Monday Morning Food Blues

Another weekend of gluttony
Another week of dieting!

Of course starting off with a piece of heavily buttered white toast! It's going well!


This weekend I cooked up some more classics (none of which i took photos of annoyingly!!)


Friday night i made a slightly out of the ordinary Lasagna. It wasn't that odd but i discovered AFTER getting back from the gym and a dash round Sainsburys that the box full of lasagna sheets was actually only a box of 4 lasagna sheets!
The one thing I always cheat with is a white sauce for my Lasagna! I ALWAYS buy it. Life is just too short to make the bolognese mixture as well as the white sauce. I have also got so bored of only semi cooked pasta sheets in my lasagna that i spent about 15 minutes part cooking the pasta so it wouldn't break my teeth later on!

Easy Bolognese Sauce:

Lean mince beef
1 onion finely chopped
1 x shallot finely chopped (loads in my fridge at the mo, by no means an essential ingredient!)
2 LARGE glasses of red wine
1 carton chopped tomatoes
good squeeze of tomato puree
good sprinkle of Dried thyme
good sprinkle of Dried Oregano
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
half crumbled beef stock cube
drizzle of olive oil

put a large pan over the heat.
Add olive oil and once hot add the onions, fry until transparent
Add the garlic
After 2 minutes break up the mince and stir it into the pan.
Add the red wine and simmer for 2 or 3 minutes.
Add the chopped tomatoes
lid on (if you've got one) and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and then to ensure it doesn't stick to the bottom
stir in the oregano, thyme, tomato puree and the stock cube and simmer until there isn't much liquid left surrounding the mince.
Season to taste.

It is so important with Bolognese that if you feel the mixture isn't tomatoey enough or rich enough you add more liquid and reduce it down some more. I frequently add more wine than i should but it gives the mix this gorgeous dark colour and you can just about taste the tannin of the grapes.

Recipe 1 from the weekend

Oooh i wish I'd taken photos!