This simple, warmed pasta is totally delicious, substantial, and tastes cooked but isn’t! One week we ate it three times for dinner, and we hope you love the recipe as much as we do!

Lemon thyme brings a delicate, lemony taste that’s deep and subtle, and the slightly chewy sundried tomatoes are robust and sweet with a texture that’s downright meaty! Hemp seeds take the place of Parmesan cheese and add healthy Omega 3’s, and protein.

For a transitional dinner, this recipe would work beautifully with steamed veggies such as broccoli, or artichokes. Feel free to experiment with your favorite Mediterranean veggies and herbs such as Fines Herbs, Herbs de Provence, marjoram, basil, tarragon, parsley, fennel, dill, olives, or asparagus.

Ingredients: Makes 2 dinner entrees, or 4 smaller dishes
4 cups spiralized zucchini noodles
15 sundried tomatoes*, soaked
4 tablespoons green onions, finely sliced
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons hemp seeds
3 tablespoons pine nuts (make sure they haven’t gone rancid)
2 tablespoons dried lemon thyme. Substitute with basil if unavailable, or use 1 tablespoon dried thyme, with 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice.
2 tablespoons Juniper Balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, pressed
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan salt, or 2 tablespoons Coconut Aminos
Tiny shake of cayenne, optional

* Note: If you can’t find really good sundried tomatoes, make dehydrator tomatoes. Slice several tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick, add a bit of olive oil with some garlic, salt and pepper, mix well to coat, and place in the dehydrator for 3-4 hours. To keep it simple, I dry them on a dinner plate, or a pizza plate. Set temperature to 110 degrees. Scrape every bit of yumminess from the plate once tomatoes are dried—the flavor is intense and fabulous! In fact, we’re going to try this version soon!

Directions
Put sundried tomatoes into a bowl and put just enough pure water over them to cover.
Soak for several hours until soft, or overnight. Drain when ready. Cut into bite sized pieces.
With a Spiralizer*, prepare zucchini pasta. Use the inner core that’s leftover. Thinly slice in diagonal cuts.
* If you don’t have a Spiralizer, or a Saladacco, then make thin long zucchini noodles using a good veggie julienne cutter. We prefer the Messermeister brand.
Put all ingredients into a large frying pan and gently heat, stirring continually to make sure the pasta doesn’t cook.
Warm to desired temperature. If it gets too hot it’s cooking. Use your finger to gage the temperature.
Transfer immediately to plates, serve, and imagine that you’re dining in Italy!
Drizzle on a tiny bit of extra olive oil or vinegar if desired.

What triggers awakening? How do we know when we’ve awakened? For me, inspiration and excitement are signs that come with awakening. There are feelings of joy, gratitude, and a flow or surge of heightened energy. Music sounds so much better, colors are clearer and brighter than before, and smiles arrive like waves endlessly rolling into the shore.

Where does inspiration come from? One of the meanings is "breath", and to me this is not only my own breath, but the Breath of Life, blossoming from Spirit within and all around me—the all-creative energy that keeps trillions of cells alive and in perfect harmony unless I get in the way with negative thinking or emotions, or poor choices in food!

I love that every day I have the opportunity to reawaken, and I do—again, and again! Each time there’s another moment of awakening, the borders of my heart expand just a little bit more and show me new horizons.

Seeds are enlivened with water. Plants and trees answer to the light of Spring, sending out green shoots. Baby birds hatch, hibernating animals stir and stretch. Days lengthen, temperatures warm. Awakenings come from the stars, from the earth, through friends, family, and children. The whole family of man is like a giant percolating tank of vibrating potential, and one act can spark another act to begin—and this sparks yet other thoughts, ideas, and actions.

The glorious feeling of awakening thrills me after I go through a challenging time, or a "disconnection", or if I’ve fallen out of the practice of gratitude. Truth now shines from a fresh new perspective. Here the inner fires ignite and creativity soon follows—in the kitchen, in writing or painting, in music, in sharing and caring, and in the desire to spread the goodness to everyone we know and love!