Pasta in a hurry

The other day it was just me for dinner. I don't mind this usually, but I looked in the fridge, already quite hungry, and with no idea what to cook. I had some mushrooms in there, and some soft cheese (Philadelphia style).  Nigella does a nice looking recipe for this here but it uses raw mushrooms. The thought of this didn't appeal, so I decided on using the soft cheese to make a sort of creamy sauce. This was the result:

It's so simple and easy to make:



Ingredients (for one hungry person)

100g dry lingune (or any other long pasta)

1/2 pack button mushrooms, sliced

2 small garlic cloves, crushed or finley diced.

handful of parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons of soft cheese

tablespoon of veg oil

method:

Put pasta on to boil for the time stated on the pack. Mean while heat the oil in a frying pan, when hot add the crushed garlic cloves and soften. Then add the mushrooms and cook till soft and golden. Add the soft cheese and allow it to melt down to a creamy consitency. Drain the pasta and add to the mushroom mix. stir thoroughly to make sure it's all mixed properly (you may need to add a bit of water to loosen). Add the parsley and season to taste. Serve.



Lentil Ragu

As you may or may not know, I am currently trying to reduce the amount of meat (especially red meat) in my diet. I have stopped short of going vegetarian, but am trying to have at least 4 totally meat free days a week.
Yesterday it was just me eating and I came across  this recipe in an old copy of Good Food Magazine. After reading some of the comments I was a bit apprehensive about trying it, but I though it was really nice. It's easy to prepare; once you have chopped all the ingredients they just go in a pan and are left for about an hour. One thing I did find (as stated in some of the comments) was that this recipe made loads. I halved it, thinking that it would do me yesterday and again today. I was wrong!! This made loads, I now have enough for my dinner today and probably enough for a few more in the freezer. Therefore I would recommend if you're going to make it that you either make sure you have a crowd to feed, or have space in your freezer for the excess. I speak as someone who likes slightly larger portions too.
Good Food recommend that you serve the ragu with pasta- specifically spaghetti. I had mine with linguine, but i think any sort of pasta would work. I'm not sure that I would try it with any other starch though, maybe rice might work. I've  got plenty in the freezer if I want to give it a go.
I topped mine with Parmesan cheese which isn't vegetarian, but any other strong cheese would probably do.