Meatless spaghetti bolognese

So following along my healthy journey, I have another healthy-ish recipe to share with you all. I haven't done any updates lately because Christmas just came around and I'm to embarrassed to say how much food I consumed in the days leading up to and of Christmas.  So in my total lack of a strong mindset I have decided against measuring myself and being disappointed with the weight gain numbers. So instead I have focused on getting a meal plan together that the whole family can enjoy while I work my way towards being more healthy in my life choices. Once I am a few days into eating healthier and drinking my 2-3L a day as well as not feeling the Christmas food baby bloat. I will again pick up on my every 3 day measurement updates.

Now for the fun part. The recipe!!! So this is a meatless spaghetti bolognese, I got the main idea for the recipe from a YouTube channel "AnarhistKitchen" I will link the video below if you want to check it out. I did change the recipe slightly to add in more vegetables and also added cheese to stop the rest of my family complaining to much, so my version is not vegan but can easily be made so.

Ingredient's:

700g diced mushrooms

1/2 a large carrot diced

1 large onion diced

1/2 zucchini diced

2 table spoons of diced garlic (we love garlic but adjust to taste)

1/4 diced red capsicum (bell pepper)

1 table spoon of tomato to paste

1 jar of pasta sauce (use your favorite)

500gms of your choice of spaghetti/pasta

A pinch of dried Italian herbs

A splash of water if needed

A sprinkle of cheese if desired

And salt and pepper to taste

Now apart from the main ingredients of mushroom, pasta sauce and pasta the other ingredients are up to you. Go by what you enjoy, what needs to be used in your fridge etc. This meal is completely customisable.

Steps:

1) cook onion till translucent in a large frypan (I used a wok) on medium high heat. Add in garlic and cook for another minute.

2) add in your diced mushrooms, carrot, zucchini and capsicum. Cook for a few minutes till the mushrooms start to wilt.

3) add in the tomato paste and stir until all veggies are covered and it becomes fragrant. Then add in the jar of pasta sauce and dried Italian herbs.

4) put you pasta into a saucepan and cook by the packet instructions 

5) reduce the heat on your sauce to low-medium and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring regularly. Check if your sauce needs splashes of water here and there so it doesn't become to thick.

6) after simmering for 15 minutes, check that the carrots are tender (mine were still a little crunchy) and also check if you need salt and pepper (I didn't add either for personal preference)

7) serve up your dish how ever you wish and sprinkle some cheese on top.

Now how did I like this meal? Honestly not to bad. There would be a couple changes next time I make it. The biggest thing would be not adding in capsicum. Even though I added a small amount I could taste it through the whole dish. And I hate capsicum. I thought if there was only a small amount and diced really small I wouldn't notice/taste it but that wasn't the case for me. Also as mentioned in the steps, I didn't simmer the sauce long enough and the carrots were still a bit crunchy so just be mindful if you use carrots as well.

Overall I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms but cooked this way was not bad at all and I quite enjoyed it. And so did hubby and fussy 1 and 2 year olds who usually think veggies are poison.

So this recipe has been added to our regulars as it is a great way to use left over veggies in the fridge and very simple to make.

So the video I got my inspiration and main recipe from is-

https://youtu.be/godgwkeLk-E 

So if you try this recipe let me know what you think, and if you made any adjustments with your version.