Sometimes in spite of our best planning and most earnest efforts dinner goes awry. Soccer practice runs long and you don't get home in time to get the meat out to defrost. Sometimes you end up missing ingredients even though you could have sworn they were in your pantry. Who knows all the reasons it can happen, the fact of the matter is that even if you everything you can to avoid it, sometimes you are faced with dinner time and not a lot of options.
This is a dangerous time for all of us. We can easily fall prey to fast food or what we used to think of as "the easy way out". But nowadays we have kitchen confidence! We are masters of our own dinners and we are in control! I have realized that I can have dinner out of the pantry and onto the table in the time that it would take me to get into town, go through the drive-thru and get back home.
This is a classic Food $ense recipe. It is available on the Create a Skillet handout.
Spanish Macaroni
• ½ cup onion, chopped
• ½ green pepper, chopped
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
• 1 (15 oz.) can tomatoes
• 2 (15 oz.) cans pinto or kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 ½ cups macaroni (uncooked)
In large skillet, sauté onion in 1 tablespoon water on medium
heat until translucent. Add green pepper and cook another
2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, except macaroni, and
cook until vegetables are tender. Stir macaroni into mixture
and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook until macaroni is
tender, 10-15 minutes, adding additional water as needed.
Yield: 4 servings
This is a super quick recipe because you don't have to pre-cook the pasta, it cooks right in the dish. It also contains beans as the protein so it is a Great vegetarian option (and this also helps with the short cooking time - since their is no extra step to cook the meat).
We topped ours with cheese and sour cream, because that is just how we roll at our house. (Plus it was a little bit spicy for some of the younger ones). Enjoy!!
