7:30 p.m. | 2002-09-03 What? Pasta Salad? I have a serious passion for pasta salad at the moment. It’s been going on for at least a week and there’s no indication that this craving is gonna pass soon. (And, no I’m not pregnant.) However, I’ve never been passionate about pasta salad before so it’s rather odd. I eat a regular veggie salad almost everyday because I love vegetables. Pasta is great also, but usually, I only consume it when I go through one of my Italian food cravings. However, I usually eat pasta as a main course – spaghetti, lasagna, manicotti – that kind of thing. Now, for whatever reason, I’m a mad dog about pasta salad. I think that I usually avoid pasta salad because I only eat it at restaurants, and it tends to be rather bland. But recently, when I went to an Italian deli, I ordered pasta salad on impulse. All of a sudden, I really wanted it. And, I must say, they make some great pasta salad. Plus, it’s a nice diversion from my regular side dish of some form of potatoes. (I’ll pause for a moment to let all the anti-carbo people groan and protest.) I really don’t care what anyone thinks, I just want me some pasta salad. So when I went grocery shopping this weekend, I bought a box of Suddenly Salad pasta salad. As I expected, it was very bland so I dressed it up with various fresh veggies, olives and many different seasonings. It’s some great salad now. However, it’s also my breakfast side dish for this week. It goes with my BBQ chicken. Yep, that’s my breakfast for the week – BBQ chicken and pasta salad. Alas, there is no extra pasta salad resting in my frig. Here’s what I learned though: I can make pasta salad all by myself from scratch and it’d taste pretty damned good. After years of snubbing this side dish, I’m now hip to all the usual ingredients and the possibilities. Add to that the fact I love fruit and usually eat fruit everyday. But, all of sudden, I’m not interested in all that unless it’s all cut up fruit-salad style. So, while preparing my food for tomorrow, I diligently cut up my fruit. ** I realize that all this food-related drama is weird/alarming for the following folks: shrinks, people with eating disorders, regular folks, anti-carbo folks, meat and potato eaters, youngsters and, well, a whole lot of others. Rest assured, it’s not that dramatic. One symptom of fibro is food aversions/cravings. So, the fibromites out there that experience the same thing know what I’m talking about. Having fibromyalgia has freed me in so many ways. One of which is that I have no problem with my fickleness when it comes to food. I’m just happy to eat and keep it down. Well, and my peculiar habits don’t affect anyone else. It’s all cool. And, if you have a great pasta salad recipe for me, let me know because who knows how long this craving will last or when it will come back. your thoughts? seed flower