Thursday, September 22, 2011

Rush, Rush

Confession time - I used to have a kind of crush on Emilio Estevez, and was more than a little annoyed when he and Paula Abdul got together. Cue obscure song reference from the early 90s.

Also cue very poor planning on my part tonight. When I was determining our weekly meal plan, I decided to forgo Thursday because the kid has soccer than football back-to-back, and I thought he'd get home too late for a family meal (i.e., I'd eat a veggie or salmon burger). But, my mental timing was off, and he was going to be home in plenty of time for us to sit down together.

When I figured this out, I decided to scour my cookbooks (in keeping with this week's cookbook theme) and see what I could together with ingredients I had on hand. Although I had to make a few substitutions, I managed to pull it off. This entire process - from light bulb "family can eat together moment" - to completion took about an hour (including taking a break to put the baby to bed). Rush, rush... (btw, kind of over Emilio these days.)

Farfalle Bolognese
Source: Weight Watchers Make It In Minutes (2001)

Ingredients:
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 c. chopped onion
  • 1 small carrot, chopped (used a hand full of baby carrots that I chopped)
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 lb lean ground veal (used 1 lbs extra-lean ground turkey)
  • 1/2 lb ground skinless chicken breast (see note above re: ground turkey)
  • 1 (28oz) can whole peeled tomatoes, drained and chopped
  • 1/2 c. red wine (used cooking wine)
  • 1/4 c. grated Parm cheese
  • 1/2 tsp salt (skip)
  • 1/4 tsp pepper (skip)
  • 1/2 lb farfalle (used whole-wheat angel hair)
Directions:
  • Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, onion, carrot and oregano; cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies begin to soften, about 4 minutes. Add the veal and chicken and cook until no longer pink, about 4 minutes longer. Add the tomatoes and wine, bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until the sauce begins to thicken, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in parm cheese, salt and pepper (we just added the parm cheese to our completed meals).
  • Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the farfalle and cook according to package directions. Serve sauce over pasta.
Yield: 4 servings (this reflects the original recipe with the chicken, veal and farfalle)
Per serving: 480 calories; 11g total fat (3g sat); 84mg choles; 777mg sodium (yikes!); 56mg carbs; 5g fiber; 36g protein

Reviews:
I don't know if it was because of all of the sports, but the kid ate almost his entire portion. I thought this was really good for a fast, simple meal - the toughest part was chopping the onion and garlic.

Ranking:
Three Forks

Best. Picture. Ever.

2 comments:

  1. Mmm. Sounds yummy. Cannot believe the sodium in the "before" version - CRAZY!

    Me? I was into Rob Lowe. Craziest thing (even crazier than the sodium) - man has NOT AGED. I'm 20 yrs older and he looks exactly the same.

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  2. Rob Lowe is way cuter than Emilio these days! And yes, I still describe my men as "cute." !!

    ReplyDelete