Spinach and mushroom pasta recipe

If you know me you will know I absolutely love to cook and I have decided that each month (maybe twice a month, depending how the first dish goes) I am going to try and cook a new dish. What I like with cooking is something simple and something which is Slimming World friendly, that means avoiding oils, creams, butter. Yes, in a lot of recipes some of them are used but I have found some alternatives and if I'm honest I don't really miss them.

Recently I had made a quick and simple tomato sauce using fresh tomatoes rather than tinned as I couldn't get any. The reason behind this was due to some browsing on Pinterest and I see a mushroom and tomato based pasta and thought I would do something similar. I find these kind of pasta dishes easy to cook and great for meal prep.

Green pesto pasta

I got the idea for this recipe from a little pasta side dish I picked up from M&S a while back, it's pasta bows with spinach and pine kernels in a pesto dressing. It's something so simple and I would have it on the side of my salad but I did notice with the pesto which was used there was a lot of oil at the bottom so I thought to make my own but slightly different.

I tend to have this for lunches at work as it is such a quick meal to cook the night before and I make enough for a few days. If I do re heat it at work the pasta can be a little dry so I just add a little bit of water and it tastes and feels a lot better.

What you'll need

Medium sized pot

Colander

Mixing bowl

Sharp knife

Chopping board

Vegetable Red Thai Curry

Over the last few months or so I've reduced the amount of meat that I eat not for any particular reason but I'm just trying to eat more vegetable and get more goodness in.

I'm not sure how I only discovered red Thai curry until the past couple months I think it was the coconut which put me off as I'm not a big fan of things which have coconut in and for years I was convinced it never agreed with me. I see an old (not in age lol) friend who has recently started a vegan insta/blog and some of the things she makes just look so yummy and often so easy to do. Laura has given me the inspiration to try some new and different things I wouldn't necessarily do myself, make sure you check her insta out!

I have been loving this simply yet yummy veggie red Thai curry, it's quick and easy to make. It's great for lunch or dinner as it's not a heavy meal and something so quick to do I often make it after work.

I tried meat free

So a couple months ago or so I had considered to try a meat (including fish) free diet only something short term to see if I could get on with it. I don't eat loads and loads of meat, mainly chicken and fish to be honest but I've heard of many people going meat free or doing the veganuary challenge where they have lost weight or felt better in themselves and I was intrigued. Also I recently heard that a quarter of UK dinners are actually meat or fish free. Personally I think going completely vegan would be a big jump with not doing anything like this before and there is a lot of things I think I would need to change but this was my first step.

Now I didn't do a straight two weeks like I originally planned my downfall was the weekends, the first weekend I went out with a few girls out of Ipswich and the weekend just gone I was in London. The first part was from Monday 29th January till the Saturday and then Monday 5th February till the Friday. It was a little different trying it that way but I suppose it was a way also to see if I really missed it which during the week I didn't but come the weekends when I'd be out it was kind of a different story, I'd be on my way home tipsy and hungry with nothing else really open it was some kind of fast food at the time.

Here is just a few meals I had cooked, I didn't get a picture every one I had tried but other dishes I made had included omelettes, roasted veg, a few Subway salads for lunch, jacket potatoes and home made soup.

Easy Mediterranean Tart Recipe