Garbage Pail Pasta

I wanted spaghetti with meat sauce so we made this crazy pile of pasta where half the noodles are farfalle and the other half are elbow.

The sauce started as about six to eight ounces ground beef, three chopped garden tomatoes, canned plain tomato sauce, garlic powder, freshly ground black pepper, basil and Italian seasoning.

But then I threw in leftover julienne carrots, artichoke hearts, and a handful of kalamata olives.

Topped the whole mess with crushed red pepper.

Scrumptious.

Broccoli olive pasta

Nothing more soothing than hot pasta after shoveling a blizzard...

My husband made this whole wheat rotini with red sauce, black olives, green olives, ground beef and broccoli. Topped with shredded Parmesan. All kinds of yum.

Quick hamburger stew

- about 2 cups browned grown beef

- about 32 ounces low sodium beef stock

- 3 carrots, peeled and chopped

- 1 large potato, cleaned and chopped

- Italian seasoning

- garlic powder

In crock pot on high two hours, then reduce to low until time to serve

Hurricane Sandy Pasta

During the weekend, my husband made his famous-in-our-household "Daddy Pasta" to use up our ground beef from the farm, just in case we lose power.

We recycled it for lunch today and used up our calamata olives and Bulgarian feta that I would hate to lose. So we ate it.

Yummy stuff.

We also got homemade muffins, zaatar bread, mocha bread from Target, and croissants from the freezer.

We're ready.

Child soft tacos

We're reinstating the child-makes-one-meal-per-week policy and she opted for soft tacos.

In the skillet, she combined:
- water
- about 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 finely diced garlic clove
- 1 pinch Indian chili powder
- 1 pinch Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

- 1 lb ground beef
- about 16 ounces corn
- about 16 ounces beans
- 1 bell pepper from the garden, diced
Cover with water and boil at medium to medium high for one hour, adding more water and stirring every 15 minutes

Spaghetti and meatballs

I thawed out the last of our ground beef when I got home from work last night so my husband used the Betty Crocker cookbook to make meatballs.

Husband Hamburgers

Because husband got unexpectedly called into work, I didn't have a chance to eat properly. This led to a mild mommy meltdown. Husband saved the day with burgers from the ground beef I bought earlier. While he cooked them, child and i went to Aldi and, among other things, got English muffins for buns. I thought the texture would be delightful and it was.... Airy and crispy.

We dressed them with spring mix and ketchup for the little one and Archer Farm's buffalo blue cheese dip for the grown-ups.

Husband sprinkled some of my country herb blend on each one.

Tacos

I don't know what got into me, but I decided to make tacos.
I made the homemade tortillas this afternoon and found this site:
http://www.mex-recipes.com/tacorecipes.html

QUOTED FROM THE SITE:
Ground beef
(I prefer ground chuck)
Salt
Chili powder
Paprika
Cumin
Garlic powder or 2 cloves
Bell pepper
Onion

Instructions for taco recipe:

Let's take 2 pounds of ground beef in 2 quart sauce pan add 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of chili power, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder or 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 2 tablespoons of paprika. Enough water to cover meat.

Bring to a boil. Simmer over medium low heat about an hour. I will check in about 15 minutes take a potato masher break up the meat a little don't want it to cook up in lumps.

Repeat this process 2 or 3 more times. Also make sure we don't run dry of water. Add water if needed. Hour over already!

OK, add 1/2 medium chopped onion, 1/2 medium chopped bell pepper, continue cooking 20 or 30 more minutes.

MY VARIATIONS:
I used 1/2 ground beef from a local farm and 1/2 black beans (the ones I made in the crock pot over the weekend.)
I omitted onion, and used one green pepper from my garden.
I turned up the heat a little on the stove, not the taco meat, because I didn't start early enough.

And I'm using my Le Creuset skillet instead of a saucepan.