Sneaky bean & beefy pasta

In an effort to not only be healthier but also use up canned goods, I decided to take the old student standby of pasta with meat sauce and kick it up a notch. I had a half jar of Ragu from a few days ago, so I just used a small can of tomato sauce to round it out, and a can of chickpeas. (You could probably use any bean here, but chickpeas were what I had, plus they blend better than pinto or black) I didn't just want chunks of beans in my sauce, so I blended them. Makes the sauce thicker and adds protein and fiber.

Ingredients:
1/2 jar pasta sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1 can chickpeas
1 box pasta noodles of your choice
1 pound ground beef
Handful spinach

Step 1: Open the can of beans and drain half the liquid. Pour the rest and the tomato sauce into blender and liquefy it. Add extra water if it's too thick.

Step 2: Fill a large pot half full of water, add salt if you want. Bring to a rolling boil, and cook the pasta 5-8 minutes. While cooking, complete step 3. Drain when al dente (aka soft but not mush).

Step 3: Brown the ground beef in a frying pan. You want to make sure it's fully cooked. Then add the handful of spinach and cover. Cook for 3 minutes to wilt the spinach. Pour the sauce on top, mix well and cook on medium, covered, until heated through.

The beans makes the sauce thick and gives it a certain depth of flavor without being too obvious. You could also blend in the spinach once cooked so you don't even know it's there. Mixed with the plain Ragu pasta sauce and ground beef, it isn't too noticeable. This is a good way to sneak extra nutrition past whiny kids and picky hubbys. Those adjectives are probably also interchangeable. Just saying.

Inside-out stuffed peppers

I have to credit this post to my friend, Maribeth. She is also an excellent cook, and is allowing me to post this recipe here. We both needed some serious girl-talk time, so cooking dinner together and enjoying some wine was of course the natural choice. This is her recipe.

Ingredients:

1 green bell pepper

1 box rice pilaf

1 lb ground beef

1 onion

2 tbsp pesto

1 tbsp diced garlic

1 cup Spaghetti sauce

black pepper

Step 1: Dice the onion into small pieces and the bell pepper into strips. 

Step 2: Cook the ground beef fully, then add the onion, pepper and garlic. Cover tightly and steam for about 10 minutes, until pepper is fully cooked. (You can of course omit the ground beef or use tofu instead for vegetarians.)

Step 3: Meanwhile, cook the rice pilaf according to instructions. Once peppers are soft, add the rice and pesto and mix well.

Step 4: Season to taste with black pepper and any other seasonings you like.

Step 5: Scoop a big pile onto a plate, and cover with the sauce.
Step 6: Try to stop yourself from having seconds!

Inside out stuffed peppers. Delicious!

A new year of possibilities

Well, as December is chock-full of holidays and I spend half of it at home, I did not do much cooking past the 20th. It's nice to be at home where someone else cooks for me and does the dished. Like a restaurant, but with more love and fighting. Anyhow, it's 2012 now, time for some more creative kitchen adventures. I'm sure I will have plenty of old standbys like tacos and ramen noodles, but there are also some recipes on my mind I'd like to try soon. Plus, I've resolved to eat healthier and exercise more because the holiday weight gain really snuck up on me this year. So hopefully you will see lots of salads, soups and veggies.
Since I have not yet made anything spectacular, today I will post the last meal of 2011 that I made, goat cheese lasagna! This stuff is amazingly delicious, and terribly detrimental to the health of my kidney-stone-prone boyfriend. But we had goat cheese, so I went ahead and made it anyways as an end-of-the-year treat.
You will need:
Lasagna noodles
Pasta sauce
Ground beef
Goat cheese
Ricotta or cottage cheese
Step 1: Boil a large pot of water. Add the noodles once fully boiling and boil for 7-9 minutes. Once al dente, drain.
Step 2: While water is boiling, brown about 1 pound ground beef and drain excess grease. If you want, you can combine the meat and sauce in a bowl.
Step 3: Mix the cheeses together well in a separate bowl.
Step 4: In a baking pan or crock pot, layer the noodles, cheese, sauce and meat. Bake at 375 for 1 hour, or on high for 4-5 hours. You can also sprinkle some mozarella on top.

Then just sit back and enjoy! The salty tang of the goat cheese is phenomenal.