Lunch today was inspired from the leftover cottage cheese from my mini-cheesecake disaster. The pasta looked gorgeous coming out of the oven, and made a terrific, fresh and light-tasting meal. Next time I should add some protein (chicken breasts or garlic shrimps anyone?), and pair it off with a small salad - just to make it a well-rounded meal.

 

Cottage Cheese Pasta Casserole
makes 4 servings (304 kcal each)
*adapted from hphood.com

3/4 cup & 1/2 cup COTTAGE CHEESE
around 8 - 9 oz. of ROTINI or other small pastas, cooked al dente (substitute with whole wheat for more fibre)
1/4 cup SKIM MILK
2 -3 cloves of GARLIC, finely chopped (I like to add a bit more for flavour)
1 large CELERY STALK, diced
2 tsp ITALIAN SEASONING
SALT and PEPPER to taste
3 tbsp WHEAT GERM and/or bread crumbs
1/3 cup SHREDDED MOZZARELLA CHEESE

1. Cook pasta al dente, and drain.
2. Toss pasta in large bowl with 3/4 cup cottage cheese, milk, garlic, celery, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
3. Pour into 8X8 greased baking pan.
4. Spread 1/2 cup cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, and wheat germ on top the pasta mixture in separate layers, in that order.
5. Bake in 400 degree oven for 20 to 25 min, or until wheat germ is golden, and the mozzarella is bubbly.

Sigh.

It is very normal for people to suffer from the occasional lack of creative juices: that extra cah-pow. I have had my fair share of writer's block during the tedious process of composing college essays, digging for ideas during sophomore English class' weekly speeches, and worst of all, blanking out while trying to write the proper thesis paragraph (aka gripping, specific, and well-developed) for AP English. Artist-blocks came plentifully as well, but not as threatening since it was never accompanied by deadlines, or academic stress; if my doodles turn out slightly hideous, I get five minutes (tops) of narrow-eyed annoyance while I scrunch up the paper, stuff it deep into my collection of non-successfuls and move on...unless of course, it was on the back of my pop quiz and the like.

However, has there ever been such a thing as baking-block? Ever since I started my baking journey as a sophomore in Taiwan, I had looked forward to being able to bake in North America. I wanted to bake the normal way: with a proper-sized oven (NOT a toaster oven which I had used to make everything from banana bread to cheesecake), a wider variety of ingredients (oh how I lamented the lack of chocolate chips, and healthy doses of bran and wheat germ), and proper weather (humidity does not make the baking process comfortable). Now that I am finally back in Canada for university, I could not wait to use the large oven supplied in my mom's apartment - I imagined the fragrant muffins, cinnamon-y apple crisps, and delicious chocolate concoctions that would enter the metallic confines as formless goo, and exit as culinary perfections.

Armed with my brand new orange spatulas and silicone bake-ware, I got busy. However, my blueberry muffins and mini-cottage cheesecake disappointed my own expectations - from a scale of 1 to 10, they'd be in the negatives. Part of the cause is my resolve to bake everything low LOW calorie - I convinced myself that I can sacrifice a little taste if I can use it to justify the overindulgent behavior that was bound to take place. Needless to say, the only reason I overindulged on both desserts (if you could even call them that - they barely contained 2 tablespoons of butter COMBINED, and hardly any sugar) was because I wanted to get rid of them ASAP and didn't have the heart to throw them away and waste food that were still...edible.

Yes. I think I may have altered the original recipes a little to severely. I hope with my next baking session, I will have gotten my cah-pow back --- or at the very least, followed the recipes to a near tee.