Spaghetti bolognese

SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE - freshened up from the freezer. We spruced up our frozen dish and gave it a fresh twist with an abundance of seasonal tomatoes.
Being prepared has to be our number one tip for successful weight loss. The weeks where we have sat down, written out a list of meals, then bought the ingredients and STUCK to our plan, have often turned out to be the best for weight loss.
Make use of your freezer - and dried ingredients whenever you can. When we make spaghetti bolognese, we like to make double the quantity and freeze in portions. It's a great standby. If you have less time - you could always buy a ready meal and add a few fresh ingredients.
It was nice to know something was defrosting while we were busy getting on with life.
To make the basic mince mixture - which could be used for a lasagne too, we follow this easy recipe which brings our meal (including the pasta) to under 500 calories:

SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE - BASIC MINCE MIXTURE

450g good beef mince (fat poured off) 

160g onions 

120g mushrooms 

Tablespoon tomato puree 

400g (large) tin chopped tomatoes 

Mixed herbs to taste - either fresh or dried
Bay leaf
Garlic

Salt & pepper
Large glass of red (or white) wine - optional

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Brown the mince in a frying pan and pour off the fat or drain on kitchen paper. 

Fry the onions in a little oil until soft then add as much garlic as you like.

For added flavour you could de-glaze your frying pan with a large glass of red wine.

 Pour the onions, garlic and minced beef into a large saucepan. 

Add dried provencal herbs and/or your own fresh herbs. 

Add the chopped mushrooms (no need to fry these first).

Add the tin of chopped tomatoes and tomato puree.  

Season with salt/pepper and add the bay leaf.

Simmer for around 30 minutes.

Freeze in portions.

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REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - do you know yours?

We began our weight loss journey in January 2011 - and began our blog in June 2011. Here's a link to the first post. (here's the link).

We like to post our main meals to show you what CAN be eaten. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go! I'm currently going through the photographs and replacing them with more website friendly versions which will allow the blog to load quickly. 

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