It's that time of year again! Time
to update my recipes and look for some new ones to take the boredom out of
dinner time. I had some luck over at Pinterest and found a good many that I
would like to try. Sometimes my eyes are bigger than my grocery budget! Now to
make my next menu and slip several of these new meals in there!
I have a confession to make. I LOVE FOOD. I don't mean that I sit down
and just stuff my face though. I really enjoy food. The taste. The aroma. The
entire process. Whether it is made at home, take out or going to a restaurant
for a meal. I love to try new foods, savor the classics and melt away with the
comfort foods. And the less fuss, the better. By fuss, I mean an over abundance
of bells and whistles. It can be simple (few ingredients), easy to make and
still taste wonderful! To coin an old phrase, sometimes less is
more!
Several of the BIG food topics floating around now are eating healthy (or
eating clean), budget recipes and gluten free. Because of my health issues I
have to follow certain guidelines with the foods I cook and eat but I will admit
that sometimes I cheat because I just HAVE to eat some cheesecake or get a take
out burger!
I would like to share some of these
recipes here so that you can enjoy them too! One of the first recipes I want to
share is something I found on Gal on a Mission. I
have always loved Beef a Roni but as long as I can remember, we always bought it
in the can. Easy, yes but I wanted to fix it and know exactly what was going
into it!
I was very pleased how easy it was
and delicious it turned out to be. I served it with roasted potatoes (recipe
later) and a tossed salad. Plus there was enough left over for a week's worth of
lunches and/or snacks. So if you like left overs, this is your dish!
- 1 pound of ground beef
- ½ tablespoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
- pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 14 ounces tomato sauce
- 1 pound of macaroni noodles
- Cook the macaroni noodles according to the
instructions on the package.
- In a large skillet, brown the ground beef and add
in the all of the spices. Make sure the ground beef is fully cooked.
- Stir in the tomato paste and tomato sauce. Simmer
on low for about 10-12 minutes or until the noodles have finished cooking.
- Stir in the noodles.
- Serve with Parmesan cheese
(optional)
The recipe calls for tomato sauce
which is another sore spot in my cooking lately. I wanted a tomato sauce without
all the extras. Something simple and once again, something that I know exactly
what is in it! We will discuss homemade tomato sauce later in another
post.