Dinner is served

So far so good with my plan to make new dishes every 2 days. I decided to prepare a quick pasta dish, I had all of the ingredients here already so dinner took about 30 min. from beginning to end.
I do not make any dishes with tuna more than 1x a month, and my youngest doesn't like tuna, but she had seconds of tonight's dinner. I'm happy :).

I chose to make Spaghetti al Tonno e Limone ( Spaghetti with Tuna and Lemon)... From The Top 100 Pasta Sauces cook book that I picked up at the community garden yard sale a few months ago for $1.00.

 I usually enhance dishes that seem a bit plain or lacking in vegetables. Tonight was no different, I added sauteed red onions and grated carrots to the sauce. I also did not put as much parmesan cheese as they said, and just juice from half of a lemon did the trick. I also boiled some broccoli to add on the side. I think next time I will also add some fresh grape tomatoes on the side as well.

This is def. a dish I will make again, it was delicious!

1lb spaghetti
2 tblsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
4 tbspn chopped parsley
7 oz tin tuna fish
juice of 1 lemon
2 1/2 oz ( 3/4 cup) fresh grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp butter
salt and black pepper

Heat the olive oil and add the finely chopped garlic and parsley. (I added the carrots and onion at this step) Stir continually over a low heat, gradually adding the drained and flaked tuna fish. The heat should remain low so that none of the ingredients changes color.
Cook the pasta, following the packet directions so as to not over cook it. Drain the pasta and turn into a heated serving dish. Add the sauce and stir well. Now add the lemon juice, freshly grated cheese, the butter divided into small piece and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well and serve at once.

I had to double the ingredients to make a decent size portion servings for 5 people with a bit left over.

Challenging myself

I recently looked over all of my cook books and Vegetarian Times magazines and realized I have a LOT of options for delicious vegetarian meals. I have about 23 cook books!  I decided that I'm going to try to make a new meal every 2 days using most of my cookbooks. I already make a variety of meals but do tend to fall back on a few tried and true dishes when I'm in a hurry. I can't give up my rice and beans and greens :).

The kids and I will be looking for new recipes and doing the shopping for the meals, I am hoping I can get in the habit of pre- planning what I will be making at least a week ahead of time to make things easier.

Tonight I am making cauliflower mac and cheese.. delicious and with less carbs since there is no pasta in it. Not a new meal to us but one that I don't make very often. Today I added sauteed grated zucchini, carrots, diced red peppers and onions. The kids actually licked their plates clean! :)

We have made dishes from many different countries, namely Thailand, Egypt, India, Hungary, Spain, China, France, Italy and a few that I'm sure I'm forgetting right now. The girls especially, love helping with the choosing the recipes and doing some of the cooking with me. Food is such an important part of family life. I think I'm going to enjoy this challenge.