Travelling with Food Sensitivities - and my Easy Spicy Pasta recipe!

So, it's been a while since my last post, because I have been travelling (I am writing this from Montreal actually).

Travel for me is a bit more complicated than for your average person, now that I really need to be careful about what I am eating. Wheat will especially do a crazy evil number on me within about 10 minutes of ingesting even a tiny bite (stomach cramps followed the next day by a massive headache and joint pain)...so when I am traveling I can't really rely on eating out all the time.

I can usually find breakfast items in restaurants - if I skip the toast, an omelette is the safest bet and at least gets me enough energy to go till lunch. In general I try and seek out either veggie restaurants or indian places (where if I skip the rice and naan I am also pretty safe).

I stuff my suitcase full of things like nuts and seeds, dates, raw cookies, coconut oil, raw bread etc so that I can get some nutrients no matter where I am and how sketchy my diet is (and I take my vitamins with me too!)...I also scope out where the health food stores are near where I am going and try and head there right away to get some staples to make easy meals like kale salad with avacado, which give me lots of energy and make me feel less jealous of all my colleagues who are heading off to eat Burmese food together (for example!)

I  insist on staying somewhere with a kitchen/ette...if I am traveling with work and staying at a hotel I make sure in advance it's got a kitchen. Last week in Ottawa I did just that, and it would have been perfect except that there were NO frying pans, spatulas, dish towels or cloths, salt and pepper etc etc (which are usual suspects in a hotel kitchen) - it was quite a torment actually. With my one pot I did manage to make my old standby spicy pasta though (which I would liken to someone else's Kraft Dinner in terms of how easy and quick it is to make). Without salt it wasn't really as good as normal (I normally bring some pink himalayan salt with me too but this time I forgot), but it got me through a few meals.

Now we are staying at a friend's place in Montreal - an ideal situation as there's a real kitchen and spices and everything. Perfect. Yesterday I got to go to a raw vegan restaurant called Crudessence where the crepes made me swoon (and the zucchini pesto pasta seemed pretty awesome too). I have also eaten poutine! Ahh - there are some junk foods which I can still consume (veggie gravy bien sur!)

Anyway, tonight the spicy pasta is making a comeback. If you are feeling like you don't want to think too much about your supper, you can make it too. (apologies for the lack of photo - I don't have my camera here with me).

Spicy Pasta

dry pasta for 2 (I use Kamut udon noodles - the closest thing to real spaghetti I have found which I can digest)

olive oil - the sauce for this is essentially made of olive oil. While I do this by feel, I am guessing about a 1/4 cup

hot pepper flakes - about 1/4 tsp but it depends on how hot they are!

garlic - I like a lot, we're talking at least 6 cloves

veggies - anything really.

cheese - if you want it. I do this without a lot.

salt - pink salt is best, second-best would be sea salt.


In a large pot, boil water for pasta and cook as per directions, setting a timer to go off about 2 minutes before it will be done.

Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a small pan or pot on a med-low setting along with the chili flakes and the chopped garlic. (By the way you should always chop your garlic then leave it exposed to air for a few minutes before adding it to anything - this releases its allicin (antibacterial, antifungal good stuff) to make it available to the body.) The garlic should be just barely simmering - not too much - you just want it to release its garlickyness into the oil, not to get brown or crispy...

Meanwhile, chop your veggies of choice and if you want to saute them, put a little more oil in another pan and go for it. I love mushrooms, asparagus, greens like kale or chard, zuchinni and broccoli here.

If you are extra lazy or you only have one pot in your hotel room, then instead of sauteeing you can take veg like broccoli, kale and asparagus and add them to the cooking pasta in about the last minute of cooking time - this will cook the veggies to a tender-crisp state while finishing off the pasta.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and return to the pot, add your veg and your sauce, toss and season well with salt - add a little at a time until it makes the garlic/chili 'pop'.

Then top with cheese if that's your wish, or hemp seeds if you like.

Then eat it!

15 minutes of cooking = yummmmmy supper.