Gers and Garbage Pasta — Shoveling Sunshine

ger [guh-er]; noun
1. a frequent or favorite female companion
2. a never-ending source of belly laughs, advice, memories, and good times.
Official Origin:
1855–60; girl + friend
Un-Official Origin:
1994; Jamal the Camel Jockey

You may or may not already know this but Friday, 8/1, was National Girlfriends Day. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you did happen to know it was National Girlfriends Day yesterday and you live in Key West and/or are a friend of mine there is an 90% chance that I was the reason that you knew this little snippet of information…

You see, last year, as I was paging through one of my magazines, I saw a little column written about how August 1st is National Girlfriends Day. I cut it out and pinned it to the bulletin board in my kitchen/ dining room/ office to remind me to send a little love to my girlfriends on August 1st. Then, as it always does, life happened and the next thing I knew it was mid-August and I had missed this important holiday. I immediately busted out my planner and “saved the date” for 2014.

Side Note:
I feel like this is the perfect time to introduce you to one of my favorite things; Erin Condren Life Planner. This is hands down the best planner that I have ever purchased in my life. There are both monthly and weekly spreads and plenty of space to write. It’s literally the key to me staying organized. I know, I know, you’re all like, #getwiththegets Krystal, that’s what your phone is for. But that doesn’t work for me. I have to write it down. I must have something tangible; a book I can hold, page through, and plan my fabulous life in. Here’s a peek at my planner:

It’s almost time for me to start designing my 2015 planner but to be honest I don’t want to trade this one in. I just love all of the pictures I chose for the covers; although that is one perk to the new design for 2015, interchangeable covers!

So anyways, when August 1st rolled around this year I was ready to roll. I had written myself reminders for two weeks in my planner and spent a small fortune at CVS buying cards for all my girlfriends up north. It might seem silly to some but to me it’s important. It’s important to nurture friendships, to keep in touch with people and to let them know how much they mean to you.

According to my financial advisor “quality of life” is not an applicable category in my monthly budget (at least not in this stage of the game); so after work on Friday I headed home and mentally started preparing for a homebound weekend. Then I got a text from one of my gers, asking if she could stop by on her way home from work. Of course! Then I invited another ger. And then another. And next thing you know I’m whipping up some garbage pasta over belly laughs with some of my favorite people.

How To Be Awesome 101: Always have a cute tablecloth, witty bev naps, and tea lights on hand. Instant ambiance.

Now you’re probably asking yourself, what the hell is garbage pasta? Well it’s my answer to not wasting food and incorporating more veggies into my diet. Two birds, one stone. I know I’m not the first person to come up with this concept but I may be the one who perfected it. When I first moved out on my own one thing I had a really hard time with (and still do) was cooking for one. I found myself wasting a ton of money every week on vegetables I had bought at the store but not been able to eat before they went bad. I was literally throwing money away every week so I just started chopping everything up and throwing it in with my pasta.

Friday night’s recipe included: mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon, broccoli sprouts, Greek yogurt, 1% milk, fresh lemon juice and zest, and some parsley to give it that gour-met look. The key to good garbage pasta is to reserve about a cup of pasta water to add back into the pan when you mix all your veggies and sauces together; the starches from the pasta water help thicken the sauce. Just like a good steak, once you’ve combined all your ingredients be sure to let your pasta rest under the lid of your pasta pot for about 15 minutes and bingo, ready to serve!

So in the end what I thought was going to be an uneventful Friday night turned into the perfect impromptu celebration of National Girlfriends Day, complete with garbage pasta and my favorite gers. The moral of the story is that celebrations are important. When you celebrate the people in your life, whether the occasion is big or small, whether it’s over filet mignon or garbage pasta, it’s a celebration for your soul. After all, friends are the mirrors reflecting the truth of who we are and from where I stand I’m looking pretty damn fabulous. Cheers to my gers, whether we talk once a day or once a year you are always in my heart.