Tuna & lemon pasta - one for when you're just too tired.

There are times in everyone's life when you're just too tired, or too sad, or just too meh! to cook, yet the desire for comfort food is warring with the desire to continue sitting where you are, quietly dissolving into further misery.

Well, this is the perfect recipe for one of those occasions - and what's more, quite apart from being so tasty it could bring a teensy glimmer of a smile to your face, it's good for you!

I have got to admit that I wasn't feeling either too tired, too sad or too meh! on Tuesday evening when I served this up for our dinner, but as a contender for "Pizza Tuesday" (when we're trying to ignite Son & heir's interest in foods other than those on his plate), it was perfect.

Son & heir, you see, has decided that tuna is one of those ingredients that shall no longer sully his particular plate.  "It's too dry!" he complained, the last time I served it to him.  (Although it would appear to be okay as tuna pasta bake.  Work that one out if you dare).

I'd bought him a Lasagne to have that night but he managed to finagle his way in to his friend's house where he had been invited to stay for tea, which left us to tuck into our pasta in peace.

Mind you, it wouldn't have been difficult to have made expansive gestures of delight and deliciousness over our plates of pasta, as the recipe really is quite lovely.  Hubby had only managed about 10 minutes of anticipatory napping, when the call to attention was made.  Quite literally, all you need to do is put four things into a bowl, two things into a saucepan of water - and you're done!  Just about enough time to warm up some plates.

TUNA & LEMON PASTA  (serves 2)

Ingredients :

350g pasta shells
200g pack trimmed fine green beans, cut into short lengths
200g can of tuna in olive oil
grated zest of a lemon
1 heaped tbsp baby capers
a generous pinch of chilli flakes
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil for drizzling.

Method :

1.  Fill a large saucepan with water, add a pinch of salt and put on a high heat to boil.

2.  Cook the pasta according to pack instructions.  (Usually around 8-9 minutes).

3.  With around 3-4 minutes to go, add the beans and cook until tender (or until the pasta is done.  If you're dubious about timing these two correctly, just cook the beans in a separate pan).

4.  Into a bowl, tip the tuna (including the oil) and flake the fish gently.  Add the lemon zest, capers, chilli and a good helping of pepper.

5.  Drain the pasta and beans, return them to the pan and toss in the tuna mixture.  Stir gently to combine.  If the mixture is looking a little dry, add a drizzle or two of extra virgin olive oil.

Serve on warmed plates.

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Meal planning - heading towards healthy!

Can't see me ever achieving this!

This week's meal plan has, of necessity, something of a bias towards the healthy.  Only a bias, you understand - I've not gone completely mad and thrown out ALL the cream, or the cheese, or the pastry!

I decided that once my birthday was out of the way, I'd knuckle down to concentrating on making the meals a little lighter, healthier and better for us.

Now that doesn't mean that you won't find pastry, or cream, or cheese working their way in to the recipes, but what it does mean is that there will be rather less than there has been of late.

Also, (don't tell Son & heir) I'm going to be increasing the fruit and vegetable intake and trying to reduce the emphasis on meat.  I'll be trying to make the meat and vegetables work as a team, as opposed to the vegetables just taking up space on the meat's plate.

This first week, we're just going to be easing into the routine.  I can't just jump into it, because I've got foodstuffs in the cupboard and fridge that need using up.  I'm not going to throw away something that's perfectly good and that we paid good money for, just because I'm changing the emphasis of our meals.  However, hopefully, as we go along you'll notice a healthier trend (with the occasional "less than healthy" meal, just to create balance!).

So, here's how this week is looking :

Tuesday (Pizza night) : Son & heir is out, so hubby & I are having Tuna & lemon pasta.

Wednesday : Cheesey Parsnip Flan and salad.

Thursday : Smoked sausage, lime rice & succotash.

Friday : Devilled sausages and fruity quinoa salad.

Saturday : Beef & spinach pasta bake.

Sunday : Chicken & Sweetcorn Pie, roast potatoes, broccoli & carrots.

Monday : Crunchy fish (minus batter, for me), potato croquettes & peas.

I'm looking forward to that lot!

Well, today is Wednesday so we had the Tuna & lemon pasta last night.  It really is such an easy dish to prepare - and is almost a complete store cupboard recipe, except for the green beans.  The mixture of tuna, lemon zest, capers and chilli is just delicious - and keeps your taste buds interested!

Tonight's Cheesey Parsnip Flan and salad was a triumph, if I say so myself.  This was another recipe that was incredibly easy to produce.  I've tried to make all this week's recipes easy to make, in the belief that if I don't challenge myself too badly in the kitchen, I'll live to fight another day with a bit more energy than otherwise!

I'll be blogging both the Tuna pasta and the Flan immediately after this one, so I won't talk too much about them here, or I'll have nothing to say in their own dedicated blogs!  (That's how simple they are to produce!).

I'm intrigued by hubby's smoked sausage, lime rice and succotash idea for Thursday's dinner.  He's got a very definite idea in mind that he's trying to reproduce, he's been doing a lot of research via the internet on various recipes and it all sounds pretty good!

Friday's dinner is a meal of two halves, I'm afraid.  The devilled sausages are a pretty dead cert to be a Good Thing, but the quinoa salad is a completely new entity for all of us.  I'm dead keen to try quinoa and devised the recipe for this salad after doing extensive reading up on what other people have put into successful quinoa salads.  I'm hoping that the fruity aspect will go well with the curry/spicy aspect of the sausages.

I'm having a go at the Beef & Spinach Pasta Bake from www.foodwhine.com on Saturday.  Hubby has an extensive spinach patch developing at the bottom of the garden and it would be just fabulous to make a meal from it.  It's one of those recipes that is a cross between a pasta bake and a casserole, so I'm hoping the weather won't be roasting on Saturday, or you may find that this gets changed to a prawn salad!

Sunday sees the return of the home-made Chicken & sweetcorn pie.  I've been wanting to make a pie for ages and before we decided to upgrade the health value of our meals, had bought the double pack of frozen pastry.  Well I'm not about to let that go to waste - and making a pie gets rid of both packs at once, so it gets to stay on the menu!

One of our peas - the formative years

We were running out of time (and inspiration, if I'm honest) when it came to deciding what hubby was going to cook on Monday.  Hence the "crunchy fish" (aka fish in batter), potato croquettes (hideous things!) and peas.  I'm quite determined to de-crunchy my fish and so reduce the fat content, but I can't guarantee that either of the boys will be doing the same thing!  In truth, they probably don't need to, as they are both normally active people - unlike me who is sedentary at best!  It would be just fabulous if our pea vines were to yield enough peas to cope with feeding the three of us, but we'll just have to wait and see where that's concerned.  We had a sneaky taster of a couple of fresh peas from the vines just yesterday and they are truly gorgeous - so sweet!  Yum!

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T