Spaghetti Bolognaise Recipe

Day Ten of the Healthy Eating Plan with a delicious and easy to prepare recipe for Spaghetti Bolognaise.

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Tonight's main meal will be Spaghetti Bolognaise, this is always a family favorite and to achieve a low fat version without compromising on taste you need to buy good quality, low in fat beef. I buy the minced steak variety which can have up to half the amount of fat in it as some minced beef, don't buy the value brands, it's cheaper because it has been bulked out with fat. And be careful some of the labeling out there isn't as straightforward as you might think, 'reduced fat' doesn't mean it's low fat, neither does 'leaner' it means it has less fat than others so to make sure look for the actual data that tells you just how much fat content is in there, I've seen 'reduced fat beef' vary from 1.9g of fat in 100g of meat, to 32.4g of fat in 100g of meat' there are some very naughty supermarkets out there misleading us. Check the labels and know what to look for, anything less than 5% fat is what you're ideally looking for.

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Breakfast

Danone Shape Delights 0% Yoghurt, Rhubarb Crumble Flavour with a handful of Tesco's Fruit & Fibre Cereal.

1 Conference Pear.

Comment: Yes that really did say 0% and yes it's talking about the fat content, which is great BUT ... it tastes like plastic, their Pro-activia Yoghurt is sooo much nicer, I have to say the Rhubarb version is better than the Apple Crumble one which is truly horrible. Of course this is just my opinion and perhaps you should try it for yourself but if you're asking whether I think you should the answer is no. Oh those people at Danone aren't going to like me are they?

Lunch

2 steaming bowls of Hot and Sour Soup.

Comment: Well I've been in the garden cutting back my next door neighbour's ivy which has covered my fence and since I have a new garden shed going up this afternoon it really needs to get gone. So I'm cold and in need of heat AND major plus there was Hot and Sour Soup left from last night, it only gets better with re-heating (unless you've got the prawns in there as they get a tad tougher) but who cares - hot and sour soup and a warm me!

N.B. After eating the soup I didn't really fancy having any fruit, so I will wait till a little later on, maybe when I go to pick up my daughter from school and I will grab an apple to eat in the car.

DINNER - SPAGHETTI BOLOGNAISE

Ingredients:

325g Minced Free Range Beef

2 x 14oz / 400g cans of Plum Tomatoes

3 big fat juicy cloves of Organic Garlic

1 tsp dried Parsley

2 tsp dried Italian Herbs or Oregano

1 tsp low-cal Sugar

A drizzle of Olive Oil or your favourite spicy flavoured Olive Oil

Seasoning; freshly ground Sea Salt and Black Pepper

75g of dried pasta per person

Method:

• Into your food processor add the 2 cans of tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tsp of dried parsley, 1 tsp of Italian herbs (or oregano), 2 tsp of sugar, a small amount of the seasoning and blitz.

• Pour the contents of the food processor into a large saucepan, if you put it in a smaller one as the lovely red sauce cooks it will plop out all over your cooker and you don't want that do you?

• Place it over a medium heat and bring the sauce to a gentle simmer.

• While this is simmering drizzle some olive oil (flavoured or not, your choice) in a non-stick frying pan and place over a medium heat.

• Add the 500g of minced beef and stir until completely browned.

• Carefully transfer the browned beef from the frying pan to the sauce.

• Gently simmer the completed sauce for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

• Check the seasoning and add more if required.

• 10 minutes before your sauce is ready cook your pasta in boiling salted water as per the instructions on the packet. Make sure you use lots of water, if you find that your pasta is taking too long to cook it's normally because there's not enough water. I use about 75g of dried pasta for those trying to lose weight and as much as the others in the family want to eat.

• When both the sauce and the pasta are ready, mix together, stir well to combine.

Serve with 1 tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese, and a mixed salad - buon appetito!

Comment: This is a very yummy and filling dinner, you could cut the fat even lower by cooking the sauce without adding any meat, I actually prefer to roast halves of red pepper, tomatoes and garlic in the oven and have that instead of the meat.