Easy Recipe: Quick, Healthy Pasta Sauce

I don't know about you, but by the time I get home from work I'm pretty fried. I'm always looking for quick dinner ideas. Tonight I'm throwing together a quick pasta sauce. Here's what you'll need:
1 large onion
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 pound lean ground beef (I use 92% fat free)
1 14 oz. can mushrooms
1 package frozen spinach
1/2 tsp. Italian Seasonings
1 tsp. Garlic Salt
Pasta
 Salt
1 tsp. Olive oil
(Optional Parmesan/Romano Cheese)

When I say easy, I mean easy. Chop the onion into large slices and throw it into a large skillet with the ground beef to brown. After breaking the ground beef into smaller pieces, I put a lid on my skillet to help it cook faster. Tonight, I took that time to get my 1 year old settled and check the mail.

When that's brown, turn down the heat to medium and throw in your spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes and sprinkle on your Italian Seasonings and Garlic Salt. Cover it and let that simmer until your spinach is unfrozen and warm - about 5 minutes - while you start your pasta water.

Put water, the oil and a generous dash of salt into a saucepan for your pasta. Once that boils, throw in enough pasta for your family to have a meal. I used angel hair - also called cappellini. Allow the angel hair pasta to cook for 6-8 minutes to taste. The longer you cook the pasta, the softer it will get. Mama's trick for knowing whether it was done was to throw it against the fridge - when it sticks, it's done (and it really works).

While your angel hair is simmering, stir your sauce and let that simmer another 3-4 minutes. Stir in about 1/4 cup of your pasta water into the sauce before you drain your pasta. Layer the sauce over your angel hair (add cheese if you like) and voila! Meal in about 20 minutes.

Foodie Friday: The only thing I didn't ruin this week

I have a very patient husband.

Our second date consisted of my asking him to my home for a home cooked meal. For me, it was just a way to see if I was comfortable having him in my home - the cooking part was no big deal for me. For him, it was a life-changing event (because I'm telling the story). It was the first time a "date" had ever cooked for him. It was the best pot roast he'd ever had. It was the best salad he'd ever had. In short, my cooking hooked him on the second date. I was a rock star. (I promise some of this is true.)

This week, I've not been even close to a rock star. Not. Even. Close. I've ruined just about everything I've cooked. My loving husband has kindly eaten his way through my failures while I've munched on cereal. He must love me because I'd made some pretty bad stuff this week. The only thing that turned out, in fact, was a loaf of beer bread.

Ingredients I used on this batchMost of y'all know I don't bake unless it's from a box. I don't do bread because I don't like to get my hands sticky. Just not my thing. My mom, however, kept telling me about this beer bread recipe that was hopelessly easy to make and didn't involve getting your fingers sticky. I figured I could try it.

Ingredients include:
3 cups self-rising flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 bottle or can of beer - 12 oz.

Put your flour into your bowl - make sure you use self-rising because all-purpose flour just makes a rock solid loaf of bread that doesn't rise. Add your sugar and mix the two together. I then make a "moat" in my flour into which I then pour the beer. Take a fork and pull your flour into the beer until you no longer have dry flour left. You don't ever have to touch this stuff!

Take a large loaf pan and coat it with butter or cooking spray - I used Irish butter for this batch because it's St. Patrick's Day week... and because it's delicious. Then take about a tablespoon of flour and coat the butter so your loaf doesn't stick. Dump in your batter and evenly distribute it and you're ready to pop it into the oven - a COLD oven. Can you imagine? Turn it on to 350 degrees when you put it in and cook for an hour and 15 minutes. About an hour in, I put a little more of the Irish butter on the top to make the crust golden brown. When it's done, I immediately pulled it out of the pan and put it onto a cooling rack... and immediately cut myself a hot piece to cover with more Irish butter! Because this was my meal. Did I mention I'd failed at all the other dishes I made this week?