WW Weigh In and “Lent”il Bolognese

Thanks for all your well wishes about my work situation – nothing to report yet, other than the saga continues – but so far I have survived to file another day. 😀

I am still so proud of myself for not letting the stress get the best of me and staying on track with my food and working out – you know what – the exercise really is a great stress reliever!  I ran a 5k yesterday at lunch and I felt great when I was done. 😀

Drum roll please . . .

I got my second 5 pound sticker – I am such a sticker whore! 😀

I love cooking for my co-workers, but during lent I have to make meatless meals.  In the April/May issue of Clean Eating magazine, they had a recipe for a Pasta Lentil Bolognese.   I had planned on making it before work Friday morning – but realized I might not have given myself enough time to cook the lentils, so I cooked the lentils in my rice cooker and they were done in 45 minutes. 😀  But I am writing the recipe as it is (leaving out the onions and fennel – still not a fan of fennel)

Lentil Bolognese

• makes 5 one cup servings – 5 PointsPlus

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 1 cup dried lentils (any color – mine were yellow)
• 1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes with juice
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large stock pot, heat oil on medium-high.  Add carrot, celery and garlic.  Cook, stirring often, about 15 minutes.  Add vinegar and scrape any brown bits from the bottom of the pot.  Stir in the broth, 1 cup water, lentils, tomatoes, oregano, parsley and basil.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes, stirring occassionally. 

I served it on a bed of baby spinach, 1 cup gluten free pasta (what I had on hand – it was good!) and 1 cup of lentil bolognese.  It was delicious and filling.  I did add crushed red pepper to my bowl – so feel free to make it spicy. 😀

And while I normally puree my tomato sauces, I liked the crushed tomatoes and chunks of carrot and celery. 😀

Hope you enjoy your weekend.  I am going to be doing my meal plan from my pantry/freezer this week – should be interesting! 😀