Saturday night leftovers

Here's dinner tonight for just the two of us. We are having pork ragu on a bed of pasta and a salad of fresh greens with apple slices.

The ragu: Grandpa Andy found two very small pork chops in the freezer. He cut them in small pieces, sauteed these in a tiny amount of olive oil with some diced onions and six cloves of garlic (he always uses a LOT of garlic). He found some leftover red sauce in the fridge (one of those tupperware containers I was about to throw out) and mixed this altogether in the frying pan. He put on a pot of water to boil for the pasta (which was a mix of leftover small amounts of twists and other shapes). I brought the greens for a salad from the garden. Tonight these were baby spinach leaves, a few chard leaves and some Asian greens. Andy added some apple slices and a handful of blueberries. We forgot to add some walnut pieces. Then he made a dressing of a bit of good olive oil, a splash of rice vinegar, salt and pepper.

When the pasta was done, about twelve minutes, he put it in a bowl and arranged the ragu on top. We set the table, lighted the candles and sat down to a delicious and very inexpensive meal.

So, here we have a satisfying meal, very nutritious, low fat, eye appealing.

A note on salads: We have salad every day and it is never the same! There is always a bed of some sort of greens. It can be any kind of lettuce or leaves you have. Then you can add other vegetables- tomatoes and cukes, of course. But also beets, turnips, fruits, nuts and grains. Your salad is the mainstay of good nutrition and tastiness.

We never have dessert unless we have company, and then Andy will pull out all his stops and make a dessert souffle or an apple strawberry tart. Yum!

So, just look in your fridge and see what's there. It could be the makings of a pretty decent and not expensive meal.