Macaroni & Beef

A quick and easy dinner. Here's how I make it:
1 lb GF pasta noodles, cooked al dente (still firm)
1 jar of your preferred tomato sauce/spaghetti sauce
1/2 lb ground beef, cooked, finely crumbled and drained

Put it all into a large pan or pot. Fill the sauce jar about 1/2 way with water, shake to get the last of the sauce and add to the pot. Add some garlic, dried minced onion, oregano, basil, and any other spices or seasonings you like. For adults I usually add a bit of hot pepper flakes, and for kids I usually add a teaspoon or so of sugar. Cook over medium, stirring frequently, until hot and liquid is cooked down.

Serve with a green salad.

Notes:
-If your pasta is mushy, see my previous post on Cold Rinse and Rice Pasta
-This is one of the ChaRM Plan stars, made using leftover pasta and leftover ground beef. It cooks up in all of about 15 minutes, which makes it perfect for those crazy, hectic days.

Planning ahead

Planning ahead is very important for me. I work best when there's some sort of structure to things. When it comes to putting dinner on the table, taking a half hour or so every other week to decide what we'll be having for dinner each night is well worth the time.

-It saves me the stress of realizing at 4:30 pm that I have no idea of what to make.
-It saves electricity because I'm not standing, staring vacantly into the freezer trying to find some inspiration.
-It saves money because we eat out less frequently.
-We waste less food because it reduces the forgotten produce/veggies, etc. that tend to get lost behind other stuff. It reduces the incidence of frozen food ending up in the trash due to freezer burn, because I'm constantly rotating through everything. We end up wasting less because I plan out my leftovers and how they'll be used.
-It also saves last minute trips to the grocery store for random items because as I make my menu plan, I make my grocery list.

So yes, I plan out 2 weeks worth of dinners in advance. It reduces my stress levels, saves money and time, and is, when you stop and think about it, better for the environment. It works for me. It took me several tries to find an approach that works for me, though. If you are interested in me posting about the various approaches, or want to know more about mine, please post a comment and let me know. I'll be happy to share the information.

For today, I'm going to share one of the tools I use to keep meal prep sane. I don't have some spiffy name for it or anything, but it's really helpful.

What do chili, tacos and sloppy joes have in common? They all call for browned & drained ground beef. In our house, before allergy knowledge, we would often have one or 2 of those things within a couple of nights of having a meatloaf dinner. Back then, I would break the meatloaf up and use it as the 'ground beef' ingredient for the chili, tacos or sloppy joes, just seasoning and adding other ingredients as appropriate. Since wheat, parsley, mustard and eggs are no longer on the menu for us, we don't eat meatloaf any more. I have had to adapt.

Now, instead of using the leftover meatloaf, I brown up 2 lbs of ground beef at a time, even if I only need 1/2 lb for that night's dinner. The rest is drained and then stored in the fridge or freezer for another night's meal. With a little planning, you can chop a lot of prep work out of the equation. Also, it cuts down on active cooking time, which is really good in the summer. (Especially if, like us, you don't have air conditioning!)

Tonight (Tuesday) I am having pasta salad for dinner. Brown rice macaroni (don't forget to rinse with cold water after cooking!), canned tuna, peas and salad dressing, served on a pretty bed of frilly lettuce, and maybe some sliced black olives and tomato wedges to add a little extra interest to the look and taste.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I will use leftover pasta from tonight to make macaroni and beef in tomato sauce. I will brown 2 pounds of ground beef and use about 3/4 of a pound for the mac and beef. The remaining 1 and 1/4 pounds will go into the fridge, drained. The veggie side will be green beans.

On Thursday I will make an apricot chipotle glazed pork roast in my slow cooker. We're unlikely to eat more than 1/2 of it, so the remainder will go into the fridge to await being turned into Saturday night's dinner. The roast will be served with roasted sweet potatoes and spinach.

On Friday, I will pull out the 1 1/4 pounds of ground beef from Wednesday and turn it into homemade sloppy joes, served with a nice green salad.

On Saturday, we'll be having pulled pork BBQ sandwiches made from the leftover pork roast. The side will be asparagus.

Maybe I should call it the Chain Reaction Menu Plan, or ChaRM Plan for short. What do you think?

Renaming Achieved!

I think that Simply Sensitive Cooking is a bit more appropriate than Kitchen Adventures: Food Sensitive Foodie, since it reflects my cooking style a little more accurately. Yes, I am a foodie. I absolutely love trying new foods and exotic flavors. I am spoiled by good quality ingredients to the point that there are some things I won't buy from the grocery store because they just don't taste right after being exposed to the amazing flavors from our favorite local farmers. (We are positively blessed to be living in an area with such an amazing variety of really high quality, naturally grown/organic local meat & produce.) But when I cook, and I absolutely love to cook, I tend to stick with classic, down-home flavors, aka 'American Food'.

The problem with classic American food, and the Americanized versions of ethnic food, is that it generally contains at least one of the items on our eliminate/avoid list. Meatloaf? It has wheat, gluten, eggs and parsley, among other things. Mashed Potatoes? Milk and, when I make them, cheese. Hot dogs? Well, I won't get into the ingredient list, but it's not good! Even cornbread usually has wheat flour and eggs.

Sandwiches? They're a paragraph unto themselves! The bread is the first issue. Then what spread to use? Mayo has eggs, mustard is on the list, and well, I'm just not that big a fan of ketchup/catsup on cold sandwiches. Cheese is out, too, even the soy cheese should be restricted. Then we have to be careful with the lunchmeat. Chicken is out for me, but since the hubby loves it so much I won't hold it against him if he has it, as long as there aren't any of his problem ingredients. Have you ever tried to find a lunchmeat that doesn't contain a wheat or gluten-containing filler, black pepper, cayenne pepper, malt, or whey?

Grilled cheese and tomato soup: out. Chicken noodle soup: out. Beef barley soup: out. Shepherd's pie or cottage pie: out. Ranch salad dressing: out. Green Goddess salad dressing: out. Pot pie? out. Enchiladas and burritos? out. Tuna noodle casserole? out. Lasagna and baked ziti? out. The list goes on and on...

So it is in response to this that I have started writing here. I will play with my recipes and their ingredients, and record my successes and failures here in the hope that maybe I can save someone else a little bit of trouble. I will also occasionally recommend a product that I find, since it can be hard to find foodstuffs that don't contain any of the things to which we're sensitive. I'll also be including some of my techniques for food preservation and storage, as well as things that I do so that I'm prepared for those nights when dinner prep needs to be as fast and fuss-free as possible.

Please feel free to let me know what you think, but keep in mind that I'm a human being. I welcome feedback- even negative- as long as it's constructive. If you try a recipe and you don't like it, please let me know why. If I list an ingredient that you think contains a hidden allergen, PLEASE say something. If I say something you like, find funny or helpful, or anything of that nature, please feel free to speak up. It's always good to have someone say something nice, and well, I want to know if people are actually reading this.

Anyway, thanks for reading!