My "Bye" Night

I got a "bye" last night, which is how I refer to a night when I get to make something up because I'm on my own for dinner. It can be very fun or terribly frustrating, depending on how quickly it takes me to decide on something for dinner. So last night I was left to fend for myself. Jeff was staying at work for a tech talk (which I was invited to as it was open to the public, but I politely declined), so it was dinner on my own. Most nights, if this were to happen I would immediately hit the deli for a tossed salad. I don't often have the patience to make up recipes, and I don't often take advantage of bye nights. But having just gone to the grocery store and completely filled up every free "nugget of space" in our fridge, I felt like it wasn't necessarily the best decision on my part. And, I had all the fixin's to make my own salad. But somehow, the idea of making my own salad didn't sound as appetizing as going out for a salad, weird, but true.

So, struggling to figure out what I should do for dinner I went to the gym (a "fun" habit of mine, thinking of dinner ideas while I run on the treadmill). To me, when I have dinner by myself I try to make something that Jeff doesn't really like all that much (or at least he doesn't like my version of it because I don't add enough cream, butter or cheese, which I think is perfectly fair). All of my meat was tied up in the freezer and I wasn't in the mood to defrost it, so I was limited to vegetarian dishes. So that left me with a few ideas: soup, polenta, or something involving tuna fish.

Bored out of my mind on the treadmill, I came up with nicoise salad (although I had neither olives or green beans, it didn't matter, I really just wanted the egg and tuna). Which was a bit funny to me, given that before I left for the gym I was not in any sort of mood to make my own salad, but I think the nicoise salad is different enough and not really an option at the take-out salad bar. Even funnier, though, was that by the time I got home I really wanted soup. I should have just gone out for a salad instead of wasting my time trying to decide what I wanted to make, but now it was a challenge.

Thinking I didn't really have many soup ingredients on hand (although soup comes in so many different styles and varieties, really anything can be a soup ingredient), I settled on a version of pasta e fagioli. I reviewed a couple of recipes and then headed into the kitchen and started adding things to the pot. Since I didn't have a ton of stock on hand (project for today), the soup was incredibly thick and, remarkably, very delicious. One of my best thrown together meals in awhile (and I did have a "side" nicoise salad with the soup for dinner). And, since it was soup that I was making, and it needed to cook a bit on the stove, I was able to finish all the dishes piled up in the sink while it cooked. Awesome...I love dishes, but at least the kitchen was clean by the time I finished cooking dinner.

As it turns out though, this made a huge pot of soup, definitely enough for more than just one (but I do have a delicious lunch waiting for me in the fridge). But its really quick and easy, so you should definitely try this recipe. Unless you live with someone that doesn't like soup...or chick peas, then all bets are off.

Caren's fake pasta e fagioli (I can't claim that I'm Italian, and I don't know what makes a pasta e fagioli a pasta e fagioli, so I'll just say this is probably close, but then again, maybe not)

1 T olive oil
1 medium size onion, rough dice
1 - 2 carrots (or a big handful of baby carrots), chopped
2 celery stalks, diced
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 - 4 T of fresh parsley, chopped
2 - 3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 - 2 T tomato paste
1 (28 oz) can of canned tomatoes
1 can of chick peas (or cannellini beans or kidney beans, but I like the taste of chick peas the best)
3 - 4 cups of broth (that's all I had, but you could use more to make it more soupy)
1/2 - 1 cup of pasta

Heat olive oil over medium high heat in pot. When hot (not smoking) add the onion, thyme and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the onion has softened a bit (couple minutes) and add the carrot and celery, add a bit more salt to draw out the moisture. Cook for 5-6 minutes until the veggies have softened (it could have been longer or maybe shorter, I don't really remember). Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for a minute, stirring frequently. Add the canned tomatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente (about 10 minutes depending on your noodle choice) and then add the chick peas and heat through. Taste the soup and make sure it's delicious, add salt or pepper if needed and add a bit of parsley right at the end.

I also think that adding a bit of white wine right before the broth and tomatoes would be fantastic, but I didn't feel like opening a whole bottle just for cooking (we don't have one of those "suck the air out wine savers" to keep the wine fresh).

Yum! I can't wait for lunch today!