When my husband is on call (medical pilot), I don’t really plan dinner. There is really no point. Sure, the girls and I have to eat, but we will eat WHATEVER for dinner…cereal, eggs and toast, leftovers, pizza, fish sticks, corn dogs, buttered pasta, chips and dip etc.
When it is a surprise he is home, I try to make something out of nothing even when we just really want to go out. This time of year we skimp on eating out to make sure the girls have a good Christmas, so here is what I came up with tonight…
Ingredients
1 pound FROZEN (or not) ground beef
1 small jar of marinara
1 can roasted diced tomaoes
1 tablespoon Garlic Salt
1 package of penne
Directions
Boil salted water for the pasta. Drop pasta when boiling.
On medium high heat, cook the meat. If frozen, defrost a bit at a time and rotate in the pan until browned. If not frozen, cook per usual. I add all of the garlic salt halfway through, no matter what. Drain if its extra fatty and oily; or not. No one is there to see.
Add the marinara to the meat. I added a can of roasted diced tomatoes to the mix bc of the ratio of meat to sauce and pasta, but if you have a giant jar of sauce or homemade sauce; YOU DO YOU!
Add the slightly al dente pasta to the meat and marinara. Parm it up!
I mainly added this recipe bc you can cook dinner on a weeknight with frozen ground beef.
Fun Foodie Family 