foody friday--beefy mac

Today's Foody Friday theme: Your Man's Favorite Food

I asked Johnny to tell me his favorite dish. He listed off his 6 favorite. I asked him to narrow it down. He gave me two: Enchilada Casserole and Beefy Mac

I made Beefy Mac today, so that's the recipe I'll be sharing with you all.

I find it funny that my husband's two favorite dishes are soooooo easy to make. He's not into a lot of veggies, and besides tomato sauce, this dish certainly has few veggies in it and very little prep work. I got the recipe from Miserly Meals by Jonni McCoy--a cookbook that was given to me back when Henri was born, I quit my job to stay home with him, and we were learning how to pinch pennies. I've adapted it slightly.

Beefy Mac

Ingredients:

• 1lb lean Ground Beef
• 8-10 oz Macaroni Noodles or any Pasta. I use what I have on hand. Today it was Radiatori. I buy this brand pasta at Costco. It's seriously the best tasting, eggless pasta I've had.
• 2--15 oz cans Tomato Sauce
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 1/2 tsp Onion Powder (or chop a small onion and cook it while browning the beef)
• 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder (or mince a clove and cook it with the beef)
  
• 1/4 tsp Pepper
• Salt to taste

In a large saucepan, boil the noodles according to the package directions. Drain the noodles.


Meanwhile, brown the ground beef and drain off any fat. I kept the picture small because the meat was still pink in my photo, and it looked gross to me. And I thought, hey, I don't want to gross anyone out.


Pause to give hungry 18-month old a snack.


Add the rest of the ingredients to the browned beef. If you're waiting for your man to get home for dinner, now would be a good stopping point to let the Italian Seasoning do it's work in the sauce by letting it simmer, covered over low heat.

But if you're like me, you would go ahead and add the noodles. See how nice and saucy it looks in the picture.

The only problem is that most of the sauce soaked up into the noodles by the time Johnny got home. Oops.

And if you're like my man, you will smother all pasta dishes with grated Parmesan cheese.

And you will be a happy husband because you were very hungry and you love Beefy Mac.