Poverty Meal....Don't be fooled, it's actually good!

So, I was writing my grocery list last week and trying to think of something that uses pasta and all I was coming up with was lasagna and spaghetti and other things I do ALL THE TIME. A few keystrokes later, I found myself at food.com and discovered this lovely little recipe. The best part, aside from the deliciousness, is the cheapness and lack of weird ingredients and the good leftovers. The other best part is my kids inhaled it. My toddler actually cried when I showed him the empty pot after we had eaten all the leftovers.

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced or some garlic powder if you don't feel like mincing garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 lb ground beef

2 (16 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes (I used one giant can of diced tomatoes) 

1 (16 ounce) can water (since I used a giant can, I only used half a can of water) 

8 ounces elbow macaroni, uncooked

salt to taste

pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese (optional...but not really)

Method:

• Throw the onions, garlic, olive oil and uncooked ground beef into a really big frying pan, or in my case, a big pot. I also sprinkled some salt and pepper on. If you have really fatty beef, you might consider cooking it separately so you can drain it.
• Brown the beef and saute the onions until they are both cooked.
• Pour in the tomatoes (undrained...you'll want that liquid), water and macaroni. At this point I also added some basil and (heehee) a little hot sauce.
• Simmer on medium for 10-20 minutes, just until the pasta is cooked.
• Top with Parmesan cheese
• Yummmm!