While I was sitting in urgent care yesterday waiting for my flu diagnosis, I made a quick mental adjustment. I had wanted to make something super fun and special for my lunches this week, in celebration of my first week on my new project. But as I made my peace with the illness, and decided on chicken soup (and chicken salad, because rule number one is No Waste), I knew I would just ease on in with one of my very favorites: bolognese sauce, to which I almost always add mushrooms (because mushrooms are the greatest).

I know they say "feed a cold, starve a flu," but my nausea is (hopefully) gone for good, and a woman's gotta eat. Best to eat something she loves.

Planning!

No planning necessary. I make this all the time; my recipe is heavily modified from a cookbook I bought a billion years ago in college, called Pasta Cooking by Jeni Wright (she has a serious catalog at amazon.com, I have just realized!). My bolognese is enormously modified from the recipe for a lasagne in that book.

Anyway, this was just a matter of adding a couple of items to the grocery list and looking forward to an easy cook.

Here's the nutritional breakdown from Fitbit...

Groceries I had on hand...

• onion
• carrot
• celery
• garlic
• olive oil
• red wine
• tomato paste
• dried oregano
• beef broth
• parsley

Groceries I had to buy...

• ground beef (1.04lb @ $5.29/lb = $5.50)
• tomato sauce ($.79)
• mushrooms (8oz @ $2.29)
• ziti ($1.79)

Total monies spent for the entire recipe: $10.37

Total monies spent for each of these 4 meals....

$2.59 per meal...

Cooking!

Bolognese is a magic food, by which I mean, it comes together like a soup or a stew. And those, I can jam.

First, mirepoix, which I chop with my mini-prep because I really want the veggies to add all their flavor but not take away from the texture of the beef and mushrooms. Then the meat, then wine, then tomatoe-y stuff and seasoning and broth. Simmer it, and it's done! Meanwhile, I fry the mushrooms, and cook the pasta, and it's as easy as that!

Bolognese packs a ton of flavor for what looks like a boring brown meat sauce. My little sick heart will be so happy this week!