Last night was day three in my week of dinners based on one shopping trip and a day of prep –  the “Sunday Strategy” article in Martha Stewart Everyday Food September issue. Last night’s recipe was Pasta with Roasted Tomato Sauce. This relies on plum tomatoes that were roasted on prep day. I boiled my pasta (whole wheat) and then added 10 halved plum tomatoes (roasted), lemon juice, capers, oil, salt, pepper and some fresh basil. The recipe doesn’t really suggest doing anything with these ingredients other than just adding them to the pasta. Instead, I dumped them in my pot and heated them up a bit before mixing with the pasta, which did create more of a sauce effect. I think if you dumped these in at room temperature, you would end up with a not so hot pasta dish. This was a tasty dish though and I enjoyed having a fresh sauce. I actually liked the capers and lemon juice in it and I didn’t think I would.

However, this was nothing close to a full meal. First of all, I had to make some pasta separate for the kids and heat up some jarred sauce because neither one will touch a whole tomato. Then I steamed some green beans. I would have added some bread, but I’m trying to cut down on carbs. I set a bowl of grapes on the table. We also grated some Parmesan cheese over the pasta – it really needed it (or maybe I just really wanted it!).

I liked the idea of this and I enjoyed the taste, but it didn’t really make dinner that much easier for me.