
Cook the pasta to package directions in a large pot. While the pasta is cooking, boil the peas until they are defrosted and hot. Drain the pasta and the peas and combine in the large pot. Add grated cheese and stir vigorously until pasta has reached desired gooeyness. Add pepper and salt to taste.