A week of Pasta Mama food: what I am cooking, eating and snacking on.

Intuitive eating with no menu plans, a focus on good quality produce, meat, dairy and a dissatisfaction for anything beyond 5 steps or elaborate flavours. Simple is best.

May 06, 2024

Ciao! Hello! Hey! Wassup! Buongiorno!

Welcome to my one time series: a week in PMamis kitchen - happy to have you here! After checking in with some of my community on whether this food journal adventure would be worthy of the effort train for your educational purposes, a resounding YES came back and so here we are. I am here for the next 7 days going to share with you what I am cooking, eating, making and ordering over the next week.

Not for the purposes of the tortured “what I eat in a day’ in an attempt to track my calories (we don’t do that anymore), but as way to share over to YOU the dance I do between produce, no menu plans, intuitive eating, creativity and staying nourished and alive by food - with a consideration of costs too.

One thing about me is that I detest plans of nearly all forms, and food plans or weekly menus even more so. Mainly because I am an intuitive eater at a baseline - I eat when I am hungry and I eat what I feel like, which is something I cannot plan for. I obviously have a general array of food that I buy knowing I will be able to whip something up that I will like, however writing a menu list on a Sunday that says:

Monday: Bolognaise Tuesday: Schnitzel Wednesday: Curry etc etc is my second worst nightmare which is followed only by my first food nightmare which is: meal prep that are the same meals allllllll week with no flavour. Like chicken breast, brown rice, sweet potato and broccoli for lunch 6 days a week etc. Of course if you are reading this and that is you, in which I may have offended you, there is nothing wrong with this decision to consume food - some people need to do that for their health, their anxiety, their time management, their families etc, I am just saying that for me: no no. I find thrill and creativity in having a base of food in my kitchen and using my knowledge, skills and taste desires via my intuition, and this is the best way for me to feed myself and heal myself from an internal nervous system that runs very hot and very fast.

I can empathise that not everyone has the ability to find joy in preparing or cooking food, but I also know that knowledge is power and with a few baseline skills in the kitchen, you can really achieve anything yum! So, over the next week I will share what I am making, buying or ordering from UberEats/Restaurants. I will upload the basic steps of recipes over images (like you’ll see below for Day 1) and you can use these to emulate or inspire your own kitchen eats.

My Sunday AM food haul below from Harrisfarm in Randwick, I normally head to the farmers markets for my produce but it was raining so I went to my local. I obviously have previous pantry items and other stuff in the fridge, but this will be the majority of the things I eat for 7- 10 days with a few filler proteins and things over the week. I am not restrictive with my food and eat what I like when I want, some of you may gasp when you see me eating 3 roll ups at 2pm but honestly - live ya life! I have always found pleasure in the joy of eating something yum and I have been brought up by parents who believe that if 80% of your diet is full of produce, healthy fats, good quality meats and anything that feeds you with good fuel, then go eat those roll ups gurl and maybe even a block of chocolate too if you want - balance is all of life!

There are a few things I focus my recipes on for the moment that are:

You’ll notice not too much gluten (PASTA MAMA WHAT?). I am currently working with a doctor on some long standing medical issues with inflammation and we are reducing gluten but not eliminating. So of course there will be pasta and bread but you will see a more protein and veggie direction
I am what they call a ‘flexitarian’ and the way I explain that for myself is that I follow about a 80% vegetarian diet with meat sometimes when I feel like it. When I had to reduce gluten more I was more hungry so protein filled that gap, but I feel more agile and light on vegetarian food (but I also hate tofu & legumes). When I do eat meat it has to be organic or grass fed and local, the quality of your meat is the biggest silent impact on your guts. If I am on my period I am eating that damn cheeseburger, if I am in Greece I am eating that souvlaki, but I also could be vegetarian with ease for 3 months straight if I wanted to be as the basis of most of my cooking is vego.
I don’t make lists before I go to the market, I purchase based on my normal weekly things like tomato, lettuce, onion, garlic, carrot, lemon and stuff like that, and then I buy whatever veggies and fruit are the best at the time and from the area as a preference. I trust my skills in the kitchen to know that I can create any meal from any veggie so I don’t stress on what I am making, I focus more on what I am buying and let my creativity do the work later
If you have a base of good oils and good pantry items like vinegars, mustards and seasonings and pair it with in season veggies and some good quality dairy - there is always a meal there for you, I promise!

I hope you come along and enjoy the next week of eating and cooking with me. The detailed food journal with recipes from tomorrow will be only available to our paid subscribers, but there will be a weekly summary at the end with tips out in our newsletter. As a writer and content producer it does take a level of time and effort to record this information to share across, so whilst I would love to create the journal and recipes for everyone, I hope you can appreciate that this is valued work that I will put the upmost of energy, time and effort into being able to share what I know, with you, to help where possible in the kitchen.

See you the next instalment of my favourite thing: EATING!

With love, chaos & rigatoni,

PM xx

Food haul

Simple eggs w coffee

The Lavazza ‘Napoli’ ground coffee is definitely the best flavour and price I have found for my morning coffee. Its delicious both as black coffee and with a bit of milk, which is stunning!