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Imagine a hearty, nutritious, kid-friendly dinner entree that costs just $2.50 per serving. If a recipe with all those attributes sounds too good to be true, then read this blog post! Recently, we found a website called www.MakingLifeBetter.com featuring budget-conscious recipes. There, we noticed a dish for skillet pasta & beef dinner which we decided to cook for lunch today. Since Leah (Janice’s 9-year old) was home from school, she offered to be our official taste tester. Thanks Leah!

In the spirit of full disclosure, we must admit that we couldn’t resist the urge to tweak the recipe just a tad. We added a finely diced red bell pepper, used lean ground beef (look for 90% lean or higher), a whole wheat blend pasta (whole wheat can be a bit of an overachievement so we compromise with the whole wheat blends from Barilla Plus … plus they’re really delish), and switched to part skim mozzarella.

The dish was incredibly easy to make and a definite winner as far as Leah was concerned. She actually gave us a really cool idea: For kids who pick out and eat the pasta first, you can use the savory meat sauce like a sloppy Joe and add it to a whole wheat hot dog or hamburger bun.

Skillet Pasta & Beef Dinner

Makes 5 Servings

• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1 medium red bell pepper, finely diced (about 1 cup)
• 1 pound lean ground beef (90% or higher)
• One 26-ounce jar pasta sauce (we like Light Ragu Tomato & Basil)
• 2 cups water
• 8 ounces dried whole wheat blend rotini (we like Barilla Plus)
• 1 cup preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (about 4 ounces)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, optional

1. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the bell pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 5 minutes
2. Add the meat and cook, breaking up the large pieces, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Drain excess fat.
3. Stir in the pasta sauce and water, raise the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Stir in the pasta and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender, about 15 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. Cover and let stand until the cheese melts, 5 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese as desired.

Nutrition Information per Serving: 410 calories, 10g fat (4g saturated, 0.3g omega-3), 620mg sodium, 46g carbohydrate, 6g fiber, 34g protein, 35% vitamin A, 70% vitamin C, 25% calcium, 15% iron

On a final note, our November 12 Cooking with the Moms radio podcast will feature the topic of Healthy Eating on a Budget so stay tuned.

Liz & Janice

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 5:14 pm.
It is posted in beef, dinner, Pasta.