Jenny-Approved Hamburger-Spinach-Tomato-Pasta One Dish Meal
"My family loves this dish which tastes especially good as left-overs. This is the perfect middle of the week meal when you don't want the pressure of coming up with several dishes to serve. It's a very healthy meal -- I recommend using either whole wheat or PLUS pasta and 'no salt added' diced tomatoes and then seasoning the ground beef with salt and pepper.
Hint: If you're really in a rush and need to save time, use powdered garlic instead of fresh; use 1 can stewed tomatoes in place of 1 can diced tomatoes and the chopped onions; and either omit the carrots or use the pre-shredded carrots you can find in the produce section at larger grocery stores."
- Ready In:
- 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Serves:
-
8-10
ingredients
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 3 garlic cloves (either chopped or use a press)
- 1 (16 ounce) bag frozen spinach
- 1 cup carrot, shredded
- 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can crushed tomatoes (Whole Foods has an excellent Crushed Tomatoes with Rosemary, but you can use regular crushed tomatoe)
- 8 ounces macaroni (Barilla Plus elbows are best)
directions
- Put a pot of water on to boil.
- Brown the ground beef with the chopped onions and garlic.
- Add pasta to boiling water -- cook as long as advised by box directions.
- Put frozen spinach and shredded carrots into a microwave-safe bowl and zap (cook in the microwave) for 7 minutes (stir at about 4 minutes).
- Add both cans of tomatoes to cooked meat, stir, and simmer for a few minutes.
- Add spinach and carrots to the meat mixture, stir, and simmer for a few minutes.
- Drain pasta and place in a HUGE serving dish.
- Put meat and veggie mixture into the HUGE serving dish and mix thoroughly with the pasta.
- Serve hot.
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Reviews
-
Was great!! Easy to make!! Even my autistic 2 year old ate it! And there's not many mixed meals he will eat!! Used ground turkey and cut the calories in half. I think maybe needs a little Italian Seasoning though. Might try some next time I make it... -
This sounds amazing! I am making it tonight, with whole wheat pasta, and beans for protein. I think it will be so good and healthy! -
This was delicious, I had some bok choy in my garden so I used that instead, chopped it and added it to the cooked hamburger with the carrots. It tasted delicious right in the pan, but I put it in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes and of course had to add some parmesan cheese on top!! Thanks the carrots really add great flavor and the bok choy was nice it is a little more tangy than spinach.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>I am now living in Massachusetts outside of Boston in the family homestead. We're enjoying having four seasons again, after spending 15 years living in Texas. I spent our first year in MA as a stay-at-home mom, taking care of our multi-generational family and really expanded my cooking skills and I was able to try alot of new recipes. Now I'm back to work (social work/manager at an Eldercare agency) so I'm now cooking the quicker recipes much more often. We sit down to dinner together every night (except maybe once on the weekend when DH and I leave the kids with my mom -- one of the perks of living in Massachusetts instead of Texas!). <br /><br />I like to focus on 'real' foods (the less processed the better), lots of veggies and cutting out the extra calories without cutting out flavor. My general dinner menu rule is 1 protein, 1 pasta/rice/grain, and 3 vegetables (typically at least one green and one orange). My youngest has been known to say, Hey, where's the third veggie? when I get lazy.</p>
