Wednesday 5 April 2017

#ThankGoodness mid-week meal with Dolmio

When I'm organised and prepared, I can be really good with the cooking in our house and I do enjoy time in the kitchen. But all too frequently these days, I get to the evening, we all pile in the house... and my enthusiasm for cooking can just go right out the window.



That's why I love having go-to recipes, like spag bowl, and a cupboard stocked with staples - and also why I said yes to Dolmio when they challenged me to celebrate my #ThankGoodness moment and share some mid-week meal ideas based on what they sent to me.



It was a really good delivery filled with veggies, beef mince and chicken breasts as well as jacket potatoes and, of course, two large jars of Dolmio sauce  - so much in fact, I could already see at least four meals being created from the selection. So it was challenge accepted!




The meals I made, based on the shop above and using the Dolmio sauce as the key ingredient, were as follows...



Spaghetti bolognese 
This is the way I like to make it...


500g Dolmio sauce
500g lean beef mince
Handful of mushrooms
1 x red pepper
1 x onion
1 x courgette
2 x celery sticks
1 carrot, grated
4 x garlic cloves (there is garlic in the sauce but I like it strong!)

Dash of Worcester sauce
1 x tbsp cinnamon (trust me, it works!)


1. Brown the mince with some oil in a pan.

2. Finely chop the garlic and add it as the meat starts to turn. Add the dash of Worcestershire sauce and cinnamon too.

3. Slice the mushrooms and add to the pan. Dice the onion, pepper and courgette, chop the celery (finely dice if you have fussy little ones) then add all of this to the pan too and mix through.

4. Once the vegetables have softened, stir through the far of Dolmio.


5. Grate the carrot into the bolognase (a great way to hide even more veggies into this dish) then leave to simmer for a further 20 minutes or so.

6. Boil the kettle and put some spaghetti on in another pan. If you also fancy some garlic bread, pop this in the oven too, on a low setting.

7. Keep stirring the bolognase and when the sauce is bubbling away, strain the spaghetti and serve. Don't forget a sprinkling of parmesan on top before you serve!

This bolognase has six different vegetables packed into it and will be lovely and rich thanks to the Dolmio sauce.

Fajitas



I used half of the second jar of Dolmio and stirred this into my fajita mix, which consisted of chicken breast cut into chunks and sliced green peppers, onions and mushrooms, cooked until brown and then sprinkled with Mexican spices. 



The Dolmio helped to bind everything together and make it extra tasty, and all I had to do was serve with grated cheese and wraps and dinner was ready to go, with everyone getting stuck in and making it their way.



Gnocchi 
A great mid-week dish that's super easy and quick to make. 


Pick up some gnocchi and bring to the boil in a pan on the hob - this will take around four minutes. Pop a Mattessons smoked sausage in the microwave for one minute then chop into thin slices. Drain the gnocchi and put half a jar of Dolmio into the pan for a couple of minutes, adding the sausage and some drained sweetcorn (you can add any other veggies you have left over too). Stir in the gnocchi, sprinkle on some cheese and in five minutes, you'll be enjoying a tasty and filling dinner.



I also made two other meals using leftovers from the above dinners. The next day following on from the spag bowl, I added some chilli powder and kidney beans to the remaining bolognese in a pan then served with baked potatoes and a sprinkle of cheese. Depending on how much you have left, you could have this as a hearty lunch or served with salad for dinner time. And with the veggies leftover - courgette, peppers, onions, aubergine - you could chop into chunks and use Dolmio to make this into a ratatouille, to serve as a side or spooned over roast chicken breasts. Simple!

Having a stock of Dolmio sauce in your cupboard means you've always got a meal ready to be made in next to no time. I know that some people worry about what's inside ready made sauces, so I thought I'd share the following guide from Dolmio so you can be informed and see there's lots of good stuff inside:


And here's a video to see everything that goes into every jar:


What would you do with a jar of Dolmio? What are your #ThankGoodness go-to recipes?



This post is an entry for the #Dolmio #ThankGoodness Challenge, sponsored by Dolmio.www.dolmio.co.uk/thankgoodness



SHARE:

1 comment

  1. Tasty! Commenting for myself and on behalf of BritMums and thanking you for taking part.

    ReplyDelete

Blogger Template by pipdig