Pasta with mini meatballs + southwest bowl
I make pasta a lot. Different pastas, different variations of sauce, some with ground beef, some with Italian sausage, etc… I knew I was going to make my pasta sauce, but I decided on mini meatballs instead of the regular size I usually make. Why, you ask? Because when I am trying to lose weight, I want to make it seem like I am eating more than I am. So I will cut apple slices very thin, or I will cut a dinner roll like I’m cutting a loaf of bread, to get tiny little slices of bread. You get the idea!
So for my mini meatballs I used 3/4 pound of ground sirloin, 1 egg, hot sauce, garlic, parmesan cheese and a little bread crumbs.
Look how many meatballs it made!
For the sauce it was: 26 oz. can crushed tomatoes, 1 14 oz. can tomato sauce, garlic, onion, green pepper (all pureed) salt, pepper, oregano. Cook it for about 20 minutes.
I weighed the meatballs. For 3.5 ounces I got to have 12 mini meatballs. It was great. I was totally full after eating this bowl
The next thing I think is important to stay on track is planning ahead. I try to be the night before girl, making the food I am bringing to work the next day, so I am not rushed in the morning. Plus, by doing it at night, I tend to make better things because I have more time.
So I was thinking of making some kind of southwest bowl. I pulled out 2 frozen chicken tenders from my freezer, put them in a skillet and seasoned them with chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. I cooked it on each side for about 3 minutes per side. I threw in some chopped green onion, some frozen black beans, some left over rice and cooked it all through. Then I added about 1/2 ounce of colby jack cheese.
This is going to be a totally deluxe lunch for me!
This is the best part of “brown bagging” my lunch, it’s better than a lot of places near my office to eat!
Do you bring your lunch to work/school??
Update
Okay, here is my lunch today. As I was telling my sister what I made for lunch, she said, all you need is corn and you can enter the BSI (blogger secret ingredient) contest this week which is being hosted by my friend Sophia. Corn is the secret ingredient. So, I ran to a local restaurant by my office that has a salad bar, and got some corn, kidney beans, red onions to add to my bowl. OMG, it was so good! So I entered the BSI contest this week for the 2nd time. So fun!