We start off our dinner with a pre-made Italian salad from Turner Farms. I add some cherry tomatoes and extend the dressing with a little extra oil and vinegar. We are trying to eat salads or soups as a first course to cut down on pre-dinner snacking and the portion size of our main course.

Italian salad

I decide to take a shortcut and just doctor up some jarred spaghetti sauce – my mistake! The jarred sauce makes  the resulting sauce too sweet for my palate! And, seriously, after browning the meat, chopping up and sautéing the onions, red bell peppers, and garlic plus picking some fresh oregano and adding red wine and tomato paste, what kind of shortcut am I taking?! The sauce would have ended up tasting a lot better if I had just added a couple of cans of tomatoes and let it cook down. Lesson learned!

Whole wheat linguine with meat sauce