Mangia!

There is something about Sunday night that means something to me. This time of year especially, my relationship with Sunday night is a catch-22. There are the “Sunday blues” as my mother referred to them when I was growing up since all of a sudden I would get a stomach ache after the sun went down (every week). Her theory was that it was because the weekend was over and I was getting anxious about school the next day. I think I still get a small case of Sunday night blues sometimes. No one likes the weekend to end, but maybe it was because Sunday was so much fun at the same time that added insult to injury. In my house, I grew up with Sundays as a part of my family culture. My dad would spend the day in the living room screaming at the NFL games on TV. The house would be filled with the noise of the crowds cheering on TV, the musical football theme songs the channels would play, and my dad literally lying on the floor and screaming “no no no!” if the Jets blew it. My mom would be in the kitchen making baked ziti, and my dad would wander into the kitchen every now and then to check on the sauce. I spent the day doing homework, playing in the fall leaves, (or snow), and wandering into the kitchen every now and then to dip a piece of italian bread into the pot of sauce. I frequently did this with my friend Kristen, who spent many Sundays with me at my house. We would even do our homework together just so we could keep our play dates. Dinner time was always baked ziti with lots of sauce, bread, and salad. As I got older I was able to add red wine to my dinner menu. Friends were always allowed to eat with us, and most of the time they did. It was the only night of the week that we ate in the dining room, and dinner sometimes lasted 3 hours. The sun goes down early this time of year, and cold dark nights only made staying in the house and getting full that much more fun.

Something about Sunday has stuck with me, despite the fact that I don’t have my own family yet to make sauce for. I know maybe 4 things about football, yet many weeks I have the games on in my apartment mainly for the comfortable background noise. I still get a little anxious about Monday morning being the awful day that follows fall/winter Sundays, but I still love to eat a lot and then crawl under covers for hours of rest. I don’t make a baked ziti for myself, but here is what I made last night: a healthy girls Sunday night dinner where pasta doesn’t have to be excluded and I get three servings of vegetables (yes, three!)

I begin with my three vegetables: garlic, spinach, and tomato. I cook my whole wheat elbow pasta, and put to the side in the colander. In a separate pan, I heat extra virgin olive oil.








Once heated I add the spinach, tomato and garlic and sauté on medium heat until the spinach and tomato are wilted and before the garlic starts to darken.













(all finished being heated)














I pour the pasta back into the pot and then add the contents from the pan, and marry the ingredients on very low heat to allow the flavors to carry into the pasta (about 3 minutes). Pour into dish, sprinkle black pepper on top and enjoy.












This meal is so easy, took less than 20 minutes to make, and is super healthy! In my new revised Sunday night dinner I had 2 servings of whole grains, three servings of vegetables, and 2 servings of healthy fat (from the olive oil). There are no added sugars, no artificial ingredients, and no preservatives in this meal. This is my wonderful way of keeping tradition, while adjusting for my dietary desires. :)



Here's to cold dark nights that are neither cold, nor dark.