Thursday, January 26, 2012

Feed My Family Friday

Of course, first things first, if you haven't entered my Valentine Crafty Prize Pack Giveaway yet, what are your waiting for??  Go enter HERE, then come back for the spaghetti.

Go ahead...

Alrighty!  So glad you're back!

Becky over at Farm Girl Paints started a new Friday linky party called: Feed My Family Friday.  (I know it's not Friday yet, but I really wanted to post today, so.. . there ya go) One of her New Year's Resolutions was to feed her family better.  Healthy meals is the goal here people.  So I'm linking up with Becky this week and showing you all the spaghetti I made last week.

I'm with Becky, I really don't like to cook.  And once all my supplements get in, for 21 days, I won't be cooking at all.  But since Jon was diagnosed with diabetes, he's been wanting to eat better and he is really doing a great job.

So when I DO cook, I TRY my best to whip up something he can eat too.

With that being said...  he won't eat my spaghetti. He's not a fan of pasta and even though I buy the diabetic friendly pasta, he still won't try it.

Oh well!

I got Christen to eat it the other day and she LOVED it.  Well, she LIKED it.

Hey, she ATE it!  ;o)

All I had to do was add meat for her like it.

Anytime you cook, you've got to make sure you have ALL your ingredients.

For this particular night, I used:

  • 6 cloves of garlic, minced

  • basil

  • EVOO

  • sea salt

  • pepper

  • 1.5lbs of ground turkey/lean beef mixture

  • 1lb can of the crushed tomatoes

  • 8oz jar of tomato sauce

  • parmesan cheese

  • pasta of your choice

  • baby spinach


 



First, you can never have too much garlic.  The fresher the better.


 


Chop those suckers up to however fine you want them.  Mince them, make them into a paste.  It's all up to you.

 

Then put them in your heated pan w/ EVOO (you can also add onions here, and I WOULD add onions here, but if I did, Christen wouldn't eat it).

 

 


If you really want to bring a little more flavor out, put some salt over it while it cooks too.  I really don't know how long to cook these garlic wonders, I just try not to burn them.

 


 

Then add your meat.  Season it w/ salt and pepper to taste and cook until no longer pink.  Get a nice seer on there too, gives it extra flavor.

 

While your meat is cooking through, put on your pasta.  I use this brand:

 

 


It's supposed to only give you 5 digest-able carbs.  So it's better for people with diabetes.  Again, Jon.won't.touch.it.  Oh well, his loss!  I really do love this pasta better than any other I've tried.  And WAY better than the whole wheat.

 

Since I'm cooking with extra lean meat and turkey, there's not much fat to drain thank goodness.

 

So, once your meat is cooked, it's time to add the whole can of crushed tomatos:

 


 

Use the whole can!  When I cook this spaghetti w/out meat, this, the garlic, evoo and italian spices are ALL I use.  That's it!  But since we're adding meat to the mix, we'll add tomato sauce at the end.

 

Then add your basil and more salt and pepper to taste.  (I normally don't use just basil, but I wanted a little lighter feel since I was adding meat)

 


 

Looking good!!

 


Once it simmers down a bit, you'll want to add the tomato sauce.  I like my sauce to BE saucey.

 


Again, I really don't know how to tell you how long to cook this for (oh, after the meat is done cooking and you add your other ingredients, you'll want to simmer on med heat).  Ideally, the sauce would simmer all day, but we don't do "ideally" in our kitchen.

 

And really, isn't spaghetti ALWAYS better the next day?

 

After you simmer the sauce/meat, get your pasta on your plate, put your spinach leaves on top of your pasta, then pour your meat sauce on top of the pasta and spinach.  And of course, then drown it all in parmesan and promptly forget to take a picture of how PRETTY it is.  Instead, mix it all up, THEN remember you wanted to take a picture:

 


Just keeping it real folks!

 

 

Hope you join in on the linky fun!  I'd love to see what you're feeding your family!

 

 

feed my family friday

11 comments:

Becky said...

That looks good.. I really need to try some spinach in my sketti... I use just ground turkey & they can't tell a difference.. But the minute I added spinach I'm sure I would hear how i had ruined it... yours looks really good

Grumpy Grateful Mom said...

That looks delicious! My entire family loves spaghetti and I LOVE homemade sauce. I'll have to try the spinach on top.

steph said...

I looove spaghetti! and no kidding, just yesterday afternoon a friend called because she was going to make soup and had already cut up the spinach and whatnot but discovered she didn't have chicken broth and I told her to make pasta and use the spinach. I've never tried it but it sounds good!

Jodi Evans said...

That's the good thing about this, I don't add it until the very end, basically as a garnish. So not everyone has to add it since it's not mixed in. ;)

I LOVE spinach!! And thank goodness b/c I'll be "drinking" a lot of during this detox I'm starting soon.

Jodi Evans said...

I love spinach on just about anything! Good call w/ making the pasta! I bet your friend is gonna thank you for that idea. :)

Jodi Evans said...

The spinach is a MUST for me. :)

Becky said...

Do NOT start your detox til after the 4th :)

Farmgirl Paints said...

i'll have to try this one girlie. it sounds perfect for our family. thanks for linking up.

Kaitlin @ Homemaker Design said...

Hahah, I love that you forgot to take the picture until AFTER you mixed it!!! Classic! Thanks for stopping by my blog, I hope you like the chips, they are so fantastic! YUM!

Jodi Evans said...

leave it to me! haha, i always forget to take the "pretty" picture after I cook... I'm normally starving by then! haha Thank YOU for visiting me! :)

Jodi Evans said...

Thank YOU for hosting the party! This is a great way to share recipes. :) have a great weekend!