Single Girl Spaghetti

Please pardon the terrible picture.

This may seem a little silly, but you have no idea how proud of myself I am for actually cooking dinner last night. Joe was on-call in the hospital, and initially I was planning on having some 15-bean soup I made a few weekends ago and froze but then I decided I didn't want soup because I would be hot after riding my bike home from work and wouldn't be in the mood for soup. So I had talked myself into getting Chinese take-out from this incredibly cheap place near us. I got home and was looking at the menu when I remembered when I was there last week they had a sign up that they were going to be closed this week for vacation (it's a hole-in-the-wall to say the least). Back to square one.

I was in the mood for noodles, when I remembered that there was a little leftover spaghetti from before the wedding when Joe's best man had made dinner for us. I looked, and it was a perfect amount for me so I figured I would do just a little olive oil and parmesan cheese. Then I got to thinking. I had half of an onion I needed to use and some garlic, so I quickly chopped up the onion and garlic and threw it in a pan with some olive oil. Now the house was starting to smell good. I felt a little guilty eating such a "white" dinner so I looked in the pantry. Lo and behold, there was a can of basil and oregano-flavored diced tomatoes! I threw that in the pan with some more basil and oregano and a little parsley.

After the spaghetti was cooked and drained, I just tossed it with the sauce, put some in a bowl, and sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it. It was delicious. You'll have to pardon the bad picture. I wouldn't have normally taken a picture and blogged about something so simple except that a year ago (Okay, who am I kidding? Three months ago.) I would've needed a pre-made sauce or would've skipped making anything altogether. This is further proof to me that I'm becoming much more fluent in the kitchen, and it's also a testament to the benefits of stocked pantry!

Anyway, making this dish for myself even though Joe was gone was a) cheaper than take-out b) much healthier than take-out and c) honestly took about as much time as calling in my order, going to get it, and coming back. Plus, it tasted delicious and made me feel good, and there are even some leftovers for when Joe gets home from the hospital. Then I spent the rest of the night watching La Vie En Rose and being amazed by Marion Cotillard's acting. All in all a wonderful evening.