#fauxlognese

⚠️ This entry is full of feels that are completely unrelated to food. There’s a recipe at the end though, feel free to skip to it directly. 

It’s already been two weeks! And I’m carrying on, still as happy as a clam with my vegetarian diet. No issues, no lack of inspiration, everything’s going great! 

Today marked French teachers’ return to school and it was – honestly – a good day. It didn’t start all that good, though. I had terrible anxiety last night, which prevented me from falling asleep at an ideal time. I’m usually a very non-anxious person, I get scared and stressed but for very tangible reasons and I generally manage to calm myself down pretty quickly. I had a very intense summer in terms of socializing and sharing things with people, and I suddenly got terrified that in a group of more interesting, more intelligent and more fun people, they wouldn’t like me as much. And I know that it’s completely unreasonable and that even if it was the case, I couldn’t do anything about it, but it made me horribly nervous. 

And of course, I had a great day, everyone was incredibly nice to me, I felt both useful and listened to, which seems to confirm that I need to take a chill pill and learn to trust other people.

The one aspect of the day that I would change though was lunch at the school cafeteria. While it was objectively good, something didn’t agree with my stomach and I was horribly bloated and gassy all afternoon long. I probably won’t eat there much this year, especially if I adopt a vegetarian or flexitarian approach for good. 

I came home a bit late (for my standards) which meant that I had less than an hour to prepare dinner and get school stuff ready for tomorrow at the same time. I opted for spaghetti Bolognese – I could leave the sauce on its own and it would infuse and develop flavor while I was looking everywhere for various information documents that I only use once a year in early September and that are therefore buried in the untouched depths of my “Work” hard drive. 

And it went really well. 

Lentil Spaghetti Bolognese: 

½ yellow onion

2 small carrots

2 cloves garlic

2 stalks celery

1 small can of cooked lentils

1 large can of crushed tomatoes

salt, pepper, paprika, oregano

fresh parsley or basil

➜ Finely chop the onion, carrots and celery and cook in olive oil until the onions become translucent. Add the garlic and stir for a minute or two. 

➜ Add the lentils and let simmer for 3 or 4 minutes. 

➜ Add the tomatoes, season to your taste and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. 

➜ In the meantime, prepare the pasta. When it’s cooked and strained, serve in a plate, top with sauce and lovingly garnish with grated cheese and your favorite herbs. 

It was delicious and not too different (in terms of taste and pleasure) from beef Bolognese. I have leftovers for tomorrow (staff lounge ladies’ lunch, yayyyy) and I know I will enjoy them even more.