If you’re anything like me, you love pasta. It’s delicious, it’s filling, and it’s pretty quick to make.
Here’s how to make a quick n’ easy pasta. You’ll be in the kitchen for less than 30 minutes.
Make enough to eat for dinner and to bring in your lunches for the next few days. After all, pasta is cheap, delicious, and it reheats well for those days at work.
Like the name suggests, this recipe is quick and easy! You need to be able to cook ground beef, chop veggies, grate cheese, and cook pasta. You’re only in the kitchen for 30 minutes!
Here’s what you need to make it:
- Ground beef (as much as you like – click here to see how to make frozen portions of ground beef)
- A jar of pasta sauce from the store
- 1 package of pasta (any noodles you like!)
- Any veggies or herbs you like (try some of the following: tomatoes, basil, onions, green and/or red peppers, mushrooms, oregano, garlic, crushed chili flakes, etc.)
Here’s how to make it:
1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package, then set it aside to cool.
2. Put a pan on medium heat. In the picture below, I use ground beef that I had frozen in my freezer from my grocery trip last week. Break the meat up as you put it in the pan.
Ground beef that I had frozen and then thawed out…. looks pretty good!
3. Use a spatula or plastic/wooden utensil to break the meat apart as best you can as it’s cooking. It does break up a little easier as it cooks, so keep working on it until the chunks are the size you like them.
Broken up chunks of beef
4. Keep breaking up the ground beef and stirring it around until there’s no more pink pieces. I like to cook mine so that I can see parts of it actually turning nice and crusty-brown. Mmmm!
5. Now take your jar of pasta sauce and pour it in with the beef. It’s up to you how much sauce you put in. I like a whole lotta sauce with my pasta, so I usually put in the whole jar. Nice and saucy!
Tasty!
6. At this point, turn the heat down a bit. Pasta sauce will start to bubble and pop pretty quickly, which makes your stovetop a nightmare to clean afterwards. So turn down the heat to one or two higher than the lowest setting.
7. Add any seasonings you want! Some people like basil or oregano, some people like chili flakes. I like the chili flakes. So I sprinkle in a whole bunch of them. If you like basil or oregano, you can use dried stuff or fresh stuff, whatever you have around. Just put in stuff you like to make that sauce taste awesome to you – after all, you’re the one eating it!!
Adding chili flakes…. spicy!!
8. Stir that tasty sauce around for maybe five minutes, letting it get all nice and warm.
Lookin’ good
9. Now you can add any veggies or anything else you might like in your sauce. You don’t have to add veggies if you don’t like them, but they do make your sauce heartier and more filling. They’re also healthy!
Adding in some healthy and delicious veggies
10. Stir your delicious sauce up until it’s warm and well-mixed. Then it’s done!
11. Get out your reusable lunch containers and spoon some of the cooked pasta in. Top with some sauce. Let the meal cool before you sprinkle any cheese on top, or the cheese will melt in and turn weird. Once it’s cooled and you’ve put cheese on top, put the lid on and put it in the fridge, all ready for your lunches.
Tomorrow’s lunch! YES!
12. Now I take a bowl, fill it with pasta, and pile it with the sauce and cheese. Time for dinner!
Delicious dinner, made with rigatoni and sprinkled with grated cheddar cheese.
That’s all it takes. It’s healthy, tasty, filling, and hearty. Satisfying. Delicious. And you cooked it all yourself!
Here’s what it costs to make:
- Pasta: $0.60
- Beef: $2.00
- Pasta Sauce: $2.00
- Veggies: $1.00
- Cheese: $0.50
Total: $6.10 – but while making this recipe, I ended up with 3 servings instead of two. That’s the glory of pasta – you get so much of it when you cook it! So I got 3 meals and it cost me $6.10.
That’s $2.03 per meal.
If you can find ways to make each meal cost about $2 or $3 dollars each, your monthly grocery bill will be in the $180 – $270 range. That’s somewhere between $45 to $68 dollars a week. Not too shabby, and you can get some pretty rockin’ meals!! Keep reading this blog to find more cost-effective ways to eat through the week!
There’s a lot more quick and tasty meals to check out!
Living Single, Cooking Cheap 