Improvising...

Sunday night had no idea what to make for dinner.  I spent most of the afternoon playing on the Wii with Vivian, and then working out old school style to an old CD of TaeBo.  Billy Blanks kicks butt!  Her arms were already hurting from the several rounds of boxing we had done on the Wii, but she was a trooper and took Billy on.   It was quite a work out and I am now sore, as I am sure she is also.  Anyway, back to dinner....I decided to go through my cook books to get some inspiration for the ground beef I had defrosting in the fridge.  Looking through an old Weight Watchers cook book I saw a recipe for Macaroni Sloppy Joes.  Vivian said that sounded good but I didn’t have any sloppy joe sauce, so I improvised.  The sauce I ended up with did not taste anything like sloppy joe sauce.  However, Vivian declared it delicious and that’s all I needed (plus it really was good and so easy!). J

I like this photo.

Here they are all cut up and ready for the pan.

Here’s what you need: 

(loosely adapted from Weight Watchers recipe...no, I have no idea how many points it had)

2 to 3 cups cooked macaroni (elbow or shells will work…I had shells)

1 lb. ground beef (ground turkey would be good too)

2 tsp. oil (I used grape seed oil)

1 green pepper (I had half of green and ¼ of yellow, but I think one full green would be perfect) chopped into small pieces

1 red pepper (again I only had about a half of one…one full one is best) chopped into small pieces

1 shallot chopped into small pieces (I only had shallots but can definitely use onions)

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce (can add more if you like it more tomatoey-like)

½ tsp garlic salt

½ tsp ground pepper

¼ tsp salt (I used sea salt)

½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

¼ tsp ground chipotle/red pepper flakes/cayenne pepper…just something to add some kick to it...this is optional of course

1. Heat oil and cook the bell peppers and onion until tender, about 7 to 8 minutes.

2. Add the ground beef and break it up as it cooks, add the Worcestershire sauce and spices and cook until brown

3. Once cooked add the tomato sauce and cooked macaroni and boil, then simmer for about 5 mintues and you are done! 

It needs something...

Serve this with a side salad or do what we did….toast whole wheat pita bread with garlic butter. 

That's better!  

Until next time!

Luna eyeing my food.