Tag: spaghetti

Spicy Spaghetti with Beef & Vegetables

Spicy Spaghetti with Beef & Vegetables

While the pictures I took don’t do it justice, this is the perfect pasta recipe to make this summer. Loaded with freshly picked cherry tomatoes from our garden and diced zucchini, you can’t get much healthier than this twist on the traditional spaghetti with bolognese sauce.

Our family likes to eat healthy, buy organic, and cut out as much processed foods as we can. This day and age, our meat is injected with hormones, and our produce is sprayed with insecticide and chemicals; it’s just downright scary.

I used to buy the jarred marinara sauce to make my spaghetti sauce, but the more and more I ate it, it tasted sugary and somewhat “old”. I’ve been making my own meat sauce using The Meat Ball Shop’s classic tomato sauce recipe and I’ll never go back.

This is another great recipe for homemade meat sauce from Taking on Magazines blog, but  it has a bit of heat from the red pepper flakes, and is loaded healthy summer vegetables.

IMG_7541 Spicy Spaghetti with Beef & Vegetables

If Harper could eat adult food, she’d give it two thumbs up! lol. Enjoy!

baby

Spicy Spaghetti with Beef & Vegetables
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6
Source: Ground Beef Cooking 2015
Ingredients
  • 8 ounces dry spaghetti, uncooked
  • 1/2 pound ground lean sirloin beef
  • 1/4 cup chopped onion
  • 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
  • 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp. granulated sugar
  • 1 clove minced garlic
  • 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced (1 med = about 1 cup)
  • 2 medium tomatoes, seeded, chopped (2 med = about 1 cup)
  • 3 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
  1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt. Drain; set aside.
  2. Combine meat and onions in medium nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat 4 to 5 minutes, or until meat is no longer pink; stirring frequently. Drain, if necessary.
  3. Stir in tomato sauce, vinegar, Italian seasoning, sugar, garlic and red pepper. Cook 3-4 minutes, or until heated through, stirring occasionally.
  4. Add pasta and zucchini; mix well. Cook 2-3 minutes, or until heated through, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes and parsley; heat through.

 

Colby’s Quick Spaghetti

 

This past weekend, as you may know, I traveled to Stillwater, Oklahoma to run in the Remember the Ten Run with my sister.  This event honors ten men (mostly players and coaches) from the Oklahoma State University Basketball Team that perished in a plane crash on January 27, 2001 in Colorado.  The Remember the Ten Run has now become an annual tradition held on the third Saturday in April each year.  My sister and I decided to race in the 10k. I placed 4th in my age division with at time of 45:19 and my sister placed 2nd with a time of 42:01!  Apparently it pays to be the girlfriend of an outstanding OSU cross country and track runner (Colby).  He is considered as one of our country’s fastest collegiate runners. Maybe his speed has rubbed off on my sister because she sure ran a fast time!  I on the other hand did well for having not trained.  Maybe my husband’s collegiate football talent from Texas A&M will rub off on me!  However, I don’t know of any women football leagues out there… plus at barely 5’1 tall and 90 pounds, football would not be a sport I could picture myself being good at!
      

As part of the “carbo-loading” we do before a big cross country race, my sister’s boyfriend, Colby made us his “quick spaghetti” recipe that his mom has made him over the years, and it was delicious!

This is definitely not your typical “spaghetti with meat sauce” recipe with the red, marinara sauce you would typically expect.  Instead it has more of a creamy, mushroom and tomato flavor you would expect from a tomato-cream sauce like in Penne alla Betsy.  The simple ingredients include ground beef, a can of mushroom soup, a can of tomato soup, and seasonings.  You probably already have all you need sitting in your pantry at home!

Colby’s spaghetti is quick, easy, tasty, and fool-proof.  It also fulfilled my sister and my need for “carbo-loading” before our big race the next day.  It paid off and we each ran our best.  Enjoy and try this new twist on spaghetti!


Colby’s Quick Spaghetti
Ingredients
1 pound hamburger meat
1 can mushroom soup
1 can tomato soup
Italian seasoning, oregano, and garlic salt to taste
salt and pepper

Directions
1.  For the Meat Sauce:  Brown 1 pound of hamburger meat and drain.  Put meat back in skillet and add 1 can mushroom soup and 1 can of tomato soup, mix together (you might need to add a little water, maybe 1/4 cup).
2.  Add Italian seasoning, oregano, garlic salt, salt and pepper.  Heat this mixture.
3.  To Cook Spaghetti:  Heat water in large pan, add some salt before water boils, then add spaghetti.  Cook spaghetti according to package directions, about 12 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings
recipe from Karen Lowe (Colby’s mom)