Cremes

Since we are moving out of this apartment to who-knows-where in less than three weeks, I’ve had to be a little creative with dinner. I decided on Sunday that I would not do a traditional grocery shop (including for lunches) until after we were settled into our new digs, whether that be at the in-laws’ or the new house (I’m praying we’ll have a place to settle before mid-October). So that meant taking all of my frozen meat out of the freezer and searching for recipes by ingredient on Allrecipes.com. I searched for about 30 minutes and came up wanting (found some things I definitely want to try, though!), so I headed to the kitchen and started throwing things into a pan. Here’s what came out of it:

Meags’ Fly-by-the-Seat-of-My-Jeans Goulash

• 1/2 lb ground beef (freezer burnt optional)
• 1 tsp minced garlic (about 1-2 cloves)
• 3/4 cup diced onion (or a handful)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced sweet green and red pepper
• all the elbow macaroni you have (about 3 cups)
• 2 14.5oz cans diced tomatoes (don’t drain)
• 6oz can tomato paste
• 5oz can mushrooms (drained)
• dash salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese (grated by husband - trust me, it tastes better this way)

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Brown the beef in the oil at about medium-high heat, tossing in the garlic and onions at first, then add the sweet peppers when the meat is almost browned. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to directions. Once the beef is browned and the veggies sauteed, add the tomatoes and the paste. Stir around so that it becomes a thick sauce. Add the mushroom and the seasonings, then simmer for a few minutes, until heated through.

After the pasta is nice and al dente, drain it and put it in a casserole dish. I used my 2-1/2 quart corningware dish and it was brimming over - so maybe a lasagna pan. Then pour the sauce over top and stir it in so that noodles are all covered in the sauce. Top with mozzarella cheese and bake until the cheese melts (about 10 minutes). Serve!

I was actually quite surprised by how good it was considering how few ingredients I used (not to mention, I’m not really a recipe inventin’ kinda gal). I think in the future, I would add some oregano and basil to the recipe, and maybe some marjoram. Spinach would also taste pretty good in the sauce. We’ll see if I start inventing more recipes as the last few weeks here at Apt 7302 come along.

I’m not sure why I’m even bothering to keep up with this, it’s mostly for my own enjoyment I guess.

1. ARC Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity - Kerry Cohen
2. GFT Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur’s Soul - edited by Jack Canfield
3. GFT Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom [audio]
4. GFT Getting Things Done - David Allen

But hey, 1 more book than last month! Technically, I only really read 2 of those books in July. Chicken Soup and GTD were finished this month, but I read the bulk of them over the last couple of months. I’m about to start a second Chicken Soup book (great for those random few minutes that break up the day) and I’ve downloaded It’s All Too Much from the Houston library. I also randomly picked up a novel on Saturday and started reading, and I’m already 150 pages in. (Novels go by so much faster than non-fiction.) I wrote a review for Loose Girl and posted it on my Library Thing profile. I was meaning to jazz it up a little bit (make it less review-y) and post it here but never got around to it. It’s on my to-do list. I guess I’m feeling the reading bug more these days, and since I’ve made such great progress on my magazines stack (8 magazines read, scanned and ready to be recycled!) I’ve been wanting to get through my stack of books.

This Month’s Recommendations:

• Tuesdays With Morrie