so, i forgot to mention this morning that i tried the pasta bowl with a teaspoon of cayenne and a little less garlic salt and learned that:

1) i can taste it

2) but, it's too spicy

this is somewhat of a problem. replacing the hot sauce with cayenne was done partly to reduce the sodium, and i need enough of it to get some carotenoids, which seems liike i'll be unable to handle.

that's partly why i got the paprika.

so, i'm going to try it with a tablespoon of paprika and no cayenne next time.