Meatless Monday

My husband is such a great sport. Even though he teases me every chance he gets about my new pescetarian lifestyle (vegetarian with eating fish a couple times a week) he’s been very forgiving of me at dinner time when I cook my crazy concoctions. I somehow convinced him to do a meatless Monday dinner with me. Of course I promised I would be cooking something so yummy he wouldn’t miss the meat. No pressure, right?


What to cook, what to cook....A few months back I saw a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis on her Food Network show, Everyday Italian and made a note of it in my phone. This last weekend after catching a re-run of the show I knew I had to give this recipe a try.

It did not disappoint! It’s a Vegetable Bolognese sauce and you will not miss one meat morsel out of this pasta feast. It’s so healthy! Loaded with chopped carrots, red pepper and onions with fresh herbs it’s a must try. Trust me this is a dish your family will love. There is about 15 minutes of prep work before you start. You have to get the veggies finely diced with a food processor. But I loved that I didn’t have to do all the chop work in the dish. God Bless the Food Processor!

I did have to change one thing, the porcini mushrooms.  Of course, my Kroger didn't have porcini mushrooms. Boo. So I used 5 oz of Shiitake Mushrooms and about 3oz of Baby Bellas.  Since I didn't have the left over porcini mushroom broth to use, I used the same amount it called for of Vegetable Stock.

Here is a link to the dish:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/rigatoni-with-vegetable-bolognese-recipe/index.html

Some of my pics along the cooking process.

Vegetables, tomato paste, wine, and vegetable stock, cooked down and ready to add the mascarpone cheese.

Starting to mix in the cheese.  It gave the sauce the most gorgeous blush orange color.

Adding in my Rigatoni directly from my pasta pot with a slotted spoon.  Adding some of the pasta water will thin out the sauce a bit.  If the sauce is already the consistency you want it, you can drain off the pasta well before mixing.

Finished product.  Now does this look good or what?

Amanda tested. Husband approved.

In case you were wondering how I arrived at this pescetarian diet over the vegetarian diet lemme explain. 

It was a combo of two things really, feeling a little sluggish from lack of protein and sushi.  I noticed my time at the gym was a struggle on the days where I was strictly vegetarian.  I added in some Salmon and other fish and it fixed the problem.  So I have fish about three-four times a week to supplement the lack of protein. I know there are very creative ways to get protein in your diet without adding the fish, but with out a Whole Foods or at least a Publix around here it's too much of a challenge for me to worry with. 

The other thing that made me go back to fish, my love of SUSHI. I can't quit. Don't ask me to.  But I do try and make sushi choices that contain sustainable fish.  Doin my part, people. Doin my part...

I  know what your thinking. NO, I don't miss meat one bit.  I don't even crave it.  Which is opposite of how I thought I would be. 

That said, this is the weekend we have all been waiting for....FOOTBALL!  Which also brings on, TAILGATE FOOD.  I will be partaking in Nuttin But Wings Hot Wings.  It will be interesting to see how I feel after falling off the veggie wagon. 

I'll be sure and fill you in Monday morning on all the good tailgate food I had over the weekend and how it felt to eat chicken.

One last thing,